Government writes to Wikipedia over plaints of bias

NEW DELHI: The Centre has written to Wikipedia, highlighting numerous complaints of bias and inaccuracies in the information it provides, and asked why it should not be treated as a publisher instead of an intermediary.

The communication from the information and broadcasting ministry stated that there is a view that a small group exercises editorial control over its pages. Being treated as an intermediary currently protects Wikipedia from action regarding the third-party content hosted on its platform. If it is treated as a publisher, it will be open to facing defamation, FIRs and other legal action regarding inaccurate content.

Wikipedia advertises as a free online encyclopedia

Wikipedia advertises itself as a free online encyclopedia where volunteers can create or edit pages on personalities, issues or various subjects. The popular online source of information is embroiled in legal cases in India over alleged inaccurate and defamatory content provided by it.

Founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger on Jan 15, 2001, Wikipedia has been hosted since 2003 by the Wikimedia Foundation , an American non-profit organisation funded mainly by donations from readers.

Recently, in a case filed by news agency Asian News International or ANI, Delhi HC demanded information from Wikipedia about users who made edits to an entry about the firm. The court said, "If you don't like India, please don't work in India... We will ask govt to block Wikipedia in India."