The Signpost

In the media

Blackouts in Europe, Wikipedia and capitalists, WMF Jet Set

Contribute  —  
Share this
By Bri and Kudpung

Wikipedia blackout

Screenshot of the top part of the Wikimedia Meta page entitled "European Parliament vote in 2018"

Reported in greater depth in this issue at the Discussion report, the Spanish, Italian, Latvian, Estonian, Polish, Catalan, Basque, Galician, Hungarian, and Slovenian Wikipedias blacked out, incurring extensive media coverage throughout Europe:

Business Insider also showed a Twitter exchange between Jimmy Wales and European Commission over the blackout.

UK venture capitalists are not notable

Cartoon caricature of Wikipedia cabalists discussing and denying that there is a cabal
Cabal of anti-UK editors deciding the fate of venture capital articles?

Writing on 13 July for the Technology Intelligence section in leading UK newspaper The Telegraph, James Cook reports on anonymous users suggesting Wikipedia is biased against British entrepreneurs while allowing articles about US financiers. Listing deleted articles Angel CoFund, Eden Ventures, Episode 1 Ventures, Hoxton Ventures, Mangrove Capital Partners, Notion Capital, Passion Capital, Rob Kniaz, Saul Klein, and Scottish Equity Partners, he claims that deletions of 19 articles are an orchestrated effort of three Wikipedia users who support each other's AfD nominations. In the Articles for Deletion discussion about the Tom Blomfield biography, the page was procedurally kept following a 'no consensus' closure.

In a brief interview with The Signpost, one of the deletion nominators, HighKing, had this to say about the accusations:

—K

In brief

Other contributors: Bri

Photograph of luggage being unloaded from an airplane at the airport
Maher living out of a suitcase – taking her office with her?

Do you want to contribute to "In the media" by writing a story or even just an "in brief" item? Edit next week's edition in the Newsroom or leave a tip on the suggestions page.

S
In this issue
+ Add a comment

Discuss this story

Well-meaning Wikipedians suffer from a myth that the corruption on our site consists only of business owners and the like trying to push their companies. These are the most clueless commercial editors, but not the most dangerous. As the WP:Orangemoody scandal illustrated, the big bucks come in where people threaten to delete companies' articles. Because a company will value an article that it knows exists and has had some effect more than one it has only talked about. Wnt (talk) 22:43, 1 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Portuguese Wikipedia was also part of the blackout

Hi guys, I just want to quickly mention that the Portuguese Wikipedia also was part of the blackout. I can't find sources in English, only DW.com in Portuguese. https://www.dw.com/pt-br/parlamento-europeu-rejeita-controversa-reforma-de-lei-de-direitos-autorais/a-44540868

Link to announcement: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Comunicado_de_5_de_julho_de_2018

User:Tetizeraz. Send me a ✉️ ! 20:53, 15 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]




       

The Signpost · written by many · served by Sinepost V0.9 · 🄯 CC-BY-SA 4.0