Questions and answers about the court case: What is going on?
Asian News International sued the Wikimedia Foundation over defamation, and to reveal the private identities of Wikipedia editors. In this lawsuit, the Delhi High Court also ordered the Wikimedia Foundation to delete the Wikipedia article about the court case. See additional coverage elsewhere in The Signpost.
A news agency called Asian News International (ANI) sued the Wikimedia Foundation for defamation, based on things written in its article on the English Wikipedia. Then other Wikipedia editors made an article about that lawsuit, and the Delhi High Court ordered Wikipedia to delete that article in its entirety. Wikipedia's community of editors is upset at all of this, and feels unfairly treated.
Again, the three issues are
Two entities are seeking Wikipedia content change: Asian News International, and the Delhi High Court.
Asian News International initiated a lawsuit against the Wikimedia Foundation. They claim that the Wikipedia article about their organization, Asian News International, contains defamation against them. They want that content removed.
The Delhi High Court is overseeing that defamation lawsuit, and under the sub judice surrounding the proceedings, it ordered the Wikimedia Foundation to delete the Wikipedia article about the lawsuit. That Wikipedia article is titled, Asian News International vs. Wikimedia Foundation.
Asian News International is complaining of defamation in the Wikipedia article about itself.
The Delhi High Court seems to want Wikipedia to enforce privacy and discretion of the ongoing court case, but strangely, does not seem to react to the news agencies which create the information which Wikipedia editors are summarizing. From a Wikipedia editor's perspective, the court's actions seem confused with regard to Wikipedia being a publication which relays information from other sources.
The specific disputed content is uncertain, and Wikipedia editors have had no communication with Asian News International to clarify the situation; the guess is that the alleged defamation is this content from Asian News International:
Investigations by The Caravan and The Ken into the company have alleged that it has served as a mouthpiece for the incumbent government of India for decades, especially after the election of the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014.[1][2] ANI has been accused of amplifying a vast network of fake news websites spreading pro-government and anti-Pakistan propaganda.[3][4][5]
- ^ Donthi, Praveen (1 March 2019). "The Image Makers : How ANI Reports The Government's Version Of Truth". The Caravan. Archived from the original on 8 February 2023. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
- ^ Ahluwalia, Harveen; Srivilasan, Pranav (21 October 2018). "How ANI quietly built a monopoly". The Ken. Archived from the original on 16 January 2023. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
- ^ Hussain, Abid; Menon, Shruti (10 December 2020). "The dead professor and the vast pro-India disinformation campaign". BBC News. Archived from the original on 12 November 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
The network was designed primarily to "discredit Pakistan internationally" and influence decision-making at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and European Parliament, EU DisinfoLab said.- ^ Saeed, Saim; Kayali, Laura (9 December 2020). "New pro-India EU website enrolling MEPs campaigns against Pakistan". Politico. Archived from the original on 6 January 2021. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
- ^ Rej, Abhijnan (12 October 2020). "EU Non-Profit Unearths Massive Indian Disinformation Campaign". The Diplomat. Archived from the original on 12 November 2022. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
Asian News International is seeking the identities of three of the editors of the Wikipedia article "Asian News International". Presumably, their motive is to bring those editors to justice against the accusation of defamation, and to deter future defamation.
The Delhi High Court ordered the disclosure of those editors.
As a website, the Wikimedia Foundation necessarily gathers some user information. However, whereas typical major commercial websites gather as much user information as possible, Wikimedia sites seek to only gather information in advocacy of user rights. The Wikimedia Foundation describes the specifics at wmf:Wikimedia Foundation Privacy Policy and Requests for user data, but all values and ethics in Wikipedia come from the volunteer community of users, and not the Wikimedia Foundation itself.
Editing Wikipedia is not supposed to be dangerous — but see, for example, List of people imprisoned for editing Wikipedia. The Wikimedia Foundation has deleted the Wikipedia article for the court case. Right now probably is not the time to re-create that deleted article, but other than that, Wikipedia editors wish to encourage everyone to edit Wikipedia articles in useful ways. Perhaps anyone who feels intimidated by Asian News International should avoid editing about that organization.
The Signpost invites anyone with legal insight to post in the comments section, or submit articles for publication the the next issue.
No. The government of India may have made, or may be considering, rules requiring media and technology platforms including Wikipedia to have a physical office and presence in India. The Signpost is uncertain if or how this applies.
Courts in India have said that they might block all of Wikipedia for the entire country if Wikipedia does not comply with certain requests. The court discussed blocking Wikipedia for this defamation case. Previously in 2020, another court discussed blocking Wikipedia related to maps in Wikipedia differing from India's official maps on the matter of the India–Pakistan border. Before that, there was a Wikipedia dispute related to the Information Technology Rules, 2021.
Bad. They feel justified in using Wikipedia as a place where anyone can cite and summarize information from other sources. Also they want privacy and freedom from persecution for editors. On-wiki discussions about the case include the following:
Talk:Asian News International vs. Wikimedia Foundation was a place to do fact-checking about this case, but was deleted by order of the Delhi High Court.
Typically Wikipedia editors prefer to discuss things on-wiki, but in this case, there are editors having off-wiki discussions based on fear that posting on-site carries the risk of having one's identity revealed.
Some editors suggested that The Signpost not report on this, or seek permission or approval to publish from staff of the Wikimedia Foundation, or the Wikimedia Foundation legal team, or from the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees; while we share basic principles with the community and the Foundation, we are an independent newspaper. That independence is a strength of journalism, and not a flaw or error.
Two Wikipedia community-deleted versions of the article include
A global and multilingual community discussion on how to react to censorship is likely forthcoming. Thanks to the admins who deleted these articles to protect the safety of other editors. This is a big issue for broader conversation.
The Wikimedia Foundation announced the start of its fundraising campaign in India in 2020. Community outreach for the latest campaign is at meta:Fundraising/WMF India fundraising campaign.
The 2023-24 report says that the Wikimedia Foundation sent US$398,000 in that year, which is about 3 crore rupees.
They say a few things. These are not quotations either.
One is that many individuals do not want global public attention speaking on controversial things. If The Signpost is mistaken and there are Indian people out there with opinions and perspectives that they want to voice about this case, then post to Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Newsroom/Submissions or contact the us otherwise. To understand the avoidance of commenting, one must understand the public perception of courts and lawsuits in India.
Another common line of discussion is to change the subject to the broader context of the difficult relationship which the Wikipedia community in India has had with the Wikimedia Foundation and global Wikimedia community for more than 10 years. Common complaints include lack of representation in important Wikimedia community governance committees, lack of justice in access to Wikimania travel scholarships, and a persistent sense of not being heard in important movement decisions as a result of not having representation. Also, to a lesser degree, the community complains of lack of access to movement grant funding, but very much and truly wants much more legitimate representation and voice before having more Western money come into India. In general, people in India may not talk about this case without also raising the context of the difficult relationship between the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia community in India.
It is common knowledge that pendency of court cases in India is a major problem. Popular television shows like the comedic 2024 Maamla Legal Hai make court-related conversation fun for anyone, but the Indian film industry including Bollywood and beyond produces all sorts of dramatic, informational, and theatrical films as in Category:Indian courtroom films or Category:Indian legal drama films.
One common perception that people in India have is that court cases sometimes take a long time. Also, people involved in court cases must spend a lot of their time engaging in legal matters, as if it were a second profession which consumed all free time.
In general, many people in India will not seek to become involved in controversial issues which do not concern them, especially if that could mean that they may become a party to a court case which would last 3-5 years or possibly longer. To non-lawyers who watch Bollywood court films, the Asian News International case seems like one of the sort which could take years at its present level of court, years more in appeal, then more years to the Supreme Court of India. For anyone who does not want to be compelled to engage for years to come, it seems best to leave reactions to this case to others.
The article "Wikipedia in India" presents Wikipedians' view of this relationship, which anyone can edit by citing and summarizing reliable sources.
Many countries have a national Wikimedia movement affiliate community organization. India does not. It did, but Wikimedia India closed in 2019, with deep thanks from the Wikimedia Foundation CEO for all that editors in India do for the Wikimedia Movement, and a commitment that the Wikimedia Foundation would support the growth and development of community organization in the region. Since then other Affiliates based in South Asia have organized their own activities and make annual reports of what they have accomplished, and what they are planning.
While the easiest way to get reports and status updates is to look to such Wikimedia community organizations, these organizations do not represent the majority of Wikimedia editors in India. In India, just like everywhere else, most editors simply go on the computer and edit articles on Wikipedia, upload images to Wikimedia Commons, post texts to Wikisource, write definitions in Wiktionary, and add data to Wikidata. The majority of Wikimedians do not engage with formal community organizations or the Wikimedia Foundation at all. The usual experience is that people are happy to share knowledge online, and to socialize with other people almost exclusively for the purpose of collaborating on Wikimedia general reference knowledge development, rather than volunteer administration, organization, or outreach.
The reality of the relationship is challenging to identify among media messages, organizational annual reports, and online posts and Wikipedia edits related to building the encyclopedia. There is no journalism, student research, or reports of important community stories such as the community of editors in India submitting multiple candidates for representation to the 2024 Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee election, and getting none accepted. The problem is not just lack of representation here; the problem is the perceived lack of representation in all such leadership opportunities, repeatedly for a generation, and with no obviously changes or plans coming which could increase future representation.
While journalists may have difficulty finding people in India to interview about the Asian News International case, there is no shortage of interesting, positive Wikimedia projects which people in the region would like to share and profile. Also, there is no shortage of people in India who are willing to share interesting, positive perspectives on major challenges which people in the region face. There is significant exhaustion about the Western commentators — including me, here, the journalist for this article — continually asking questions and talking rather than explicitly presenting ways to bring increased representation and leadership opportunities for regional community growth immediately.
Some people have said that the Asian News International case is a matter of disrespect by the Wikimedia Foundation to India, Indian people, and the courts of India. The Signpost does not have journalistic or editorial capacity to know how common such beliefs are. It is possible to find such comments in discussions hosted in the Wikimedia platform.
A general idea among non-lawyer, Wikimedia editors who criticize is that the Wikimedia Foundation should eagerly and politely follow the law in India. It is fine to challenge ideas in court, but when the court requests something, the Wikimedia Foundation should respectfully reply. Bar and Bench, a legal newspaper, quoted Justice Navin Chawla as saying to the Wikimedia Foundation, "If you don’t like India, please don’t work in India." Ideally for Wikimedia community editor interests, the Wikimedia Foundation could retain a public image of being well-liked in India by Wikimedia editors, the public, and the judiciary.
Wikipedia's community of editors invites anyone to discuss Wikipedia article content in appropriate discussion forums.
Anyone can start by posting in the comments section here in The Signpost. The Wikipedia community maintains a forum for discussing issues which overlap with the affairs of the Wikimedia Foundation at Wikipedia:Village pump (WMF), and that is a good place to discuss this.
Please share submissions at Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Newsroom/Submissions.
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