Wikipedia ‘put on notice’ by centre over ‘bias’ amid ANI defamation hearing

While the Delhi High Court is hearing ANI’s defamation suit against Wikipedia, several media reports citing anonymous sources have claimed that the centre has put “Wikipedia on notice” over “many complaints of bias and inaccuracies” and a small group’s control over its editorial. 

In a tweet citing “sources”, ANI claimed on Tuesday that the government has written to Wikipedia, asking why “it shouldn’t be treated as a publisher instead of an intermediary”. 

This was also reported by other portals, including NDTV.

This comes as Wikipedia seeks to defend itself in court over allegations of bias and non-disclosure of the identity of users who have made edits to its pages.

ANI had lodged a defamation suit against Wikipedia for “allowing defamatory edits” to their page on the platform, which referred to the news agency as the government’s “propaganda tool”.

The court had ordered Wikipedia to disclose information about three people who made the edits on ANI’s Wikipedia page. But the Wikimedia Foundation appealed against the disclosure order. The issue is now pending before a division bench.

The high court said on Monday that Wikipedia’s disclaimer that its content is based on secondary sources cannot absolve it from accountability for what users write on its pages.

The single-judge bench of justice Subramonium Prasad said the disclaimer could not act as a “kavach of Karna”, and added that it was “troubling” that Wikipedia represented itself as an encyclopaedia but also claimed not to endorse what’s written on it.

The court had earlier heard arguments linked to the Wikipedia architecture and called its model “dangerous”. 

Does Wikipedia have control over who writes and edits on its pages? How does it work? Why has the court made such strong remarks? Watch our explainer to understand the case.

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