These non-English versions of Wikipedia can be especially vulnerable to being manipulated by ideologically motivated networks. But Wikipedia exists in more than 300 languages, half of which have fewer than ten active contributors. English Wikipedia is considered by many researchers to be almost, but still not quite as accurate as traditional encyclopedias. As of August 2021, it has more than 120,000 editors who, thanks to the language’s status as a lingua franca, come from a diversity of geographic and cultural backgrounds.
![mind your language wikipedia mind your language wikipedia](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/mindyourlanguage/images/0/07/Mind_Your_Language_Cast_Photo_-_Season_1.jpg)
That the disinformation campaign went unchecked for so long speaks to a fundamental weakness of Wikipedia’s crowdsourced approach to quality control: It works only if the crowd is large, diverse, and independent enough to reliably weed out assertions that run counter to fact.īy and large, the English version of Wikipedia meets these criteria. Related Opinion: Wikipedia’s Hidden Gender ImbalanceĬroatian Wikipedia users have been calling attention to similar discrepancies since at least 2013, but the Wikimedia Foundation began taking action only last year. The Jasenovac concentration camp, known as Croatia’s Auschwitz, was also referred to as a collection camp. For example, it was reported in 2018 that Auschwitz - which English Wikipedia unambiguously deems a concentration camp - was referred to on Croatian Wikipedia as a “collection camp,” a term that carries fewer negative connotations.
![mind your language wikipedia mind your language wikipedia](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mindyourlanguage/images/5/52/Gladys.jpg)
In the report’s summary, the foundation acknowledged that a small network of volunteer administrators of the Croatian-language version of Wikipedia have been abusing their powers and distorting articles “in a way that matched the narratives of political organizations and groups that can broadly be defined as the Croatian radical right.” For almost a decade, the rogue administrators have been altering pages to whitewash crimes committed by Croatia’s Nazi-allied Ustasha regime during World War II and to promote a fascist worldview. But a report released in June by the Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, suggests that the digital encyclopedia’s misinformation woes may run even deeper than many of its English-speaking users realize.
![mind your language wikipedia mind your language wikipedia](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/mindyourlanguage-160201065008/95/mind-your-language-1-638.jpg)
W ikipedia doesn’t exactly enjoy a reputation as the most reliable source on the internet.