Musk's Wikipedia feud: A battle over editorial balance

Elon Musk has urged his supporters not to donate to Wikipedia, which he called "Wokepedia," until it "restores balance in its editorial power." According to data from the digital marketing platform Semrush, in November 2024, the virtual encyclopedia ranked as the fourth most visited website globally, with monthly traffic of approximately 6.7 billion visits. The site is managed by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, United States.

Musk's post appeared on platform X, owned by the world's richest man. It was a response to a post from the Libs of TikTok account, known for its far-right content. After Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, moderation on the platform significantly decreased, turning it into a space for hate speech and disinformation, which are somewhat regulated on other social media platforms.

The Libs of TikTok post that caught Musk's attention shared a chart from the annual financial report of Wikipedia for the years 2023/24. The chart indicated that 29% of the encyclopedia's budget was allocated to "security and inclusivity" and "equity." In 2023, Musk offered the Wikimedia Foundation 1 billion USD to change the site's name to "Dickipedia" ("dick" is a slang term in English). The offer was not accepted.

In an email to American Newsweek, a spokesperson for the Wikimedia Foundation explained that the equity-related expenses "concern enabling more people to share reliable knowledge on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects." They stated, "Wikipedia's premise is that it improves when more people with diverse perspectives (including political) contribute by adding sources, editing, creating, and reviewing content."

The Wikipedia representative added: "This goal focuses on legal actions that protect freedom of speech, prevent censorship, and advocate for legal regulations to keep Wikipedia accessible to all users." Wikipedia has faced bias allegations from both sides of the ideological spectrum. A July 2018 article in "The Guardian" accused Wikipedia of being "dominated by men and pro-Western," citing studies showing only 16% of the site's editors were women.

Meanwhile, in January 2024, David Rozado, a professor of computer science at New Zealand's Otago Polytechnic, published a study indicating that "Wikipedia more often presents right-wing individuals in a negative light than their left-wing counterparts." This accusation, emerging from the right, especially the far-right, regarding media, is worth examining more closely.

Should progressive and conservative viewpoints indeed be "equally" represented in spaces intended for facts, like encyclopedias or media? The fact that right-wing views more often "fall victim" to fact-checking is not due to a "woke" conspiracy but rather because regressive conservatism often contradicts data and objective information. At the core of right-wing stances is an attachment to tradition and the past, alongside a desire to maintain the status quo, driven by (often imaginary) fears about the consequences of changes advocated by progressive individuals.

Elon Musk's fight for "freedom of speech" is, in fact, a battle for the right to "equally" amplify xenophobic, racist, or homophobic content, which, while capturing attention and fueling conservatives' fears, helps maintain the status quo. It serves as an outlet for the frustration caused by enormous social inequalities in the USA, from which Musk is one of the primary beneficiaries. Hence his disdain for Wikipedia. Edited by millions of users, it adheres more closely to hard facts, whose widespread availability is inconvenient for billionaires.