Categoría: Editoriales
Grado de dificultad: 3 (Por el idioma).
Columnista: Redacción
El presente artículo de TMN está en inglés para rendir homenaje a la comunidad estadounidense de Wikipedia.
Who is afraid of Wikipedia?
The “educational” (?) mission of Wikipedia
So, it is really happening: the US government is going after our beloved Wikipedia:
U.S. attorney for D.C. accuses Wikipedia of ‘propaganda,’ threatens nonprofit status
Honestly, we find the situation intentionally confusing, as stated in the article. Says the accusation:
The acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia sent a letter to the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia, accusing the tax-exempt organization of “allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public.”
Wikipedia is permitting information manipulation on its platform, including the rewriting of key historical events and biographical information of current and previous American leaders, as well as other matters implicating the national security and the interests of the United States …
… Masking propaganda that influences public opinion under the guise of providing informational material is antithetical to Wikimedia’s ‘educational’ mission”.
Like what?
An international process, as it should be
The generation of contents in Wikipedia is a wide-open process and available to everyone. And yes, this process is international, as it should be (Its vast majority is not in English nor is American).
It looks like the accusation is made to convince people that don’t know Wikipedia.
The prosecution seems to be a federal attorney (District of Columbia), which is not officially the US government …
The accusations are based on allegations made by not-so-reliable sources, and the claims of manipulations not clearly elaborated.
The punishment is also very confusing: threatening Wikipedia to lose its tax exemption status …
The rest of the world says: “So what?”
Is Knowledge becoming forbidden
An enormous credibility
Nothing is direct in the accusation because it doesn’t make any sense … To us.
This is because this stunt (we don’t see a more fitting word for it) is not destined to us.
Putting ourselves in the shoes of the people this stunt is elaborated for is challenging. It is like imagining being forced to say that the Earth is flat (and the comparison is not far-fetched).
We think it is related to the status of this community of knowledge seekers.
AKA Wikipedia is not a social network, like Twitter or Facebook, and not a news medium either.
Unlike all of these, it enjoys enormous credibility, even to train conversational automates.
Understandably, it is a scary power for the manipulators of all sorts.
The American chapter to become a ghost?
Can Wikipedia disappear? We think it highly improbable.
Is its American chapter at risk? It depends on the angle:
- It could (hypothetically) cease to exist legally, which, hopefully, could ease the financing problems of the glorious entity,
- Meanwhile, the American contributors would continue to write, only under a “ghost” status. It would be like the world banner that hosts the athletes whose countries are banned from the Olympic Games.
- Or (nightmare scenario), they could kneel to the oppressor and be controlled by Elon Musk … Just kidding (we hope so)!
This weird attack leaves a bitter taste at a moment when American teachers, librarians, scientists and doctors are questioned.
How would a world without America look like? Sad.
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