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2021 Wikimedia Foundation actions on the Chinese Wikipedia
Response to conflict of interest on Chinese Wikipedia From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Wikimedia Foundation took several actions in response to an infiltration of Chinese Wikipedia by the Wikimedians of Mainland China (WMC), including vote-stacking and manipulation of administrative elections, and harassment by pro-Beijing editors on controversial topics such as the Hong Kong protests. In August 2021, the Wikipedia Foundation modified the security terms in the "access to nonpublic personal data policy", revoking the access of advanced permissions used by certain editors to retrieve IP address data of other users on Chinese Wikipedia. At 16:13, September 13, 2021 GMT (00:13, September 14, 2021 Beijing Time), the Wikimedia Foundation globally banned seven accounts from editing Wikipedia, revoked the administrative rights of twelve accounts, and warned twelve other users.[1][2] Four of the top ten most active administrators on Chinese Wikipedia had their rights revoked.[3]
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Background
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The Chinese government
Despite being censored in mainland China, and as VPNs are normally not allowed to edit Wikipedia, Wikipedia administrators from China have permitted IP block exemption for a select number of mainland users. Such users are recruited to change the editorial content on Wikipedia in support of China's viewpoint and/or to support the election of pro-Chinese government administrators on Wikipedia, with the aim of gaining control of Wikipedia as part of the Chinese Communist Party's coordinated efforts to push their preferred narrative on platforms that have respected worldwide credibility.[4][5] There has also been an exodus of volunteer editors leaving Baidu Baike, a domestic competitor beset by problems of self-censorship and commercialization, to join Chinese Wikipedia because the "contributors wanted the privilege of working on a higher-quality internet encyclopedia" that also "carries a great deal of international power".[4][6] Despite that there's no direct, proven link between these editors and the Chinese government, Observers have suggested that such moves are not just due to patriotic mainlanders but a "larger structural coordinated strategy the government has to manipulate these platforms" beside Wikipedia, such as Twitter and Facebook.[6]
The Community
The Chinese Wikipedia is a strategic point. If you don't capture, others will... The best situation we can get on a neutral Wikipedia is that both sides disagree with the articles.[Note 1]
"Techyan" En-Min Yan, editor from mainland China[7]
The Wikimedians of Mainland China (WMC) was established in 2017, without acknowledgement from the Wikimedia Foundation. A former editor accused the WMC members of being more likely to become administrators, bureaucrats, and oversighters, and personal attacks became persistent after 2017. According to the Stand News in September 2021, 38 administrators were from China, while 20 were from Taiwan, 17 were from Hong Kong, and 1 was from Macau.[8]
Another incident that gained the Foundation's attention to the WMC happened in January 2018, in which WMC members physically assaulted another member after the member told the Taiwan user group that WMC leaders were going to meet Wikimedia Foundation officials. The meeting was cancelled after the incident.[9]
The WMC with a strong pro-Beijing stance has clashed with Wikipedia editors from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Edit wars approached their peak when Hong Kong protests occurred. In August 2020, there were 123 edits on the Chinese entry "2019 Yuen Long attack" (zh) in two days. Controversies around the entry involved the attackers' description and whether certain sources were reliable.[10][11] Editors who participated in topics considered controversial by the state authorities, such as about Hong Kong protests, can face harassment and persecution.[12][13][14] In July 2021, Hong Kong Free Press reported that serveral WMC member were discussed of reporting Hong Kong editors to the National Security Department hotline while edit warring over the Yuen Long attack were underwent.[11]
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Investigation
Maggie Dennis, Vice President of Community Resilience and Sustainability for the Legal Department at Wikimedia Foundation, conducted a yearlong investigation into "infiltration concerns" that threatened the "very foundations of Wikipedia". Dennis observed that the infiltrators had tried to promote "the aims of China, as interpreted through whatever filters they may bring to bear". The investigation had also found that an unaffiliated Wikipedia user group of approximately three hundred members from Mainland China, the Wikimedians of Mainland China (WMC or WMCUG), had been involved in vote-stacking and manipulation of administrative elections.[15][16][17][18] Suggesting possible links to the Chinese Communist Party, Dennis said "We needed to act based on credible information that some members (not all) of that group [WMC] have harassed, intimidated, and threatened other members of our community, including in some cases physically harming others, in order to secure their own power and subvert the collaborative nature of our projects".[16][17]
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Reactions
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Perspective
In an announcement on Wikimedia about the actions, Maggie Dennis acknowledged the radical nature of the Foundation's actions but stressed that the decision was based on a number of considerations and an in-depth investigation.[3] The Foundation decided to take action after Maggie Dennis told the media that editors had tried to manipulate the content of articles as well as the election of administrators and that other editors had been physically harmed. However, she did not intend to accuse the Chinese government.[19][2][Note 2]
In response, Wikimedians of Mainland China posted an open letter titled "Cast Away Illusions, Prepare for Struggle" (丢掉幻想，准备斗争),[Note 3] calling the Wikimedia Foundation's actions baseless (莫須有) and declaring its intention to resist the crackdown with practical action.[8][20] The Global Times, a tabloid officially owned and operated by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, alleged that the Wikimedia Foundation "purged" the Chinese editors.[21] The pro-Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po also critized the action, stated that the Foundation tried to "eliminate patriotic voices".[22]
In an interview with the BBC Tech Tent program commenting on the latest obsessions about China, Maryana Iskander, the new Chief Executive of the Wikimedia Foundation, emphasized the autonomy of the Wikipedia community and said, "One of the very early things that I've learned in this process is that certainly the Wikimedia Foundation does not play a role in setting editorial policy and that these are the debates that happen in communities."[23][24]
Jimmy Wales, the cofounder of Wikipedia, commented on these actions in an interview with BBC: "I have deep experience of talking to people all over the world, and the idea that people in China, for example, are so brainwashed that they can't see that neutrality is just false," but said "The idea that we are excluding China, is absurd. We welcome with open arms editors from China."[25]
After the Wikimedia Foundation took action against the WMC editors, the Taiwanese Wikipedia community noted that such an action was long overdue and released a statement saying “We need to rebuild an inclusive wiki that welcomes everyone from all places who wants to contribute to Chinese language Wikipedia in good faith...Many people have felt unsafe for years, so restoring a shared sense of comfort is likely to take some time”.[16]
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Afterwards
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On October 5, 2021, at the 62nd session of the World Intellectual Property Organization, the People's Republic of China voted against the Wikimedia Foundation's application to become an official observer of the WIPO on the grounds that Wikipedia violated the "one-China principle" and "disseminated false information".[26][27] China was the only country out of the 193 members of the organization to vote against the WIPO application,[28] causing Wikimedia Foundation's application to fail.
A Wikimedian showed a screenshot to Voice of America of an announcement made by globally locked user "Walter Grassroot" in the Wikimedians of Mainland China QQ group after the foundation's application was rejected. According to the announcement, after the foundation blocked Chinese users, Chinese Wikimedians submitted relevant documents to the Chinese Embassy in Geneva through various channels. Walter Grassroot also suggested that the failure of the foundation's application was good news.[29] From 2021 to 2024, all attempts by the Wikimedia Foundation and local chapters to join WIPO failed.[30]
Qiuwen Baike
In an interview with the BBC in late October 2021, globally-banned WMC member Yan "Techyan" Enming and 6 other users said the user group was attempting to create a "Chinese version of Wikipedia",[31] a platform that would represent Beijing's views on some political issues for people in mainland China to access without a VPN with oversight from the People's Republic of China government and would use some of Wikipedia's content.[31]
In December 2021, WMC member Techyan told Fast Company that "a tech giant" was negotiating a partnership with them, and that more than 40 Chinese Wikipedia editors had joined Qiuwen with has a total of 200 active editors, and that people would be involved in both Wikipedia and Qiuwen.[9]
In February 2022, ByteDance's subsidiary Baike.com denied the existence of a partnership between ByteDance and WMC to provide technical and financial support for Qiuwen baike.[32]
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See also
References
External links
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