Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, is going head-to-head with Twitter CEO Elon Musk who has accused the encyclopaedia site of having a left-leaning bias. The back and forth began following the overly dramatic release of the Twitter Files which alleged the FBI pressured social media companies to suppress information surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2020.
A page was curated on Wikipedia about the Twitter Files, but Conservative commentator Ian Miles Cheong said the site had posted a disclaimer at the top of the page on Tuesday, saying it was considering deleting the entry. Cheong wrote on Twitter that there was no justification for deleting the page, saying “the editors have deemed it a ‘nothing burger’ that is ‘not notable’ because the media didn’t give it enough coverage.” He went on to allege that “these people work hand in hand with the MSM (mainstream media) to shape the narrative.”
The note at the top of the page has since been removed at the time of writing, but a new message warns readers that the information can change quickly and “may be unreliable.”
Musk responded to Cheong on Twitter, writing “Most of Earth: ‘The MSM is biased.’ Wikipedia: ‘Cite MSM source to confirm this claim,’” he continued, saying “Wikipedia has a non-trivial left-wing bias,” and asked Wales what his thoughts were. Wales didn’t take the bait to express his thoughts as of writing.
However, in the Twitter thread, New York Post politics and culture writer Jon Levine questioned, “I wonder how much Wikipedia would cost?” Wales eventually commented on Levine’s post, declaring that his company is “not for sale.” Wales quickly decided to turn the attention into a way to nab donations for the Wikimedia Foundation, jokingly asking people to check out his soundcloud, only to be directed to a donation page.
The Twitter Files was published late on Friday by journalist Matt Taibbi at Musk’s request. Musk teased the information last month, writing, “The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened.” At the time, Twitter had said the post was a violation of its “hacked materials” policy.
Wales has recently been critical of Musk’s handling of Twitter. In an interview with i24NEWS last month, Wales said Musk’s “diagnosis of what’s wrong with Twitter is completely wrong.”
He continued, “Twitter has a real problem with trolling and abuse, it doesn’t have a problem with not enough freedom of expression.”