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Wikipedia Is Battling for the Soul of the Internet
The New York Times • • world
Key Points:
- Wikipedia is facing significant challenges including accusations of political bias and antisemitism from the MAGA right, exploitation of its content by AI, and repression of volunteer editors by authoritarian regimes.
- The Wikimedia Foundation is responding by increasing its lobbying efforts, advertising publicly, charging major tech companies for content use, and limiting access to certain data scrapers.
- To protect its volunteers from harassment and retaliation, Wikimedia is expanding its human rights team amid rising threats to its community.
- Bernadette Meehan, a former U.S. ambassador with extensive diplomatic experience, became Wikimedia's CEO in January, tasked with navigating the organization through these complex and unprecedented challenges.
- Despite the turmoil, Meehan emphasizes a diplomatic approach and refrains from framing the situation as a war, drawing on her experiences in actual conflict zones to maintain perspective.
