Comment by the_third_wave

4 years ago

> I'm interested in hearing what parts of wikipedia (and which wikipedia) you think have been turned into a propaganda channel.

As to "which Wikipedia" the answer is that of the versions I frequent - English, Dutch, German, Swedish and French - the English-language one seems to be the most affected. Native German and French speakers (who are more likely to have those versions at #1) may want to comment on whether my assessment is correct.

As to "what parts" the answer is less clear since this is a moving target. Anything related to politics is a clear target for ideologically-motivated editors so those parts are a good example but it does not stop there. Articles related to current affairs, media and culture have attracted activist editors as well. There are plenty of studies which show Wikipedia is politically biased to the "left" [1,2,3,4,5,6], this is not simply an issue of a few parts of the site having been taken over.

[1] https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Do-Experts-or-Collecti... ("Harvard study: Wikipedia articles are more left-wing than Encyclopedia Britannica")

[2] https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/17-028_e7788... ("Harvard researchers: left-wing editors are more active and partisan on Wikipedia")

[3] http://wikipediocracy.com/2018/08/26/wikipedia-sources-metho... ("top-cited news outlets on Wikipedia are mainly left-wing")

[4] http://archive.is/dDr7X ("pages on American politicians cite mostly left-wing news outlets")

[5] https://thecritic.co.uk/the-left-wing-bias-of-wikipedia/ ("editors who support right-leaning views are over six times more likely to be sanctioned at Arbitration Enforcement than those who support left-leaning views")