You can now add Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, among the many people whom Elon Musk has disputed with. The tech billionaire accused the information website of being biased. It all began with the controversy surrounding Hunter Biden's laptop back in 2020.
Wiki Says No
Information regarding the Twitter files on Wikipedia has been considered for deletion, as said on a disclaimer at the top of the page. This was pointed out by Ian Miles Cheong, a Conservative commentator. He expressed that the deletion was due to the lack of relevance about the subject.
In Cheong's tweet, it was mentioned that the entry was not covered by the media enough. He said that editors found it to be "not notable" and that Wikipedia is working with mainstream media to control the narrative, as mentioned in Gizmodo.
Wikipedia is voting on the deletion of the entry for Elon Musk’s Twitter Files because the editors have deemed it a “nothing burger” that is “not notable” because the media didn’t give it enough coverage. These people work hand in hand with the MSM to shape the narrative. pic.twitter.com/Acu6UaG0n5
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 6, 2022
Elon Musk replied to the tweet, saying that Wikipedia has a "non-trivial left-wing bias," as well as tagging Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales. Jon Levine, a New York Post politics and culture writer, posted on Twitter expressing his curiosity about how much the encyclopedia site would cost.
Levine's tweet, where Elon Musk was tagged regarding the cost of Wikipedia, has been quoted by the founder of Wikipedia himself. He responded by saying that the site was not for sale. Since the tweet got the attention of Twitter users, he replied with a link where people can donate to the site.
The disclaimer on the Wikipedia site has already been removed, but it was replaced with a statement warning that the information may not be reliable.
The Twitter/Wiki Files
Journalist Matt Taibbi published "The Twitter Files" in the form of a Twitter thread. The post was meant to reveal the real story behind the restriction of posts regarding the content of Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop. The thread included screenshots of email exchanges concerning the leak.
This was Musk's move against the supposed censorship of the media to shape a story. The thread has been accepted with both applause and disdain. Some claimed that it was for the sake of truth, while others believed it was the wrong thing to do.
Yoel Roth, Twitter's former head of trust and safety, stated that it was an unacceptable thing to do for screenshots to be posted along with the names who sent the emails. He added that it placed people in harm's way. Musk admitted that the inclusion of names was a mistake.
MSNBC host Medhi Hasan expressed criticism against Taibbi, saying that "The Twitter Files" publisher volunteered to do PR work for the world's richest man, as well as pretending to speak truth to power, as mentioned in The New York Times.
Taibbi responded to the tweet, saying that he looked forward to scanning through the complaints regarding his role as "PR for the richest man on Earth." He implied that some of the critics had run stories with sources from the FBI, CIA, the Pentagon, the White House, and more.
