Archive for the ‘Wikipedia’ Category

Wikipedia article on Star Wars sequel trilogy being best of the franchise highlights the pro … – Reclaim The Net

For at least one long-term casual Wikipedia editor it took the site citing The Mary Sue website as a source for a Star Wars article, and the overall review it gave to the franchise, to call Wikipedia out as being broken.

Twitter user Oliver Jia noticed an issue with The Mary Sue a feminist geek site being edited into Wikipedia's current article on the Star Wars sequel trilogy as a source that stated that many regard the newer films as being the best of the franchise.

Jia who tweeted out screenshots of both Wikipedia and Mary Sue articles highlighted that this is an example showcasing Wikipedia's overall state of being broken as a reliable source of objective information.

As a causal editor, he added, he had come across echo-chamber bias among mods and major editors in the past, that he describes as incredible.

A site like Polygon or Kotaku could be blatantly wrong, but they're still counted as reliable sources worthy of being cited, Jia tweeted.

He also asserted that Wikipedia rather, ostensibly, the Wikimedia Foundation that's behind it has made claims to being impartial, while the site's track-record disproves it. He also noted that Wikipedia's wealth of pages in many languages that produce sometimes radically different content on the same topic depending on cultural and political slant only compound the problem of a lack of objectivity.

Makes you wonder how many people have been misled by Wikipedia, Jia tweeted.

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger has recently been looking at alternatives that can fix this bias within encyclopedia models.

Some of Jia's commenters on Twitter pointed out that they thought Wikipedia was simply ideologically biased and prone to supporting social justice issues.

But other commenters on Twitter pointed out that Wikipedia has been broken for years. Perhaps even from the very beginning as a combination of unrealistic expectations and bad delivery.

Wikipedia to this day touts itself as a free online encyclopedia created and edited by volunteers around the world. And to be fair most of this, at face value, appears to be true. It isn't necessarily Wikipedia's fault that most web users are ready to accept it as an actual information authority, rather than just another index of information. It's also not Wikipedia's fault that users are ready to discard their own capacity for critical thinking.

In a way, Wikipedia is like fiat money of online information whose value rests solely on everyone involved agreeing that it actually has any value at all.

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Wikipedia article on Star Wars sequel trilogy being best of the franchise highlights the pro ... - Reclaim The Net

Access to Wikipedia restored in Turkey after 2-year block – JAMnews

The reason for the ban on Wikipedia were statements in several articles that the Turkish government considered offensive

The Turkish public has regained access to Wikipedia after two and a half years of a block, the New York Times reports.

The site was blocked on April 27, 2017 after Wikipedia refused to remove pages that the Turkish government considered offensive.

Several pages talked about Turkeys ties with terrorists and Syrian militants. Also, Turkey had claims against articles about the failed coup in 2016. Turkey accuses well-known Turkish theologian Fethullah Gulen of organizing a coup, and demands his extradition from the US.

However, many international experts consider these statements by the Turkish government unfounded.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Turkey between Erdogan and Gulen

Who is Fethullah Gulen?

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The Turkish Constitutional Court the highest court to consider this issue ruled in favor of Wikipedia after the lawyers of the online encyclopedia managed to prove that the ban violates the right to freedom of speech, which is protected by the Turkish Constitution. This was told to reporters by Stephen Laporte, legal director of the Wikipedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia.

The reason for the ban on Wikipedia in Turkey was a complaint against several articles that the Turkish government considered insulting, including about connections with Syrian fighters and regarding the allegations of the American preacher Gulen

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Access to Wikipedia restored in Turkey after 2-year block - JAMnews

Perspective: The Disillusionments Of Wikipedia | WNIJ and WNIU – WNIJ and WNIU

Tom McBride's "Perspective" (December 27, 2019).

Not so long ago I went to YouTube and watched a few old Roy Rogers TV episodes. They brought back how much I, as a kid, admired Roy as a Western hero. In a single episode, he could sing three songs, ride his palomino at full gallop, beat up and capture a few bad guys, and still, his cowboy outfit yet looking resplendent, share a few jokes about Nellybelle, the cranky old jeep on the show. Not even Superman was that good. Superman never sang a note.

Imagine, then, how disillusioned I was when someone told me that Roy, upon opening one of his chain restaurants in Washington, D.C., uttered a profanity when someone smushed a pie in his face. But the most disillusioning website is Wikipedia. If you look up someone there whom you admire, take my advice and skip the Personal Life section. Another of my Western heroes was Hopalong Cassidy, played by William Boyd. Hopalong wore all black but rode a white horse and never ordered anything stronger in a bar than milk or sarsaparilla. But when I checked out William Boyd on Wikipedia, I discovered hed been married about six times.

Its true. There really is such a thing as too much information.

This is Tom McBride, and this is my overly-informed Perspective.

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Perspective: The Disillusionments Of Wikipedia | WNIJ and WNIU - WNIJ and WNIU

Wikipedia writes to IT Minister: New govt guidelines will severely disrupt our model – The Indian Express

Written by Karishma Mehrotra | New Delhi | Updated: December 30, 2019 10:03:57 am Automated filtering and quick takedown requirements would disrupt the volunteer model of real-time editing of information, Wikimedia has said in a letter to IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. (File Photo)

The nonprofit that funds Wikipedia has said its model would be severely disrupted by the intermediary guidelines that India intends to institute by the middle of next month.

Automated filtering and quick takedown requirements would disrupt the volunteer model of real-time editing of information followed by the online encyclopaedia, the Wikimedia Foundation has said in a letter to Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Because the resource is curated by language and not geographic market, the rules would change the entire website, not just Indians access to the knowledge, the Foundation said.

The collaborative system of people would be severely disrupted by obligatory filtering systems that monitor for and automatically remove illegal content across the website. Short response times for removals that would essentially require the use of automatic systems would interfere with peoples ability to collaborate in real time on Wiki, the collaborative, open editing model that has been crucial to Wikipedias growth, the letter said.

It is impossible to restrict changes inside a Wikipedia article from being visible in one country and not another. Fulfilling mandatory content removal requirements from one country would leave problematic gaps in Wikipedia for the whole world, break apart highly context-specific encyclopedic articles, and prevent people from accessing information that may be legal in their country.

Wikipedia is very popular in India. Users in the country visited the encyclopedia 771 million times last month, the fifth highest in the world, the letter said. It urged the Minister to release the latest draft of the guidelines, and suggested a layered definition to social media intermediaries similar to The Personal Data Protection Bill, which was introduced in Lok Sabha earlier this month. The letter also expressed concern over the unrealistic burden on nonprofits, and said that traceability requirements were a serious threat to freedom of expression.

The Indian Express reported the proposed draft guidelines in December 2018. After the Ministry opened them up for public consultation, Wikipedia joined several stakeholders who took issue with a number of provisions: censorship concerns highlighted the rule that would require platforms to proactively eliminate unlawful content, while surveillance concerns focused on the proposed guideline that intermediaries must hand over certain information to the government.

When the draft law was released, WhatsApp had said that, if notified, they would require a complete re-design of the platform, threatening its signature encryption. An major concern for the company was the provision on supplying the government with the originator of information. In an ongoing case in the Supreme Court involving WhatsApp and Facebook, the IT Ministry has submitted that it will update these laws by January 15.

In November, the IT Ministry told Parliament: Key features of proposed amendments in the due diligence to be followed by intermediaries are: (i) periodically informing the users for compliance of rules & regulations, users agreement & privacy policy, (ii) traceability of the originator of the information, (iii) significant intermediaries having more than 50 lakh users to have an office in India and to appoint a nodal officer for liaisoning with law enforcement agencies, (iv) removal of malicious content in 24 hours upon receiving a court order or when notified by appropriate government, (v) deployment of technology based automated tools or appropriate mechanisms for proactively identifying and removing or disabling public access to unlawful information or content, etc.

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Wikipedia writes to IT Minister: New govt guidelines will severely disrupt our model - The Indian Express

What two FIRs of CAA protest in UP show, J&K gets SMS and Wikipedia’s worry – The Indian Express

Two FIRs. Both filed after CAA protests turned violent in the Sambhal district (UP), but vastly different. One, against 17 persons for alleged rioting and the other one related to the killing of 23-year-old Mohammed Sheroz. In the first segment, Kaunain Sheriff, talks about the differences in the two FIRS, the glaring gaps they reveal and how they will affect the two cases. Next, Naveed Iqbal talks about SMS services being restored in Jammu & Kashmir and the changes that the region has seen in the last couple of months. And last, Karishma Mehrotra explains why Wikipedia is worried about the guidelines that the Indian government is soon intending to implement.

You can follow us and leave us feedback on Facebook and Twitter @expresspodcasts, or send us an email at podcasts@indianexpress.com. If you like this show, please subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts, so other people can find us. You can also find us on http://www.indianexpress.com/audio.

What two FIRs of CAA protest in UP show, J&K gets SMS and Wikipedias worryTwo FIRs. Both filed after CAA protests turned violent in the Sambhal district (UP), but vastly different. One, against 17 persons for alleged rioting and the other one related to the killing of 23-year-old Mohammed Sheroz. In the first segment, Kaunain Sheriff, talks about the differences in the two FIRS, the glaring gaps they reveal and how they will affect the two cases. Next, Naveed Iqbal talks about SMS services being restored in Jammu & Kashmir and the changes that the region has seen in the last couple of months. And last, Karishma Mehrotra explains why Wikipedia is worried about the guidelines that the Indian government is soon intending to implement.You can follow us and leave us feedback on Facebook and Twitter @expresspodcasts, or send us an email at podcasts@indianexpress.com. If you like this show, please subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts, so other people can find us. You can also find us on http://www.indianexpress.com/audio.

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What two FIRs of CAA protest in UP show, J&K gets SMS and Wikipedia's worry - The Indian Express