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Published 12:08 IST, July 17th 2021

'Wikipedia taken over by Left, nobody should trust it': Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger

Sanger said that Wikipedia could not be trusted for a holistic view since it was written and monitored by paid writers who made it 'extremely partisan.'

Reported by: Ananya Varma
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Larry Sanger
Image- AP/Pixabay | Image: self

In a big statement, Wikipedia Co-founder Larry Sanger on Friday weighed in on the strong influence of Left media on Wikipedia saying that he no longer trusted the site that he had created. In an interview with Freddie Sayers on LockdownTV, the Wikipedia founder said that the world's fifth-largest website could not be trusted for a holistic view since it was written and monitored by paid writers who made it 'extremely partisan.'

Larry Sanger on influence of Left media on Wikipedia

With specific reference to US politics and the COVID-19 pandemic, Larry Sanger detailed that Wikipedia was simply mouthing the view of various establishments such as the WHO, or the World Economic Forum. In this process, the ideas put out by Right-wing media were simply being pulled out or banned from citations."You can’t cite the Daily Mail at all. You can’t cite Fox News on socio-political issues either. It’s banned. So what does that mean? It means that if a controversy does not appear in the mainstream centre-Left media, then it’s not going to appear on Wikipedia," he said. 

"The Biden article, if you look at it, has very little by way of the concerns that Republicans have had about him. So if you want to have anything remotely resembling the Republican point of view about Biden, you’re not going to get it from the article," Sanger added.

"If you look at the articles that Wikipedia has, you can just see how they are simply mouthing the view of the World Economic Council or World Economic Forum, and the World Health Organisation, the CDC and various other establishment mouthpieces like Fauci — they take their cues from them…There’s a global enforcement of a certain point of view, which is amazing to me amazing to a libertarian, or a liberty-loving conservative," Sanger remarked. 

Moreover, he also shared how its entries were being distorted by companies like Wiki PR, where paid writers and editors will go in and change articles. Viewpoints on Eastern medicines were 'judgmental' and religions such as Christianity were 'liberal' as opposed to the actual Bible-believing fundamentalist type viewpoint, he stated.

"Because there is a lot of influence. Wikipedia is known now by everyone to have a lot of influence in the world. So there’s a very big, nasty, complex game being played behind the scenes to make the article say what somebody wants them to say," the co-founder remarked.

Highlighting the 'propaganda' on the site, Larry Sanger said that maintaining 'neutrality' was most important for information. "We are free individuals who want to make up our own minds," he concluded.

Updated 13:21 IST, July 17th 2021