Wikipedia porn row leads to Jimmy Wales giving up editing privileges
After removing and ordering the removal by others of what he considered pornographic images, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has voluntarily given up some of his editing privileges. This after he was accused of wielding autocratic power over the online encyclopedia.
In April, estranged co-founder, Larry Sanger, accused Wikipedia (via Wikimedia Commons, an online repository of free-to-use media) of distributing child pornography. He reported the site to the FBI, before Fox News then joined in and threatened to contact Wikipedia’s corporate donors about the claims.
Wales and his team of editors then removed hundreds of pictures from the site. Some of these have since been reinstated after the community decreed they had educational merit. And those same volunteers heavily criticized Wales for his decision to act too quickly and without consultation.
According to BBC News, this has led Wales to give up his privileges to delete and edit “protected” content on Wikimedia Commons “in the interest of encouraging this discussion to be about real philosophical/content issues, rather than be about me and how quickly I acted”.
Wales really needs to keep his merry band of volunteers on side, because without them the site will die. But I do wonder whether this will lead some to leave.
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