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2021 Wikimedia Foundation actions on the Chinese Wikipedia

On September 13, 2021, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) took official action in relation to the Chinese Wikipedia after investigating users from Wikimedians of mainland China (WMC or WMCUG), an unaffiliated Wikipedia user group.

The Wikimedia Foundation globally banned seven people from editing all Wikimedia sites on September 13, 2021, at 16:13 (September 14, 2021, at 00:13 CST). The Wikimedia Foundation also revoked the administrative rights of 12 people on Chinese-language projects after the ban.[1] Four of the top ten most active administrators on the Chinese Wikipedia had their rights revoked. These actions were announced by Maggie Dennis, Vice President of Community Resilience and Sustainability for the Legal Department at the Wikimedia Foundation.

Background

The Chinese government

Despite Wikipedia being censored in mainland China, and VPNs normally not being allowed to edit it, Wikipedia administrators from China have permitted IP block exemptions for a select number of mainland users. Such users are recruited to change the editorial content on Wikipedia in support of China's viewpoint and/or to support the election of pro-Chinese-government administrators on Wikipedia, with the aim of gaining control of Wikipedia, as a part of the Chinese Communist Party's coordinated efforts to push their preferred narrative on platforms that have respected worldwide credibility.[2][3] There has also been an exodus of volunteer editors leaving Baidu Baike, a domestic competitor beset by problems of self-censorship and commercialization, to join Chinese Wikipedia because the "contributors wanted the privilege of working on a higher-quality internet encyclopedia" that also "carries a great deal of international power".[2][4] Although there is no proven direct link between these editors and the Chinese government, observers have suggested that such actions are not merely the work of patriotic mainlanders, but part of a "larger structural coordinated strategy the government has to manipulate these platforms," including platforms besides Wikipedia such as Twitter and Facebook.[4]

The speculation of a "pro-China infiltration," however, was never proven.[5]

The Community

The Wikimedians of mainland China (WMC) was established in 2017, without acknowledgement from the Wikimedia Foundation. A former editor accused the WMC members of being more likely to become administrators, bureaucrats, and oversighters, and personal attacks became persistent after 2017. According to the Stand News in September 2021, 38 administrators were from China, while 20 were from Taiwan, 17 were from Hong Kong, and 1 was from Macau.

Another incident that got the Foundation's attention happened in January 2018, in which WMC members physically assaulted another member after the member told the Taiwan user group that WMC leaders were going to meet Wikimedia Foundation officials. The meeting was cancelled after the incident.

The WMC, having a strong pro-Beijing stance, has clashed with Wikipedia editors from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Edit wars approached their peak when the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests occurred. In August 2020, there were 123 edits on the Chinese entry "2019 Yuen Long attack" (zh) in two days.[8] A Hong Kong-based editor, who remains anonymous because of fears of intimidation, noted that "Pro-Beijing people often remove content that is sympathetic to protests, such as tear gas being fired and images of barricades. They also add their own content...Pro-democracy editors tend to add content to shift the balance or the tone of the article, but in my experience, the pro-Beijing editors are a lot more aggressive in churning out disinformation..." The editor described the actions as "rewriting history."[9] In July 2021, while an edit war on the Yuen Long attack was underway, several members of the Wikimedians of mainland China threatened to report Hong Kong editors to the National Security Department hotline, according to the Hong Kong Free Press.[10]

Reactions

In an announcement on Wikimedia about the actions, Maggie Dennis acknowledged the radical nature of the Foundation's actions but stressed that the decision was based on a number of considerations and an in-depth investigation.[11] The Foundation decided to take action after Maggie Dennis told the media that editors had tried to manipulate the content of articles as well as the election of administrators and that other editors had been physically harmed. However, she did not intend to accuse the Chinese government.[12][13][14]

In response, Wikimedians of mainland China posted an open letter titled "Cast Away Illusions, Prepare for Struggle" (丢掉幻想，准备斗争),[15] calling the Wikimedia Foundation's actions baseless and declaring its intention to resist the crackdown with practical action.[16][17] The Global Times, a tabloid officially owned and operated by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, alleged that the Wikimedia Foundation "purged" the Chinese editors.[18]

In an interview with the BBC's Tech Tent program commenting on the latest obsessions about China, Maryana Iskander, the new Chief Executive of the Wikimedia Foundation, emphasized the autonomy of the Wikipedia community and said, "One of the very early things that I've learned in this process is that certainly the Wikimedia Foundation does not play a role in setting editorial policy and that these are the debates that happen in communities."[19][20]

Jimmy Wales, the cofounder of Wikipedia, commented on these actions in an interview with BBC: "I have deep experience of talking to people all over the world, and the idea that people in China, for example, are so brainwashed that they can't see that neutrality is just false," but said "The idea that we are excluding China, is absurd. We welcome with open arms editors from China."[21]

After the Wikimedia Foundation took action against the WMC editors, the Taiwanese Wikipedia community noted that such an action was long overdue and released a statement saying, "We need to rebuild an inclusive wiki that welcomes everyone from all places who wants to contribute to Chinese language Wikipedia in good faith...Many people have felt unsafe for years, so restoring a shared sense of comfort is likely to take some time".[22]

Subsequent events

On October 5, 2021, at the 62nd session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the People's Republic of China voted against the Wikimedia Foundation's application to become an official observer of the WIPO on the grounds that Wikipedia violated the "one-China principle" and "disseminated false information".[23][24] China was the only country out of the 193 members of the organization to vote against the WIPO application,[25] causing Wikimedia Foundation's application to fail.

A Wikimedian showed a screenshot to Voice of America of an announcement made by globally-banned user "Walter Grassroot" in the Wikimedians of mainland China QQ group after the foundation's application was rejected. According to the announcement, after the foundation banned Chinese users, Chinese Wikimedians submitted relevant documents to the Chinese Embassy in Geneva through various channels. Walter Grassroot also suggested that the failure of the foundation's application was good news.[26] Between 2021 and 2025, all attempts by the Wikimedia Foundation and local chapters to join WIPO failed.[27]

Qiuwen Baike

In an interview with the BBC in late October 2021, globally-banned WMC member Yan "Techyan" Emming and six other users said that the user group was attempting to create a "Chinese version of Wikipedia",[28] a platform that would represent Beijing's views on some political issues for people in mainland China to access without a VPN with oversight from the People's Republic of China government and would use some of Wikipedia's content.[28]

In December 2021, WMC member Techyan told Fast Company that "a tech giant" was negotiating a partnership with them, and that more than 40 Chinese Wikipedia editors had joined Qiuwen, which has a total of 200 active editors, and that people would be involved in both Wikipedia and Qiuwen.[29]

In February 2022, ByteDance's subsidiary Baike.com denied the existence of a partnership between ByteDance and WMC to provide technical and financial support for Qiuwen Baike.[30]

See also

Further reading

External links

  • Office actions/September 2021 statement, the announcement of the Wikimedia office action
  • 2021 Wikimedia Foundation actions on the Chinese Wikipedia (Chinese): The Chinese Wikipedia community page contains detailed information about sanctioned users.

References

  1. Chen Guanrong. 內部編輯遭恐嚇，維基媒體基金會拔除多名「中國大陸維基人用戶組」成員 TechNews 科技新報, retrieved 2021-09-15^
  2. Stephen Harrison. Why Wikipedia Banned Several Chinese Admins Slate Magazine, 2021-10-26, retrieved 2022-08-11^
  3. Wikipedia blames pro-China infiltration for bans BBC News, 2021-09-16, retrieved 2022-08-11^
  4. China and Taiwan clash over Wikipedia edits BBC News, 2019-10-04, retrieved 2022-08-11^
  5. Masha Borak. The Hunt for Wikipedia's Disinformation Moles Wired, Wired, retrieved 2023-05-06^
  6. {{langx|zh|中文維基是一塊高地，你不佔領，別人就會佔領……當兩邊都在罵，兩邊都不滿意的時候，這就是維基百科作為中立的百科全書能達到的最佳狀態了。}}^
  7. 吉數 何. 牆外百科牆裡人：中國大陸的維基編輯們 theinitium.com, 13 February 2019, retrieved 10 May 2025^
  8. 維基百科中文版上演「編輯之戰」 中立原則受挑戰 BBC, 2021-10-30^
  9. Wikipedia in Chinese editing war of words BBC News, 2021-10-29, retrieved 2022-05-01^
  10. Selina Cheng. Wikipedia wars: How Hongkongers and mainland Chinese are battling to set the narrative Hong Kong Free Press HKFP, 2021-07-11, retrieved 2022-08-11^
  11. 鄭樂捷. 維基封鎖7名中國大陸用戶 指為保障用戶安全 美国之音, 2021-09-15, retrieved 2021-09-15^
  12. 忧渗透与起底风险 维基百科对中国编辑下禁令 德國之聲, retrieved 2021-09-18^
  13. 维基百科以亲中势力渗透为由封禁"中国大陆维基人用户组"七名编辑 BBC, retrieved 2021-09-18^
  14. {{langx|zh|我不能够就此将矛头指向中国政府}}^
  15. The idiom was derived from an essay by Mao Zedong in 1949.^
  16. 維基百科禁 7 內地用戶 指有滲透起底風險 內地群組：準備鬥爭 立場新聞 Stand News, retrieved 2021-09-15^
  17. 观察者网. 维基百科封禁7名中国大陆编辑：他们想搞"渗透" 新浪新闻, 2021-09-17, retrieved 2021-09-18^
  18. 维基百科封杀7个中文编辑，仅仅因为他们拒绝涉中话题被污染 环球时报, retrieved 2021-09-18^
  19. Tech Tent: Wikipedia's editing war BBC, retrieved October 8, 2021^
  20. Tech Tent – what next for Wikipedia? BusinessGhana, 18 September 2021, retrieved October 8, 2021^
  21. Wikipedia in Chinese editing war of words BBC, October 29, 2021, retrieved 2021-11-19^
  22. Stephen Harrison. Why Wikipedia Banned Several Chinese Admins Slate Magazine, 2021-10-26, retrieved 2022-08-11^
  23. China again blocks Wikimedia Foundation's accreditation to World Intellectual Property Organization Wikimedia Foundation, 2021-10-05, retrieved 2025-03-05^
  24. Glyn Moody. If You Want To Know Why Section 230 Matters, Just Ask Wikimedia: Without It, There'd Be No Wikipedia Techdirt, 2021-10-07, retrieved 2021-10-23^
  25. 【維基百科】中方「一票反對」 「維基媒體基金」二度被拒聯合國機構 RFA, 2021-10-07, retrieved October 29, 2021^
  26. 郑乐捷. 中国再度以台湾为由 阻止维基媒体基金会申请成为世界知识产权组织观察员 美国之音, 2021-10-07, retrieved 2021-10-07^
  27. Wikimedia Foundation's Accreditation to World Intellectual Property Organization Blocked for a Fourth Time by China wikimediafoundation.org, Wikimedia Foundation, 2024-07-11^
  28. 維基百科移除親北京編輯 被逐者將建「中國版維基」 BBC News Chinese, October 26, 2021, retrieved April 13, 2022^
  29. The war over Chinese Wikipedia is a warning for the open internet Fast Company, 2021-12-18, retrieved 2022-02-06^
  30. 传字节跳动与中文维基百科人员合作创建新"求闻百科"，官方称不属实 界面新闻^