Wikipedia has issued notice of concerns about bias and inaccuracy: report

According to a report, Wikipedia has received a notice from the government about concerns about “bias and inaccuracy” on the website. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting contacted the free encyclopedia and questioned why the platform should be treated as an intermediary and not a publisher. The government’s notice comes amid the ongoing case in the Delhi High Court, where the online encyclopedia is facing allegations of protecting users who made defamatory changes to the Asian News International (ANI) page.

Wikipedia receives message from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting

According to one report in The Economic Times, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting raised several concerns, including instances of bias and inaccuracies on the website and the fact that editorial control was concentrated in the hands of a few individuals.

In addition, the ministry also asked the online encyclopedia why it should not be treated as a publisher instead of an intermediary, the report shows. Wikipedia does not classify itself as a publisher, but instead says it operates a volunteer system where users create, edit and manage pages on a wide range of topics.

The notice was issued after the Delhi High Court recently termed the platform’s open editing system “dangerous”. In particular, the court heard a case in which the Wikipedia page on the ANI news agency was described as a “propaganda tool” of the government. The court noted that the unrestricted nature of the platform’s editing function could potentially lead to harmful information being added to the pages of public figures and entities.

Despite a court order, Wikipedia reportedly refused to provide the names of the users who made the alleged changes to the page. Meanwhile, the online encyclopedia’s legal representatives have claimed that the users with editing rights must adhere to established policies on verifiable content and legal guidelines.