Wikipedia is the seventh most searched website in the world and by far the best-known online encyclopedia.
Wikipedia has a major influence on the knowledge and world view of many people.
Wikipedia is generally regarded as a transparent and mostly reliable community project. But is that really the case?
Who and what is behind Wikipedia and what are its aims?
The owner of Wikipedia is the Wikimedia Foundation. Every year, Wikipedia asks its readers for donations and thus
gives the impression of being a reader-financed medium.
Wikimedia, the foundation behind Wikipedia, had assets in excess of 100 million US dollars in June 2021.
Under the title "Wikipedia and propaganda", "Swiss Policy Research" updated an article on its homepage
in January 2024, which Kla.TV reproduces below in abridged form and partly in its own words.
Is Wikipedia a joint effort by many authors?
Research shows that the English Wikipedia, with seven billion page views per month, is managed by just 500 active administrators.
The German Wikipedia, with around one billion page views per month, is controlled by
just 30 functionaries and 150 administrators.
80% of all Wikipedia content is written by only 1% of all authors!
Which groups influence the articles in Wikipedia?
Influence through companies
In one of the best-known cases, a project manager of the pharmaceutical company Merck was also the
administrator of the German Wikipedia and manipulated articles on Merck's history and products.
The case was uncovered in 2015, but had no consequences for the administrator.
In 2014, research showed how Lufthansa removed data on aircraft noise and vehicle manufacturer MAN removed information on
its tank production during the Second World War from Wikipedia.
Daimler-Benz removed references to political lobbying, and Boehringer Ingelheim removed
information on the manufactured "Agent Orange".
Influence through secret services
As early as 2007, researchers discovered that one of the most active and influential English Wikipedia administrators,
known as Slim Virgin, was in fact a former British secret service informant living in Canada under a false name.
Also in 2007, researchers were able to prove that CIA and FBI employees were editing Wikipedia articles on controversial
topics such as the Iraq war and the Guantánamo military prison.
Influence of activist groups on Wikipedia
In addition to PR companies and state actors, several activist groups also play an important role in
the editing and manipulation of Wikipedia articles.
One of the most influential, but least known activist groups on Wikipedia are the so-called "Skeptics", an obscure and
sect-like organization whose members do not view official positions "skeptically", but rather critics of such positions.
The "skeptics" essentially serve as "cyber warriors" for political and commercial interests.
During the coronavirus pandemic (2020-2022), the "skeptics" also played a central role on Wikipedia by enforcing
official but mostly false positions and defaming critical researchers, doctors and journalists.
For example, a laboratory origin of the virus was dismissed as a "conspiracy theory" and the
protective effect of the vaccines was clearly exaggerated.
Activists are also defending the official narrative and defaming critical authors on the complex issue of climate change.
Some of these activities are funded by governments, such as the "Project to improve the
communication of climate change knowledge through Wikipedia".
In 2019, it emerged that German Wikipedia articles on the topics of energy transition, global warming, climate protection,
climate change denial, science denial, wind energy, photovoltaics and Greta Thunberg all have the same main author:
a member of the political party Die Grünen and the German Skeptiker movement.
Another group that is particularly active in editing and manipulating political and social topics
on Wikipedia is the so-called "Antifa movement".
In contrast to the classic "left", the modern "Antifa movement" supports a pro-American and pro-Israeli policy.
In 2021, leaked documents showed that a leading member of the American "Antifa movement" was in
contact with British and American intelligence services.
The Antifa member attacked both conservative and traditional left-wing journalists and
politicians who were critical of US wars or Israeli policy.
In German-speaking countries, the term "Transatlantifa" has become established for this activist group.
Wikipedia and the WEF
Not surprisingly, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has repeatedly endorsed such covert operations on Wikipedia.
Wales is a friend of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Wales married Kate Garvey in 2012.
Kate Garvey is a "Young Global Leader" of the Davos World Economic Forum WEF.
The former CEO of Wikimedia, Katherine Maher (2016-2021), previously worked at the
influential American Council on Foreign Relations CFR.
Katherine Maher is also a WEF Young Global Leader, a Senior Fellow of the NATO-affiliated Atlantic Council and a member
of the US State Department's Foreign Affairs Policy Board.
Wikipedia co-founder no longer trusts Wikipedia
In an interview from 2021, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger explained that he no longer trusted the website he had created.
In particular, Sanger noted that topics and controversies that do not appear in the
"center-left mainstream media" cannot appear on Wikipedia.
In fact, Wikipedia almost only accepts established media as "reliable sources", while independent
media, regardless of quality, are largely excluded.
In an interview with US journalist Glenn Greenwald in 2023, Sanger argued that Wikipedia had become an instrument of control
in the hands of the American establishment and intelligence agencies, adding that in his opinion no
encyclopedia has ever been as unbalanced as Wikipedia.
We conclude with a quote from a former "Wikipedian": "What is happening to Wikipedia is a scandal.
I used to be a contributor and can confirm the dictatorship of the admins.
It's not about arguments, it's about power."]