Why should Wiki not be treated as publisher: Govt

NEW DELHI: The ministry of information and broadcasting has issued a notice to Wikipedia citing numerous complaints of bias and inaccuracies in information provided by it, asking why it should not be treated as a publisher instead of an intermediary, news agencies PTI and ANI reported on Tuesday.

- Aditi Agrawal

As an intermediary, Wikipedia is exempted from liability for content posted by volunteers on the crowd-sourced encyclopaedia while as a publisher, it would be directly held liable.

In the notice to Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that hosts Wikipedia as one of its products, the government reportedly said there is a view that a small group exercises editorial control over its pages.

The Wikimedia Foundation did not confirm whether it had received the notice from the I&B ministry. HT has not seen a copy of the notice. At least once in the past, a government communication to Wikimedia Foundation (WF) was reported by the media before it was sent to WF itself.

The development comes amid ongoing legal proceedings against WF in the defamation suit filed by ANI over its Wikipedia page describing the news agency as a "propaganda tool for the incumbent government". In its suit, ANI has sought details of three anonymous editors who had edited the page. When WF did not give the details, ANI filed a contempt petition.

Currently, both the defamation suit and Wikimedia's challenge to the contempt petition are being heard in Delhi high court.