Elon Musk has urged his followers not to donate to Wikipedia,
which he branded "Wokepedia," until "they restore balance to their editing authority."
The tech billionaire made the claim on X,
which he owns,
in response to another user who shared a graph from the online encyclopedia's 2023-4 annual report that showed
29 percent of its budget had been spent on "equity" and "safety & inclusion."
Newsweek contacted Wikipedia and Elon Musk,
via the Tesla and SpaceX press offices,
by email on Tuesday.
Why It Matters
According to data from digital marketing platform Semrush,
in November 2024 Wikipedia was the fourth-most-visited website in the world,
with monthly traffic of around 6.7 billion visits.
Wikipedia's popularity, combined with the fact it provides information about notable political figures and events,
make it highly influential.
The platform can be edited by anybody,
meaning the pages of controversial individuals are often fought over by multiple users with different views about the content.
What to Know
On X in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Musk shared a post by influential conservative leaning account "Libs of TikTok," adding:
"Stop donating to Wokepedia until they restore balance to their editing authority."
In its initial post, the Libs of TikTok account,
which is run by activist #Chaya #Raichik
and has over 3.9 million followers, said:
"Wikipedia's annual budget report from 2023—2024 reveals that they spent over $50 million of their total $177 million budget on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Stop donating to Wokepedia."
They accompanied this with a graph screenshotted from Wikipedia's 2023-4 budget report,
which breaks down its total $177 million spending between $86.1 million on infrastructure,
$31.2 million on equity,
$20.5 million on safety and inclusion and
$39.2 million on effectiveness.
https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-takes-aim-wikipedia-fund-raising-editing-political-woke-2005742