As I wrote last week: "As other information sources fall, Wikipedia’s stubborn independence becomes more vital than ever. The attacks from [the right] aren't just about an online encyclopedia — they're part of a broader assault on any information source that refuses to be controlled."
https://forward.com/news/686797/heritage-foundation-wikipedia-antisemitism/
Donating to the Wikimedia Foundation is great. Becoming a volunteer editor is even better.
Here are resources for maintaining your personal security as an editor:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Personal_security_practices
* https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Legal/Community_Resilience_and_Sustainability/Human_Rights/Digital_Security_Resources
I publicly connect my Wikipedia account to my IRL identity, but this is NOT required.
@molly0xfff I'm less concerned about personal security and more about people who single mindedly enforce policy like "this is the right way of tagging a photo you took and uploaded 15 years ago, change the tags or we'll delete the photo!"
Like, relax, it's a photo of a bus. Whatever free use copy tag is in fashion now, just tell me what it is to apply it I don't want to sift through a long WP:policy treatise to figure it out 
Wikipedia's Tor/proxy blocking policy is an unfortunate impediment to aspiring editors wanting to maintain personal security
https://blog.torproject.org/the-value-of-anonymous-contributions-wikipedia
According to a recently published research paper co-authored by researchers from Drexel, NYU, and the University of Washington, Tor users make high-quality contributions to Wikipedia. And, when they are blocked, as doctoral candidate Chau Tran, the lead author describes, "the collateral damage in the form of unrealized valuable contributions from anonymity seekers is invisible."
If the vandalism came from non-logged in editors using Tor, then banning logged in editors using Tor doesn't seem like a logical way fix that problem.
Tor users are not analogous to a badly moderated instance. The fediverse doesn't ban Tor users. You can find Tor users on well moderated instances, and you can find non-Tor users on badly moderated instances. There's even well moderated instances with they're own onion sites! Tor is not the common denominator for bad behavior
The fediverse uses moderation and reporting tools to protect itself instead of stigmatizing Tor and discouraging good security practice. Wikipedia could always do the same
Generally speaking there's no need to even "identify and target" even outright hc-néo-nazis in context of wikipedia.
It would be helpful to know which accounts are neonazis to recognize bias, but that doesn't translate to knowing where they live.
The only reason to want to know this is to do something that isn't blessed by society, if not outright seen as illegal.
They're trying to go full 1984, by limiting access to distasteful information.
You'd think it should trigger a response by law enforcement. Talking openly about doxxing people so you can harass them seems pretty clear cut.
@punishmenthurts @molly0xfff @DrHyde
It's the basic impulse that many people who desire power are following. Not everyone is so horrid as to both have that impulse and fail to recognize it as a bad one and suppress it, but some are that horrid. Some actually justify the impulse by investing or adopting some reason why they're allegedly superior to everyone else.
Positions of power tend to attract people who want to control others and see no problem with that.
See, the right wing has been in a hot war this whole time. It's not "cultural" it's existential.
Either we exist and actually fight, or we're in their concentration camps.
If Musk & his investors can be this obvious about Wikipedia, it begs the question of what other types of coercion is being used elsewhere on other media organizations
MSNBC is being sold. Many are now owned by other like-minded billionaires. Academia is being strong-armed by their donors & benefactors. Governments & social media platforms are now run by oligarchs, foreign & domestic
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-newspaper-axis-six-press-barons-who-enabled-hitler-power-without-responsibility-1.4856354
https://jacobin.com/2022/09/right-wing-media-wwii-newspapers-olmsted
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-newspaper-axis-review-hitlers-editorial-allies-11649435547
Trump is using lawsuits to browbeat media organizations,...& pollsters.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/us/politics/trump-sues-des-moines-register.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/nyregion/donald-trump-new-york-times-lawsuit.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/us/politics/trump-lawsuit-abc-stephanopoulos.html
Elon Musk is using the mobbing tactics of a bully.
https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/elon-musks-bully-pulpit-is-coming-into-focus-2024-08-13/
https://medium.com/@erinfulmerwrites/elon-musk-isnt-unwell-his-abusive-bullying-resembles-coercive-control-cd74ef296071
https://www.ft.com/content/5990fd02-5541-48f2-88f7-45235bacfbde
News hosts & journalists are being sued or fired
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/11/a-new-era-dawns-americas-tech-bros-now-strut-their-stuff-in-the-corridors-of-power
Backroom meetings between owners & editors and buyers.
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/media/carole-cadwalladr-leaves-the-observer-following-tortoise-media-buyout-387562/
1/2
2/2
https://amp.theguardian.com/culture/2019/nov/11/john-oliver-last-week-tonight-lawsuits-murray-energy
https://www.eenews.net/articles/john-oliver-claims-victory-as-murray-drops-lawsuit/
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgrw57q4y9do
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn42p1m3jmno
Institutional investors are "influencing" once prestigious news organizations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/24/business/jeff-yass-shares-trump-media-merger.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/23/business/vanguard-blackrock-state-street-investing-voting.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/18/business/dealbook/fink-blackrock-woke.html
The strategy seems to be: "Make it expensive, very expensive, to tell the truth."
Time to support Wikipedia and other independent sources of news and information
@molly0xfff i dentify and target members of the Heritage Foundation, and pound their balls flat with a steel hammer.
I have mine.
@molly0xfff OK, so we hit them with numbers. I'm a volunteer, and I'd bet a lot of other Masto users are too. We create a hashtag and a format for clarity about what got pulled, and someone else just jumps in and recreates it.
WikiLocusts? (I'll make t-shirts.)
First, though, we should locally backup our edits, eh?
@molly0xfff Das sollte auch außerhalb des amerikanischen und englischsprachigen Bereichs jeden beunruhigen.
Wenn Desinformation auf Wikipedia sich wie in den Milliardärs Social Media verbreitet, verlieren 90% oder mehr des Fortschritts in Wissenschaft, Forschung und Lehre ihre Nachvollziehbarkeit für nicht-Spezialisten.
(Sorry, this is German intentionally as it is targeted to those who are not concerned enough yet: that it spells doom for all of Wikipedia.)
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