Wikipedia Censorship, Corruption Deletes Israel Criticism
By Joel Leyden Jerusalem----July 10, 2006......Wikipedia, which brands itself as "the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit", is now activity deleting several articles on its Web site which are critical of Wikipedia. Wikipedia, which has been criticized for its lack of credibility and used as a political and commercial tool for libel and slander, enraged the global news media with its recent coverage of the death of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth L. Lay. Reuters stated that Wikipedia's postings regarding Lay "underscored the challenges facing the online encyclopedia." The Washington Post was more blunt adding that the Lay story "further exposed the critical weakness of Wikipedia that prevents it from becoming the go-to source for Internet knowledge....unlike, say, the Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia has no formal peer review for its articles. They may be written by experts or insane crazy people. Or worse, insane crazy people with an agenda. And Internet access." "Wikipedia hosts approximately three jillion full-page articles about local high schools, complete with alma mater lyrics, and it can't make room for a critical look at its own practices?," says the Village Voice commenting on Wikipedia censorship of Wikitruth. Perversely enough, though, "notability" has indeed become a byword for Wikipedia's freelance fact police, who delete at will whatever they think might worsen the site's smoldering reputation as a trivia dump." Even worse, the highly respected and professional watchdog site - Wikipedia Review - was deleted from the pages of Wikipedia.
But
none of this surprises us at the Israel News Agency. You see, Wikipedia prides itself as being a "citizens media," or "peoples media," where the Wikipedia community of volunteer administrators, editors and users create the rules and policies. But this is only in the "spin" world of Wikipedia as Wales and Wool unilaterally delete articles giving no reason or simply stating that they are "tired" of creating a community consensus. Now under pressure by their own Wikipedia community and editorials in both Wikitruth and Wikipedia Review, they have again uploaded the article on the Israel News Agency only to have it go through a third round of "AfD" or voting to delete or keep the article. The last two rounds of AfD on the Israel News Agency ended with a "keep" decision. But
not satisfied with the initial results to keep the INA in the pages of Wikipedia,
corruption and censorship by Wales and Wool now kicks in at
Wikipedia as the management begins to delete the "keep" votes.
Wikipedia editor Potterseesall just e-mailed the INA the below message stating that he was blocked minutes after voting to "keep" the Israel News Agency from being deleted:
There was no evidence provided by Wikipedia that Potterseesall was actually one person using two or more computers. Potterseesall is described as a "suspected sockpuppet". With this McCarthyism style Wikipedia abuse, this editor and others who are merely "suspected" can no longer edit, let alone comment to defend themselves. One brave Wikipedia administrator / editor protested with a sigh of deep frustration over how Wikipedia can abuse both content and fellow editors:
and another dismayed Wikipedia user accused Wikipedia of outright fraud:
Why
does the Israel News Agency desire to have a place on Wikipedia? But
what really hurts in this scenario, is that where the INA is used to being attacked
by Islam terrorists - Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and the
government's of Syria and Iran, now an American Jew - Danny Wool is doing his
very best to discredit the editors, journalists and reputation of the Israel
News Agency. But Wool is not alone in his attacks on the INA. He has recruited
Wikipedia administrators Gili Bar-Hillel, a translator in Tel Aviv, Josh Gordon
and Guy Chapman in London. There are many good, dedicated and wise editors at Wikipedia, but many fear being banned by Jimbo Wales and Danny Wool if they vote to "keep" an Israeli news Website or any news Website that Wales and Wool oppose. Israel is at war with terrorism. We are bleeding from Qassam and Katusha rockets falling on us from Gaza and Lebanon, we sustain Palestinian Islamic suicide bombing attacks in our restaurants, shopping centers and on our buses. Israel bleeds from the effects of terrorism, tourism and investment are down, one out of three children live in poverty. Yet Wool, Wales, Gili Bar-Hillel, Josh Gordon and Guy Chapman shoot us from behind! What's Col. Danny's excuse? Wool states that the INA is nothing more than a blog which is being used for a "custody battle" by this author. For Danny's information, there is no custody battle and the word blog was not invented yet back in 1995. Are Wikipedia's investors and venture capital sources such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Dan Gillmor, The Omidyar Network, Pierre Omidyar, Mark Andreessen, Reid Hoffman, Joichi Ito, and Mitch Kapor aware of the rampant libel, slander and censorship taking place in Wikipedia's so-called "citizens media?" To censor any free and democratic source of news is a violation of our basic rights to free speech in a free society. As Wikipedia is a leading source of information coming out of the US, censorship of non-inciteful accredited news media is a direct breach of public trust which only serves the egos and pride of Wikipedia founder Jimbo Wales and his assistant Danny Wool. Censorship at Wikipedia is a highly serious and dangerous action. Furthermore, Wikipedia, which is now being blocked for use by many universities and colleges for its lack of accountability, through its lack of accountable user and administrator posts could actually be aiding terrorists to communicate with one another on the Internet through their anonymous edits.
Perhaps the worst case of Wikipedia libel, slander and censorship centered around former USA TODAY editorial page editor John Seigenthaler. Wikipedia for four months carried an article falsely linking him to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and John F. Kennedy. But as angry as Seigenthaler was, and as untrue as the article had been, it's unlikely that he has a good court case against Wikipedia, according to legal experts interviewed by CNET News.com. Seigenthaler himself acknowledged as much in a USA Today op-ed piece. A case in which a man was falsely linked on Wikipedia to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and John F. Kennedy has led some to question the online encyclopedia's libel liability. Bottom line: While Wikipedia is most likely safe from legal liability for libel, the issues raised by the Seigenthaler case should be carefully considered, some legal experts say. More stories on Wikipedia thanks to section 230 of the Federal Communications Decency Act (CDA), which became law in 1996, Wikipedia is most likely safe from legal liability for libel, regardless of how long an inaccurate article stays on the site. That's because it is a service provider as opposed to a publisher such as Salon.com or CNN.com. In his scathing, Nov. 29 opinion column in USA Today, the 78-year-old Seigenthaler wrote that in the original Wikipedia article, "one sentence was true. I was Robert Kennedy's administrative assistant." The article was written by an anonymous Wikipedia user traceable only to a BellSouth Internet account, but Seigenthaler added that the giant ISP wouldn't reveal the author's name. And despite his protestations, Seigenthaler wrote, Wikipedia's only action prior to removing the offending article on Oct. 5 was to change a misspelling on May 29, just three days after it was originally posted. "I have no idea whose sick mind conceived the false, malicious "biography" that appeared under my name for 132 days on Wikipedia, the popular, online, free encyclopedia whose authors are unknown and virtually untraceable. I phoned Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder and asked, "Do you ... have any way to know who wrote that?" "No, we don't," he said. Representatives of the other two Websites said their computers are programmed to copy data verbatim from Wikipedia, never checking whether it is false or factual. Naturally, I want to unmask my "biographer." And, I am interested in letting many people know that Wikipedia is a flawed and irresponsible research tool." "When I was a child, my mother lectured me on the evils of "gossip." She held a feather pillow and said, "If I tear this open, the feathers will fly to the four winds, and I could never get them back in the pillow. That's how it is when you spread mean things about people." For me, that pillow is a metaphor for Wikipedia." What
one is witnessing here is a modern day digital version of David vs. Goliath. Danny Wool not only deleted the Israel News Agency from the pages of Wikipedia after a community consensus, but also deleted the biography on Joel Leyden as well. The Israel News Agency and Joel Leyden are not too concerned about the Leyden biography. As Groucho Marx once said: "I would suspect any organization that would have me as a member." One
of the last entries in Wikipedia's action to delete the Israel News Agency
from the pages of Wikipedia reads: Wikipedia
is embracing and reinforcing Israel's enemies.
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