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Netizens have reacted to Wikipedia, the world's largest online free-content encyclopedia, turning 24 on January 15. The company was founded in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. Since 2003, it has been hosted by Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization run by donations from readers.
Wikipedia was first started as a subsidiary project for Nupedia, a free English encyclopedia whose pieces were written by subject experts and reviewed under a formal process. Bomis CEO Jimmy Wales was the first person to coin the idea of a publicly editable encyclopedia, while Larry Sanger incorporated wikis to help attain that goal.
Wikipedia was launched on January 15, 2001, as a single English language edition. The word originated from wiki and encyclopedia with the motto of always maintaining a neutral perspective. On September 9, 2007, it crossed the 2 million-article mark, making it the largest encyclopedia ever assembled in history. At present, there are almost seven million English articles on the platform.
Users on X were quick to react to the website turning 24. Some people praised the organization, while others expressed skepticism. Some popular reactions on X are as follows:
"How? They've been asking for $1 for 84 years," a user quipped on X.
"Hey guys, I’ve been the only one donating for the past 24 years. Can some of y'all pick up my slack," commented another.
"Happy 24th birthday, Wikipedia! An invaluable source of knowledge that keeps growing every day!" lauded a user on X.
"As I use Wikipedia very often, I donate every year with the amount I can afford. Happy Birthday," raved another.
Many people called out the website for allowing everyone to edit information, resulting in the alleged lack of accuracy.
"24 years of letting random people edit information like experts, No wonder half the internet doesn’t know what’s real anymore," one user wrote.
"Wikipedia is not reliable It’s gotten exponentially worse since over the last 8 years," commented another.
"24 years of letting random people edit information like experts, No wonder half the internet doesn’t know what’s real anymore," a person chimed in.
Some other reactions on X are as follows:
"24 years of democratizing information, zero corporate BS. Imagine a platform where nerds, researchers, and random internet heroes collaborate to build humanity's brain. Respect," declared a user.
"Now you should be mature and independent Wikipedia, stop asking for donations," added another.
"Two decades of democratizing knowledge and making information accessible to all...," inferred a user on X.
"Stop donating to Wokepedia"— When Elon Musk commented on Wikipedia
Multi-billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk once referred to the website as "Wokepedia" and implored his 212.5 million followers on X to stop donating to the platform. The controversy started when X user @libsoftiktok reportedly shared a statistic of the website's annual report of 2023-24. It alleged that 29% of the annual budget was spent on "equity" and "safety and inclusion."
On December 23, 2024, Elon Musk responded to the tweet, writing:
"Stop donating to Wokepedia until they restore balance to their editing authority."
The initial post was from an account run by activist Chaya Raichik. It stated:
"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."
The purported accompanying chart bifurcated the various expenses of the company and the percentage of the annual revenue allocated to those. Out of a total budget of alleged $177 million, $86.1 million went to infrastructure, $31.2 million was spent on equity, $39.2 went toward effectiveness, and $20.5 million was allocated for safety and inclusion.
As per Newsweek, a Wikimedia spokesperson explained the meaning of equity to the publication via email. According to them, it refers to "making it possible for more people to share reliable knowledge on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects."
The email said:
"Wikipedia is built on the premise that it becomes better when more people of different backgrounds—including political persuasions—source, edit, curate and research content. Our equity goal advances that."
It continued:
"The 'Safety & Inclusion' goal (now titled 'Safety & Integrity' in our 2024-2025 plan) is focused on ensuring that people are able to freely access and safely contribute to knowledge on [the website] in a changing legal and policy environment globally."
The spokesperson also stressed the importance of protecting "free expression, preventing censorship, and advocating for laws and regulations that keep it accessible for all to use."
According to Semrush, Wikipedia is the fifth most visited website in the world, with over seven billion visits and a bounce rate of 62.07% (as of November 2024). Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are the only other websites that beat it.
