Centre issues notice to Wikipedia over ‘bias, inaccurate’ info

New Delhi: Wikipedia has received notice from the Centre for numerous complaints of "bias and inaccuracies" in the content that is available on the platform.

The government sought an explanation in the notice, asking why it should not be regarded as a publisher rather than an intermediary. According to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, there is a view that a small group exercises editorial control on its pages, the New Indian Express reported.

This comes weeks after Wikipedia was given a contempt notice by the Delhi High Court for failing to provide the identities of people who made allegedly defamatory changes to the news agency Asian News International's (ANI) site.

The notice given to the "free online encyclopedia" was confirmed by ministry authorities. According to the officials, an explanation for the charges of bias and inaccuracies has been sought.

They would not, however, provide any other details on the subject. Wikipedia promotes itself as a free online encyclopedia where volunteers can add or modify entries on various topics, people, or issues. “Hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia consists of freely editable content, with articles that often contain numerous links guiding readers to more information,” read its ‘About’ section.

Due to allegations of inaccurate and derogatory content, the well-known online information source is involved in legal proceedings in India. The High Court issued a contempt of court notice to Wikipedia in September, warning that the website would be blocked if it violated Indian laws. The court was handling an ANI defamation lawsuit.

The news organisation had called the platform a "propaganda tool" for the government and accused it of permitting defamatory edits. ANI asked for a restraining order to prevent the website from permitting allegedly defamatory edited text on the page, with a damages demand of `2 crore

s.