Saudi Government 'infiltrated' Wikipedia: rights groups claim

Dubai: Saudi Arabia has infiltrated Wikipedia to control content on the website, activists belonging to two rights groups claimed on Thursday, news agency AFP reported.

Rights groups Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and Beirut-based SMEX further accused the Saudi government of jailing two administrators of the website as part of manipulating the content.

The activists reportedly said that Osama Khalid, a key administrator at the website, was jailed for 32 years, and the other Ziyad al-Sofiani was given eight years.

Wikimedia offers free educational content online through initiatives like Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, and Wiktionary.

The revelations on Saudi’s alleged involvement in manipulating the website that a large number of people depend for content may deal a shock to the users worldwide.

It comes weeks after Ahmad Abouammo, a former Twitter worker, was jailed by San Francisco court for "spying" for and also being an illegal agent of the Saudi government, according to the report.

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), the Washington-based rights group founded by killed Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and SMEX, which promotes digital rights in the Arab world, said that the Saudi government had penetrated Wikipedia’s top brass for the region, according to the report.

As part of controlling the content on the website, Saudi citizens were forced to be or acted as agents, two rights groups said.

The unholy activities happening at Wikimedia emerged after the website banned 16 users, engaged ‘in conflict of interest editing on Wikipedia projects in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region’.

Wikimedia previously said in January that they found ‘a number of users with close connections with external parties were editing the platform in a coordinated fashion to advance the aim of those parties’.