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2021 Wikimedia Foundation actions on the Chinese Wikipedia

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A white bamboo stalk sits in a green circle, surrounded by one red and two blue curves each occupying a third of a partitioned ring. Below the design are the words "中国大陆维基人 [new line] WIKIMEDIANS OF MAINLAND CHINA".
Logo of Wikimedians of Mainland China.

On September 13, 2021, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) took official action in relation to the Chinese Wikipedia after investigating users from Wikimedians of Mainland China (WMC or WMCUG), an unaffiliated Wikipedia user group.

The WMF globally banned[a] seven people from editing all Wikimedia sites on September 13, 2021, at 16:13 (September 14, 2021, at 00:13 CST). It also revoked the administrative rights of 12 people on Chinese-language projects after the ban.[2][3] Four of the top ten most active administrators on the Chinese Wikipedia had their rights revoked.[4] These actions were announced by Maggie Dennis, Vice President of Community Resilience and Sustainability for the Legal Department at the Wikimedia Foundation.

Background

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The Chinese government

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Despite the censorship of Wikipedia in Mainland China and the normal prohibition on using VPNs to edit it, Wikipedia administrators from China permitted IP block exemptions for a select number of mainland users. Such users were recruited to change the editorial content on Wikipedia in support of China's viewpoint and/or to support the election of pro-Chinese-government administrators on Wikipedia, with the aim of gaining control of Wikipedia, as a part of the Chinese Communist Party's coordinated efforts to push their preferred narrative on platforms that have respected worldwide credibility.[5][6] There had also been an exodus of volunteer editors leaving Baidu Baike, a domestic competitor beset by problems of self-censorship and commercialization, to join Chinese Wikipedia because the "contributors wanted the privilege of working on a higher-quality internet encyclopedia" that also "carries a great deal of international power".[5][7] Although there is no proven direct link between these editors and the Chinese government, observers have suggested that such actions are not merely the work of patriotic mainlanders, but part of a "larger structural coordinated strategy the government has to manipulate these platforms," including platforms besides Wikipedia such as Twitter and Facebook.[7]

The speculation of a "pro-China infiltration," however, was never proven.[8]

The Community

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The Chinese Wikipedia is a strategic point. If you don't capture, others will... The best situation we can get on a neutral Wikipedia is that both sides disagree with the articles.[Note 1]

— "Techyan" En-Min Yan, member of Wikimedians of Mainland China and former administrator[9]

Wikimedians of Mainland China (WMC) was established in 2017, without acknowledgement from the Wikimedia Foundation. A former editor accused the WMC members of being more likely to become administrators, bureaucrats, and oversighters, and personal attacks became persistent after 2017. According to Stand News in September 2021, 38 administrators were from China, while 20 were from Taiwan, 17 were from Hong Kong, and 1 was from Macau.[10]

Another incident that received WMF attention happened in January 2018, in which WMC members physically assaulted another member after the member told the Taiwan user group that WMC leaders were going to meet WMF officials. The meeting was cancelled after the incident.[11]

The WMC, having a strong pro-Beijing stance, clashed with Wikipedia editors from Taiwan and Hong Kong. Edit wars approached their peak when the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests occurred. In August 2020, there were 123 edits on the Chinese entry for the 2019 Yuen Long attack in two days.[12] A Hong Kong-based editor, who remained anonymous because of fears of intimidation, said, "Pro-Beijing people often remove content that is sympathetic to protests, such as tear gas being fired and images of barricades. They also add their own content...Pro-democracy editors tend to add content to shift the balance or the tone of the article, but in my experience, the pro-Beijing editors are a lot more aggressive in churning out disinformation..." They described the actions as "rewriting history."[13][14] In July 2021, while an edit war on the Yuen Long attack was underway, several WMC members threatened to report Hong Kong editors to the National Security Department hotline, according to the Hong Kong Free Press.[14]

Reactions

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In a Wikimedia announcement about the actions, Dennis acknowledged the radical nature of the Foundation's actions but stressed that the decision was based on a number of considerations and an in-depth investigation.[4] The Foundation decided to take action after Dennis told the media that editors had tried to manipulate the content of articles as well as the election of administrators and that other editors had been physically harmed. However, she did not intend to accuse the Chinese government.[15][3]

In response, WMC posted an open letter titled "Cast Away Illusions, Prepare for Struggle" (丢掉幻想，准备斗争),[b] calling the Wikimedia Foundation's actions baseless[c] and declaring its intention to resist the crackdown with practical action.[10][16] The Global Times, a tabloid officially owned and operated by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, alleged that the Wikimedia Foundation "purged" the Chinese editors.[17]

In an interview with a BBC program on Chinese developments, Maryana Iskander, the then-new chief executive officer of the Wikimedia Foundation, emphasized the autonomy of the Wikipedia community and said, "One of the very early things that I've learned in this process is that certainly the Wikimedia Foundation does not play a role in setting editorial policy and that these are the debates that happen in communities."[18][19]

Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, commented on these actions in an interview with BBC: "I have deep experience of talking to people all over the world, and the idea that people in China, for example, are so brainwashed that they can't see that neutrality is just false," but also said, "The idea that we are excluding China is absurd. We welcome with open arms editors from China."[20]

After the Wikimedia Foundation took action against the WMC editors, the Taiwanese Wikipedia community stated that such an action was long overdue. It released a statement saying, "We need to rebuild an inclusive wiki that welcomes everyone from all places who wants to contribute to Chinese language Wikipedia in good faith... Many people have felt unsafe for years, so restoring a shared sense of comfort is likely to take some time".[21]

Subsequent events

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Qiuwen Baike
求闻百科
Type of site
Online encyclopedia
Available inSimplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese (supports traditional and simplified conversion)
PredecessorChinese Wikipedia
OwnerWuxi Gongbi Quanshu Technology Company Limited (formerly Wikimedians of mainland China) [citation needed]
URLwww.qiuwenbaike.cn
CommercialNo
Content license
CC Attribution / Share-Alike 4.0

On October 5, 2021, at the 62nd session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China voted against the WMF's application to become an official observer of the WIPO on the grounds that Wikipedia violated the "one-China principle" and "disseminated false information".[22][23] China was the only country out of the 193 members of the organization to vote against the WIPO application, causing the application to fail.[24]

After the foundation's application was rejected, a Wikimedian showed a screenshot to Voice of America of an announcement made by globally-banned user "Walter Grassroot" in the WMC's QQ group. According to the announcement, after the foundation banned Chinese users, Chinese Wikimedians submitted relevant documents to the Chinese Embassy in Geneva through various channels. Walter Grassroot also suggested that the failure of the foundation's application was good news.[25] Between 2021 and 2025, all attempts by the Wikimedia Foundation and local chapters to join WIPO failed.[26]

Qiuwen Baike

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In an interview with the BBC in late October 2021, globally-banned WMC member Yan "Techyan" Emming and six other users said that the user group was attempting to create a "Chinese version of Wikipedia".[27] That fork would represent the Chinese narrative on "some political issues" and be available for people in mainland China without a VPN. It would be under the oversight of the Chinese government and use part of Wikipedia's content.[27]

In December 2021, Techyan told Fast Company that "a tech giant" was negotiating a partnership with them, and that more than 40 Chinese Wikipedia editors had joined Qiuwen Baike; the latter had a total of 200 active editors. They also said that people would be involved in both Wikipedia and Qiuwen.[11]

In February 2022, ByteDance's subsidiary Baike.com denied the existence of a partnership between ByteDance and WMC to provide technical and financial support for Qiuwen Baike.[28]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ A global ban is the formal revocation of editing and other access privileges across all projects operated by the WMF. It may be issued either by community consensus or by a unilateral decision of the WMF.[1]
  2. ^ pinyin: Dīudiào huànxiǎng, zhǔnbèi dòuzhēng
  3. ^ Chinese: 莫须有; pinyin: Mòxūyǒu

References

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  1. ^ Editors of Meta-Wiki. "Global bans". Meta-Wiki. Wikimedia Foundation. Archived from the original on February 25, 2026. Retrieved May 21, 2026.
  2. ^ Chen Guanrong. "內部編輯遭恐嚇，維基媒體基金會拔除多名「中國大陸維基人用戶組」成員" [Internal editors were intimidated, and the Wikimedia Foundation removed several members of the "Mainland China Wikipedia User Group"]. TechNews 科技新報 (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Archived from the original on September 16, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  3. ^ a b "维基百科以亲中势力渗透为由封禁"中国大陆维基人用户组"七名编辑" (in Chinese). BBC. Archived from the original on September 17, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  4. ^ a b 鄭樂捷 (September 15, 2021). "維基封鎖7名中國大陸用戶 指為保障用戶安全" (in Chinese). 美国之音. Archived from the original on September 15, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  5. ^ a b Harrison, Stephen (October 26, 2021). "Why Wikipedia Banned Several Chinese Admins". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on October 27, 2021. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
  6. ^ "Wikipedia blames pro-China infiltration for bans". BBC News. September 16, 2021. Archived from the original on September 18, 2021. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
  7. ^ a b "China and Taiwan clash over Wikipedia edits". BBC News. October 4, 2019. Archived from the original on December 3, 2019. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
  8. ^ Borak, Masha. "The Hunt for Wikipedia's Disinformation Moles". Wired. Wired. Archived from the original on March 29, 2023. Retrieved May 6, 2023. In 2021, the Wikimedia Foundation banned an "unrecognized group" of seven Wikipedia users from mainland China and revoked administrator access and other privileges for 12 other users over doxing and threats to Hong Kong editors. Speculation of "pro-China infiltration," however, was never proven.
  9. ^ 何, 吉數 (February 13, 2019). "牆外百科牆裡人：中國大陸的維基編輯們". theinitium.com (in Traditional Chinese). Retrieved May 10, 2025.
  10. ^ a b "維基百科禁 7 內地用戶 指有滲透起底風險 內地群組：準備鬥爭". 立場新聞 Stand News (in Chinese). Archived from the original on September 15, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
  11. ^ a b "The war over Chinese Wikipedia is a warning for the open internet". Fast Company. December 18, 2021. Archived from the original on December 18, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2022.
  12. ^ "維基百科中文版上演「編輯之戰」 中立原則受挑戰". BBC. October 30, 2021. Archived from the original on October 30, 2021.
  13. ^ "Wikipedia in Chinese editing war of words". BBC News. October 29, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  14. ^ a b Cheng, Selina (July 11, 2021). "Wikipedia wars: How Hongkongers and mainland Chinese are battling to set the narrative". Hong Kong Free Press HKFP. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
  15. ^ "忧渗透与起底风险 维基百科对中国编辑下禁令" (in Chinese). 德國之聲. Archived from the original on September 17, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  16. ^ 观察者网 (September 17, 2021). "维基百科封禁7名中国大陆编辑：他们想搞"渗透"". 新浪新闻 (in Chinese). Archived from the original on September 18, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  17. ^ "维基百科封杀7个中文编辑，仅仅因为他们拒绝涉中话题被污染" [Wikipedia purges 7 Chinese-language editors, simply because they refused to allow the pollution of China-related topics] (in Chinese). 环球时报. Archived from the original on September 18, 2021. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
  18. ^ "Tech Tent: Wikipedia's editing war". BBC. Archived from the original on October 8, 2021. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
  19. ^ "Tech Tent – what next for Wikipedia?". BusinessGhana. September 18, 2021. Archived from the original on November 13, 2024. Retrieved October 8, 2021.
  20. ^ "Wikipedia in Chinese editing war of words". BBC. October 29, 2021. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  21. ^ Harrison, Stephen (October 26, 2021). "Why Wikipedia Banned Several Chinese Admins". Slate Magazine. Retrieved August 11, 2022.
  22. ^ "China again blocks Wikimedia Foundation's accreditation to World Intellectual Property Organization". Wikimedia Foundation. October 5, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2025.
  23. ^ Moody, Glyn (October 7, 2021). "If You Want To Know Why Section 230 Matters, Just Ask Wikimedia: Without It, There'd Be No Wikipedia". Techdirt. Archived from the original on October 8, 2021. Retrieved October 23, 2021.
  24. ^ "【維基百科】中方「一票反對」 「維基媒體基金」二度被拒聯合國機構". RFA. October 7, 2021. Archived from the original on October 7, 2021. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
  25. ^ 郑乐捷 (October 7, 2021). "中国再度以台湾为由 阻止维基媒体基金会申请成为世界知识产权组织观察员" (in Chinese). 美国之音. Archived from the original on October 17, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2021.
  26. ^ "Wikimedia Foundation's Accreditation to World Intellectual Property Organization Blocked for a Fourth Time by China". wikimediafoundation.org. Wikimedia Foundation. July 11, 2024.
  27. ^ a b "維基百科移除親北京編輯 被逐者將建「中國版維基」". BBC News Chinese (in Chinese). October 26, 2021. Archived from the original on October 26, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2022.
  28. ^ "传字节跳动与中文维基百科人员合作创建新"求闻百科"，官方称不属实" (in Chinese). 界面新闻.

Notes

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  1. ^ Chinese: 中文維基是一塊高地，你不佔領，別人就會佔領……當兩邊都在罵，兩邊都不滿意的時候，這就是維基百科作為中立的百科全書能達到的最佳狀態了。

Further reading

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