Bonum Certa Men Certa

If Wikipedia is Controlled by Corporations and Mobs, It Needs to Be 'Cancelled'

Video download link



Summary: Facts have never truly mattered in social control media sites; it certainly seems as though Wikipedia now suffers the very same issue/deficit, allowing oligarchs and their companies to define what goes on in the world and which people Wikipedia should regard as persona non grata

The concept of "cancel culture" or "call-out culture" is the reason I 'left' Twitter about a year ago (well before they decided to suspend me for totally unspecified reasons). The mass-suspension culture of today's Twitter (I'm in good company) is itself a sort of "cancel culture". They basically remove voices that they find inconvenient; instead of confronting the arguments they just eliminate the voice or mute the microphone, even permanently. The underlying psyche of "cancel culture" predates the term; in the case of show business, it's 'cancel your programme'; in academia, it's ending tenures or demoting people for their standpoints (even where dissenting views are otherwise encouraged); in workplaces like corporations, it is getting people fired (sometimes doxing to demonise them or blackmail the employer).



"My general perception/view regarding Wikipedia is getting more negative over time (seeing the degree to which it's manipulated by the rich and powerful, not domain experts or a real community which values facts), so maybe Wikipedia too needs to be "canceled" at one point. Some people have long worked to make substitutes for it."Criticism of 'cancel culture' can be found in Wikipedia, a platform which itself facilitates 'cancel culture'. It's closely related to a culture of mass censorship, wherein people aren't permitted to deviate from some orthodoxy, which itself changes over time and asserts itself by mass intimidation, begetting self-censorship at scale. Social control media is ideal for this or one might say that it is fertile ground for such campaigns. Self-hosting is one option for mitigating if not eliminating this "no debate allowed" attitude.

Techrights is turning 15 later this year. Within just a few years of the site's existence several large-scale efforts/campaigns were created and then coordinated to "Cancel" the site (before the word "Cancel" was used; back then they used words like "Watch" or "Boycott"). I mention some of these in the video above. Those efforts/campaigns are now defunct (not even online anymore).

A longtime reader and supporter of Techrights, a lovely person who has contributed to GNU/Linux and Free software for about 3 decades, recently contacted us. The allegation was extraordinary, unless one is already familiar with the antics of Wikipedia mobs and PR occupiers. Apparently someone (person or firm) "initiated a fairly extensive campaign to delete my wikipedia page," the person told us. The page had been there for many, many years. Why now? Why the attempt to "cancel" this person? That person claims that it's an act of retribution for speaking out on matters of software freedom (given the timing).

"Wikipedia doesn't define me," said this person. "I found it a bit amusing because I was the one who RMS tasked to promote GFDL, so I was a "pusher" of contributing to wikipedia and nupedia... and I was eventually deleted," said the person.

So being "canceled" by (or in) the very platform one contributed a lot to.

"I can't recall specific examples," I responded, "but I do recall many other pages like that which have been deleted or under orchestrated calls for deletion."

It seems like a common act of censorship or retribution -- wherein someone wishes to damage the reputation of an individual or an institution. Wikipedia presence is basically meaningless (can be 'bought' or paid-for), so I'm glad I'm not in that site, except as an author named in some citations. It's no secret that articles there can be paid for, manipulated for a fee, and PR-edited (Microsoft does this a lot and it got caught).

I wouldn't lose sleep over being "deleted" or "canceled" from Wikipedia. It's like worrying about how many social control media site "followers" one has... for it's superficial nonsense.

But what's noteworthy about the whole thing is that people who speak about the concept of Free software or fight back against adversaries of software freedom (by merely speaking about them) can suffer severe consequences to their reputation and morale. This is exactly the sort of thing I experienced in Twitter last year and the reason that became a "write-only" account.

The video goes through Wikipedia's definition of the concept of getting "canceled", why it's done, why it's potentially bad and so on. My general perception/view regarding Wikipedia is getting more negative over time (seeing the degree to which it's manipulated by the rich and powerful, not domain experts or a real community which values facts), so maybe Wikipedia too needs to be "canceled" at one point. Some people have long worked to make substitutes for it.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Richard Stallman is Going to Finland to Give a Talk Next Thursday
A day later he speaks in Sweden
 
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 01, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 01, 2025
What the End of XBox Will Look Like: a Fiery Crash
XBox is the next Skype. It won't last much longer. Expect many more layoffs.
Gemini Links 02/10/2025: SMTP Pipelining and End of ROOPHLOCH 2025
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Plagiarism, Fake Articles, and FUD About Linux
not a day goes by without Google News feeding FUD from slopfarms
Gemini Links 01/10/2025: Chat Control and End of Life
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: Long Covid Risk Reiterated, "Bitcoin Queen" Caught
Links for the day
Links 01/10/2025: EA $55 Billion Deal is Debt and Slop "Raises Vishing Risks"
Links for the day
Bluewashing at Red Hat Means Redundancies
The man who sold Red Hat to IBM meanwhile became a Microsoft Mono booster
After Killing OpenSource.com, IBM ('Red Hat') and OSI Told Us OpenSource.net Would Replace It (But That Didn't Happen)
Now it's time to move on, perhaps tarnishing the "Open Source" label some more (for whatever sponsor wants this)
Linux is Not a Community Project, It's a Wall Street Product
The core goal should be freedom
Bad Actors Abusing the Free Software Community, Vandalising It Using Rogue Politics and Old Tactics
Oil giants have long attempted to do this; now, the digital equivalent of Big Oil does this in technology
Social Control Media Isn't the Future, The Federation or Fediverse Isn't Growing, People's Accounts Vanish for Good
users' accounts will get deleted, not just become inactive
IBM is Failing, This Helps Show Wall Street is Entirely Detached From Actual Commercial Performance
IBM is unable to grow, it's just constantly shrinking
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 30, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Clerical Aspects of Publishing and Development
In Free software, the management aspects are considerably reduced
Slopwatch: Fake Articles and Google News Promoting "Linux" Spam or Bot-Generated Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
These slopfarms help misplace blame
Third Wave of Microsoft Layoffs in September, This Time Many in Liverpool Affected
Be ready for more waves of layoffs ahead of the so-called "results" in late October
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Motorcycling in Central Oregon, Protocol Styles and the Flag of Sark
Links for the day
Links 30/09/2025: Death Sentences, Internet Censorship, and Internet Shutdowns
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Social Control Media and ROOPHLOCH
Links for the day
Richard Stallman About to Give More Talks in Europe, Some Confirmed Already
In Göteborg
Links 30/09/2025: CERN in "Have I Been Pwned" and More Windows TCO Blunders
Links for the day
Microsoft Canonical is Selling Mass Surveillance and Back Doors as "Security for Ubuntu"
If you are looking for a GNU/Linux distro to use, just remember that Microsoft has Ubuntu in the bag
Justice for Wildlife
animals cannot speak to humans who hate animals
Cowboys Gonna Be Cowboys (on the Internet, They're Not a New Problem)
Boys will be boys
Cowboys of the "Left" and Cowboys of the "Right"
Don't believe the lie that this is some "leftist" thing
When Codes of Conduct Serve to Protect Criminals From Much-Deserved Scrutiny
CoCs are typically unfit for purpose because enforcement lacks context and suitable understanding of the full background (the "full story")
It Took the Open Source Initiative (OSI) 4+ Years to Address the 'Data Breach' or Data Protection Violation Reported to the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) in March 2025
We may never know the dialogue or its nature
Even Microsoft's Biggest Boosters (and Media Operatives) Are Turning Against Microsoft
Expect many more layoffs before the fake "results" next month
GNU Was Right 42+ Years Ago
Since then the abusive, user-hostile technology has spread like mushrooms
Old Isn't Always Inadequate
How many gadgets manufactured today (in 2025) will still work in 2075?
The Monkey Business of Rust People
Compatibility won't matter
Almost Half of the FSFE's Money (the Fake 'FSF', Misusing the Brand) Comes From Vodafone
That money always comes with strings, even if they're invisible to most of us
Microsoft Lunduke Spreads Deliberate Lies to Incite Online Mobs
Has he lost his reading comprehension skills?
Our 19th Birthday (in Just Over 5 Weeks From Now)
We meanwhile have ongoing, solid plans to cover patent-related issues when the FSF turns 40
British GNU/Linux Distro FydeOS Tops DistroWatch
That seems like a decent site and decent effort to keep an eye on
We'll Soon Have 75,000 GemText Pages
avoid many perils of today's Web
Google Used Free Software to Build a Monopoly. Now Google Kicks Free Software to the Curb
The "G" in "Google" does not stand for GNU. It never did. It's just another greedy company.
Gemini Links 30/09/2025: Retro Hardware, Federated Fragmentation, and Nex Server Written in C
Links for the day
4 More Days Till "4 decades, 4 freedoms, 4 all users"
We are now just 4 days away from the rare anniversary
Two Months After Merging to Hide GitHub Losses Microsoft is Doing It Again (This Time Windows)
Merging those two together is not a sign of strength but a tightening of budget
Speculations About the Next Large Wave of IBM/Red Hat Layoffs
the mass layoffs are likely to happen on week 3 or 4 in October
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, September 29, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, September 29, 2025