According to a non-profit organization that owns the volunteer-edited encyclopedia has reported that Wikipedia has suffered an “infiltration” that sought to advance the aims of China. The infiltration had threatened the foundations of Wikipedia and it has banned seven editors linked to the mainland of China.
Maggie Dennis, Vice president of the Foundation said that this case is unprecedented in scope and the foundation had been investigating the infiltration of Chinese-language Wikipedia for nearly a year. The foundation was battling against “capture”, where a group gains control of the editing of the Wikipedia to favor a particular viewpoint and it has recently set up a disinformation team.
She added further that in this case, the infiltrators had tried to promote “the aims of China, as interpreted through whatever filters they may bring to bear. The company is not in position to point fingers at the Chinese state nor in possession of information that would lead it to do so.However, long and deep investigations into Wikimedians of Mainland China, a group claiming to have about 300 members, had resulted in the banning of seven users and the removal of administrator privileges from a further 12. The foundation had acted in awareness of conflict between mainland China based Wikimedians and volunteers in Hong Kong.
