Wikipedia and antisemitism
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The relationship between Wikipedia and antisemitism represents an emerging interest in contemporary scholarship. The focus of research relates to the treatment of historical topics[1] user access to articles relating to antisemitism,[2] and its policy of neutrality.[3]
Overview
[edit]For researchers, Wikipedia is viewed as a site where contentious topics are debated and reframed, and as a site of cultural expression.[4][5] Wikipedia editors have been described by Holocaust researchers as intentionally introducing skewed views and distortions in the history of the Holocaust.[6][7] Selective framing also occurs with instances of deemphasising the targeting of Jews in articles of mass murder sites.[5][8] And Wikipedia's editing policy offers the opportunity for the creation of articles with antisemitic bias, an issue that editors resolve through processes of article deletion.[9][10] In other cases, references to the antisemitic views of notable individuals have been deleted. And Wikipedia's open platform allows for 'edit wars' to occur between motivated parties.[11] Antisemitic viewpoints and biases were observed to regularly appear in Jewish topic articles on Wikipedia's non-English sites.[12][13] And concerns over residual antisemitic sentiment being preserved on Wikipedia articles has been raised.[14]
Some researchers into antisemitism on Wikipedia have focused on systemic bias rather than outright intentional antisemitism such as the use of nouns in relation to Jews and Judaism on Wikipedia. In this instance, such terms exhibit a mix of both positive and negative associations, though overall they lean slightly positive. Words like "scholar," "culture," and "heritage" often accompany "Jewish," presenting Judaism in contexts of intellectual and cultural contributions. However, certain terms, such as "lobby" and "conspiracy," reveal recurring biases and negative stereotypes that frame Jews as political entities with potentially undue influence. While these negative terms appear, they do not dominate as they do for other religious groups, suggesting a relatively neutral but subtly loaded portrayal of Judaism on the platform.[15]
Other issues to emerge that relate to platform systems include antisemitic vandalism on Wikipedia pages,[16][17] the creation of accounts with antisemitic names,[3] the creative nature of which obscures its identification,[18] coordinated efforts to prevent the deletion of antisemitic content,[19] allegations that editors systematically erased accusations of antisemitism made against the UK Labour Party.[20]
Hebrew Wikipedia is noted for detailed treatment of antisemitism in the context of various historical articles.[21]
Community perspectives
[edit]Jewish community organizations have also alleged a pattern of behavior on the part of Wikipedia editors that effectively silence Jewish perspectives on matters relating to the State of Israel, actions which these organizations perceive as antisemitic. In the wake of the October 7, 2024 terror attack in Israel, the World Jewish Congress alleged that Wikipedia entries in English demonstrate a pattern of antisemitic and anti-Israel bias.[22] A decision to label the Anti-Defamation League as unreliable was viewed by Jewish community members as an attempt to delegitimize Jewish communal perspectives,[23][24] also raised concerns of Deborah Lipstadt, the American envoy on antisemitism.[25] Other concerns raised in the wake of the attack include the decision in Arabic Wikipedia to publicly label Israeli action as genocide, in alleged violation of Wikipedia neutrality principles.[26][27]
Other concerns raised was the perception of a trend to deliberately tag biographies of Jewish individuals as Jewish could be motivated by malicious intent, however, where editors appear to be following site guidelines, concern should be set aside.[28][29]
Wikipedia responses
[edit]In 2023, following allegations of deliberate distortions of Holocaust history, the English Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee subsequently opened a case to investigate and evaluate the actions of editors in the affected articles.[30] Ultimately, the Committee ruled to ban two editors from contributing to the topic areas, although the researchers who studied the issue criticized the proposed remedies as "[lacking] depth and consequence".[31] Antisemitic vandalism on Wikipedia pages typically result in quick reversals by site editors.[16]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Pfanzelter, E. (2015). At the crossroads with public history: Mediating the Holocaust on the Internet. Holocaust Studies, 21(4), 250-271.
- ^ Tausch, A. (2020). The political geography of Shoah knowledge and awareness, estimated from the analysis of global library catalogues and Wikipedia user statistics. Jewish Political Studies Review, 31(1/2), 7-123.
- ^ a b Oboler, Andre; Steinberg, Gerald; Stern, Rephael (11 October 2010). "The Framing of Political NGOs in Wikipedia through Criticism Elimination". Journal of Information Technology & Politics. 7 (4): 284–299. doi:10.1080/19331680903577822.
- ^ Baker, M. J., & Détienne, F. (2024). Arguing across spaces in an online epistemic community: Case studies in controversial Wikipedia articles. Journal of Argumentation in Context, 13(1), 1-48.
- ^ a b Makhortykh, M. (2017). Framing the Holocaust online: memory of the Babi Yar massacres on Wikipedia. Studies in Russian, Eurasian and Central European New Media, 18, 67-94.
- ^ Grabowski, J., & Klein, S. (2023). Wikipedia’s Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust. The Journal of Holocaust Research, 37(2), 133-190.
- ^ den Hartogh, R. (2014). The future of the past. A case study on the representation of the Holocaust on Wikipedia.
- ^ Wolniewicz-Slomka, D. (2016). Framing the Holocaust in popular knowledge: 3 articles about the Holocaust in English, Hebrew and Polish Wikipedia. Adeptus, (8), 29-49.
- ^ Tripodi, F. (2023). Ms. Categorized: Gender, notability, and inequality on Wikipedia. New media & society, 25(7), 1687-1707.
- ^ De Vera, E. (2020). Classifying Eugenics: A “Wandering Subject” moves to Wikipedia (Doctoral dissertation).
- ^ Rosenzweig, R. (2006). Can history be open source? Wikipedia and the future of the past. The journal of American history, 93(1), 117-146.
- ^ Bao, P., Hecht, B., Carton, S., Quaderi, M., Horn, M., & Gergle, D. (2012, May). Omnipedia: bridging the wikipedia language gap. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1075-1084).
- ^ Matussek, C. (2013). Fertile Ground for a Poisonous Weed: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the Arab World. Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, 7(3), 71-78.
- ^ Utz, R. (2019). Medievalism, Antisemitism, and Twenty-First-Century Media: An Update. Studies in Medievalism XXVIII: Medievalism and Discrimination, 41-50.
- ^ Mohamed, E. (2016). Jewish, christian and islamic in the english wikipedia. Online-Heidelberg Journal of Religions on the Internet, 11.
- ^ a b https://forward.com/culture/474208/wikipedia-fixed-its-swastika-problem-faster-than-any-social-media-company/
- ^ https://www.businessinsider.com/wikipedia-pages-briefly-showed-pictures-of-swastikas-2021-8
- ^ Aksit, F. G. An Empirical Research:“Wikipedia Vandalism Detection using VandalSense 2.0”.
- ^ Reagle, J. M. (2010). Good faith collaboration: The culture of Wikipedia. MIT press.
- ^ https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/how-some-wikipedia-editors-tried-and-failed-to-erase-the-uk-labour-partys-anti-semitism-problem
- ^ Tsahor, D. (2023). The Book of the People: The Hebrew Encyclopedic Project and the National Self (Vol. 117). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
- ^ Wikipedia entries show anti-Israel bias says WJC. World Jewish Congress. Accessed 1 October 2024.
- ^ Wikipedia ADL. CNN. Accessed 1 October 2024.
- ^ Wikipedia ADL Israel Palestinian conflict and antisemitism. USA Today. Accessed 6 October 2024.
- ^ https://jewishinsider.com/2024/08/ambassador-deborah-lipstadt-antisemitism-envoy-wikipedia-adl/
- ^ Wikipedia has an antisemitism problem.AIJAC. Accessed 7 October 2024.
- ^ Wikipedia's Jewish problem. Accessed 8 October 2024.
- ^ https://www.commentary.org/articles/edward-kosner/jew-tagging-wikipedia/
- ^ https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/jewish-world/2020/04/the-mystery-of-the-wikipedia-editor-who-obsessively-keeps-track-of-jews/
- ^ ELIA-SHALEV, ASAF (1 March 2023). "Wikipedia's 'Supreme Court' tackles alleged conspiracy to distort articles on Holocaust". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
- ^ Metzger, Cerise Valenzuela (2023-05-16). "Ruling on Wikipedia's Distortion of Holocaust History Lacks Depth". Chapman University. Archived from the original on 2023-05-27. Retrieved 2023-09-25.
External links
[edit]- Antisemitism on Wikipedia: Distorting the History of the Holocaust (USC Shoah Foundation)