Centre Sends Notice To Wikipedia Over ‘Bias & Inaccurate Information’

New Delhi: The central government has sent a notice to Wikipedia—which endorses itself as a free online encyclopedia—citing several complaints of bias and inaccuracies on its web page.

In the notice, the government also reportedly asked why Wikipedia shouldn’t be treated as a publisher instead of an intermediary, according to a PTI report.

The notice was sent from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. It also claimed that there was a view that a small group exercises editorial control on the Wikipedia pages.

Usually, volunteers create or edit pages on personalities, issues or various subjects on Wikipedia.

Recently, it got embroiled in legal cases in India over allegations of spreading inaccurate and defamatory content.

The notice comes at a time when a legal battle is being fought between news agency, ANI, and Wikipedia in the Delhi High Court. ANI has demanded information about users who made edits to an entry about the company. A Wikipedia post has referred to ANI as ‘the propaganda tool’ of the Indian government.