Progressive commentator Kyle Kulinski claimed Wednesday that his Wikipedia account was deleted due to the actions of “neoliberal trolls.”
“Neoliberal trolls successfully got my Wikipedia page deleted,” he tweeted. “That’s both hilarious and sad. If you’re not part of the club they do everything they can to erase you, quite literally.”
According to Kulinski, the entry is now “protected,” meaning another page covering his life can only be created it if it’s approved by the website’s administrators.
“To be fair it exists in a bunch of foreign languages. Just not English,” he added.
Political commentator Nomiki Konst responded to Kulinski’s Twitter thread and alleged that she was in a similar situation due to a Reddit page that “echoes” Neera Tanden, who is widely known for her support and ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton.
“They did the same to my wiki per actual direction of a reddit page that echos Neera, then when it finally went back up they swarmed it with false info. And crap from a hit peice [sic] they pitched.”
As of now, Kulinski still has a page on RationalWiki, which claims that its mission is to analyze and refute the anti-science movement and pseudoscience, “document ‘crank’ ideas,” as well as as explore fundamentalism and authoritarianism and analyze their handling in the media.
Tesla founder Elon Musk previously called his Wikipedia entry “insane.” He pointed to its many edits, as well as the label of “investor,” which he pushed back against.
Reports on Wikipedia’s accuracy have revealed mixed results. A 2015 Forbes report claimed that the website is biased toward the political left when compared to Encyclopedia Britannica. Conversely, a Live Science report found that Wikipedia is roughly as accurate as its competitor.
As this terrific librarian notes, a source* in @Wikipedia does all the work of supporting claims of accuracy, verifiability, & notability, which is used in lieu of documented authorial expertise.
Or to put it another way, “show your work.” *{citation needed}
🙂#MisinfoCon pic.twitter.com/2d5WP3Wh2n
— Alex Howard (@digiphile) February 21, 2020
More recently, Phys.org reported a recent study called “Uneven Coverage of Natural Disasters in Wikipedia: the Case of Floods” concluded that its information on natural disasters exhibits a bias toward rich countries. However, it should be noted that the study only covered the English version of the online resource.
According to the study, the free encyclopedia tends to focus on events that take place in wealthy countries rather than poor countries Per Phys.org, the researchers reached their conclusion via “careful” and “large-scale” analysis of the website’s automatic content.
Kulinski, who supports Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and whose Twitter account deems himself “populist left,” has faced attacks from those within the Democratic Party before. As The Inquisitr previously reported, he faced accusations of sexism back in January for trolling Elizabeth Warren‘s dance moves. In response, he claimed that his lack of support for the Massachusetts senator is not because of sexism but rather her policies and political strategy.