Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Single/2023-07-03

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3 July 2023

News and notes
Online Safety Bill: Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK launch open letter

Disinformation report
Imploded submersible outfit foiled trying to sing own praises on Wikipedia

In the media
Journo proposes mass Wiki dox, sponsored articles on Fandom, Section 230 discussed

Online Safety Bill: Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia UK launch open letter

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By Tilman Bayer and Andreas Kolbe

Foundation and British chapter launch last-ditch attempt to get Wikipedia exempted from the UK's sweeping "Online Safety Bill"

On June 29, Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation published an open letter (accompanied by social media campaign) asking the UK government and parliament to exempt "public interest projects" – such as Wikipedia – from the proposed Online Safety Bill. The chapter states in an accompanying Medium post that

"[the OSB's] requirements around content moderation, age-gating, and user verification are incompatible with the way in which information on Wikipedia is created and curated, as well as the website’s commitment to user privacy and freedom of speech. ... As it is currently written, the Online Safety Bill could require the Wikimedia Foundation to collect data about Wikipedia users’ identities, track their actions, intervene in their editing processes, and interfere with their ability to set and enforce rules for what constitutes well-sourced neutral content about a given subject. Such requirements are counter to Wikipedia’s editorial guidelines and policies, as well as its privacy policy."

In a post on the Public Policy mailing list, the WMF's Global Advocacy team put the open letter in context of previous efforts (see our previous reporting) and stressed its timeliness:

"In December 2022, Wikimedia UK and the Wikimedia Foundation began outreach to British regulators to educate them on how our projects work and how the Online Safety Bill would threaten them. Over the last several months, we ramped up our advocacy efforts as the bill was debated in the House of Lords. We successfully convinced key Lords and Baronesses to support our proposed amendments and built public and media attention, but the UK Government has resisted making the necessary changes.

Our best chance of protecting Wikipedia is to persuade the UK Government to exempt public interest projects from the OSB, so we’ve written this open letter and formed a coalition of signatories. The list is a testament to the network of allies that WMUK has established over years of promoting free knowledge in the UK. If the government fails to act, our last chance to push this exemption to protect Wikipedia is with Parliament during the Bill’s “Report Stage” voting, starting on 6 July."

The public statements of both organizations are (perhaps understandably) short on concrete examples of how the new law might require WMF to "intervene in [the community's] editing processes, and interfere with their ability to set and enforce rules for what constitutes well-sourced neutral content about a given subject". But it is not hard to imagine that it might become difficult to maintain the "Wikipedia is not censored" principle in its current form, were Wikipedia and its sister projects to continue to remain accessible in the UK in non-age-gated form. The current situation – where the Foundation largely relies on the volunteer editing community to set and enforce content rules on potentially offensive or sexual content – is informed by extensive controversies over a decade ago. See the Signpost's previous reporting: "Foundation commissions external recommendations about objectionable material " (2010), "2010 in review", "'Personal image filter' to offer the ability to hide sexual or violent media" (2011), "News and notes", July 16, 2012 ("At Wikimania the board formally acknowledged the divisiveness of the filter, rescinding its request for the development of the filter mechanism while reaffirming the general principles it had espoused concerning controversial content").

What's more, Wikimedia UK's FAQ argues that one major problem of the bill is its vagueness, giving broad powers to regulators and the executive to decide on concrete requirements and update them in the future:

The offices of the "Office of Communications" (Ofcom, next to Southwark Bridge in London), which the Online Safety Bill would authorize to issue rules for sites like Wikipedia and "force [them] to use content filtering and user blocking technologies, without a judge"

As the Bill stands, PIPs [public interest projects, such as Wikipedia] will be required to understand and apply this new 260-page law, which imposes at least 29(3) new and often onerous legal duties. Worse still, as a "skeleton" (or "future proofed framework" law), the Bill's full impact on PIPs will only become clear to them once they have also mastered dozens of additional "implementation" rules, guidelines and Codes of Practice that will be issued by Ofcom and the Secretary of State.

Furthermore,

The Bill's clearest requirements are often the most problematic for PIPs: for example, even "citizen history" and "open science" projects will be required to perform statutory assessments of their impact on (i) illegal immigration; (ii) operation of unlicensed crossbow rental businesses; (iii) selling stolen goods; (iv) controlling prostitutes; (v) and displaying words contrary to the Public Order Act 1986 (among many other "Priority offences") (clause 8(5), read with Schedule 7).

The Bill may even subject the more widely-used PIPs to a new duty to submit annual earnings and userbase statistics to Ofcom, so that Ofcom can, if it sees fit to do so, charge that PIP a new "fee" — in essence, a tax to operate in the UK (Clauses 74-77). Ofcom is also given the power to force PIPs to use content filtering and user blocking technologies, without a judge. Those same "proactive technology requirement" powers have already attracted widespread criticism for threatening the privacy and confidentiality of WhatsApp and Signal conversations.

Noncompliance exposes PIPs to serious fines, UK blocking orders, and even staff imprisonment.

– T

New Elections Committee

Wikimedia Foundation board member Nataliia Tymkiv

Wikimedia Foundation board member Nataliia Tymkiv has advised the community on the Wikimedia-l mailing list that the Wikimedia Foundation Governance Committee has appointed a new Elections Committee:

To recap the process: there was an open nomination period for 2–4 open seats on the Elections Committee from April 10 to April 24 (Anywhere on Earth). 11 candidates applied, and you can read all applications on Meta. After that, staff checked their documents (proof of identity), and if there are any trust & safety concerns. Some candidates opted to not move forward.
Once the first checks were completed, I interviewed each candidate in an hour-long interview where I asked the same questions of each candidate – including if they would be willing to be an advisory member of the committee if they are not selected as a member (this is a non-voting role). Each candidate was also given time to ask questions of me. After the interviews, I provided a confidential summary of the discussions to the Governance Committee and continuing members of the Elections Committee with a recommended slate of Members and Advisory members. Both committees provided feedback before the Governance Committee officially appointed the Elections committee on June 20. Many factors went into determining the committee composition, for example we tried to balance languages, regions, projects, relevant onwiki and offwiki experience.
In parallel the members of the Elections Committee, whose term ended on March 31, 2023, were asked if they wanted to stay on. Four of them decided to continue as voting members for the next term, and one – as a non-voting advisor. I am grateful to the outgoing Elections Committee members for all the work done in the past to support the process.

The committee consists of 8 members and 5 non-voting advisory members.

Committee members
Name	Languages	Location (time zone)	Term ends
AbhiSuryawanshi	en, hi, mr, pa, bn, bho, ur, kok	Various timezones	2026
Ameisenigel	de-N, en-4, nds-2, fr-1, tlh-1	Germany (UTC+1)	2026
Carlojoseph14	tl, en-5, es-1, ceb-1	Philippines (UTC+8)	2026
Der-Wir-Ing	de-N, en-4, fr-3	Germany (UTC+1)	2026
Emufarmers	en-N, la-2	United States of America (UTC-4)	2026
HakanIST	tr, en-4, az-3, es-2, de-1	Turkey (UTC+3)	2026
KTC, Committee Chair	en-N, yue-N	London, England (UTC+1)	2026
Mervat	en-4, ar-N	Jordan (UTC+3)	2026

Advisory members
Name	Languages	Location (time zone)	Term ends
Arcuscloud	bjn-N, id-N, en-3	Indonesia (UTC+7)	2024
Guerillero	en-N, fr-1.5, da-0.5	Denmark (UTC+1)	2024
Matanya	en, he	Israel (UTC+2)	2024
Nealmcb	en-N, eo-2, es-1	United States of America (UTC-7)	2024
ThadeusOfNazereth	en-N	United States of America (UTC-8)	2024

– AK

Wikimedia Europe convenes for the first time

Group photo at the WMEU general assembly

On June 9–10, Wikimedia Europe held its first general assembly in-person in Prague. It was founded in July 2022 by various European Wikimedia chapters and other affiliates, and currently has three employees. In March 2023, Brussels was chosen as its legal seat – perhaps unsurprisingly, as it is the de facto capital of the European Union, and WMEU is building on the work of the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU.

Among other things, Wikimedia Europe has taken over the publication of the monthly EU policy monitoring reports. The May 2023 report highlights a successful effort by Wikimedia France to get "not for profit online encyclopaedias and not for profit educational and scientific repositories" exempted from a planned law in France that would require online platforms to age-gate their content. In an ensuing discussion on the Public Policy mailing list, Luis Villa raised concern about a "now-ongoing stream of exceptions for 'online encyclopedias'" (an approach that was previously used in the EU Copyright Directive, which Wikipedia blackouts and mass demonstrations had failed to stop on a wider basis). WMEU's Dimi Dimitrov (long known as "Our Man in Brussels") responded that a more general exception had been "not feasible in France", and also addressed the question whether all sister projects would be covered ("Meta-Wiki is what I worry about. I have no answers on this"). What's more, he pointed out that legislative efforts around age restrictions are not confined to France (see also separate story about the UK's Online Safety Bill, above):

I understand that the discussions around controversial content, especially on Commons, have never been easy and we have never managed to get to a consensus. Don't get me wrong, I would also prefer to not change anything. I am not advocating for content-gating solutions with lawmakers. But I want to have this very difficult discussion, not avoid it. The world is changing and age-gating will be a huge legislative topic in the years to come. I guarantee you that.

– T

Brief notes

The tradition of showing appreciation to Wikipedia editors with virtual barnstars is almost as old as our community itself. On Ukrainian Wikipedia, volunteer editors have adapted this custom by giving out virtual – and even real – tins of condensed milk.

Annual reports: Wikimedia Colombia, Wikimedia Ukraine (in Ukrainian, English-language Diff post with key highlights here; for more on Ukraine see Stories of Ukrainian Wikimedians during the war and Diff post on Wiki Loves Monuments in Ukraine).
Global bans: Imperator-Kaiser, since 20 June 2023; Skiyomi, since 21 June 2023; Luca Poma / LoSpecialista, since 28 June 2023. The English Wikipedia has a biography of Luca Poma, who also featured in the Italian Wikipedia documentary screened by Rai 3 earlier this year (see previous Signpost coverage).
Articles for Improvement: This week's Article for Improvement (beginning 3 July) is Tai chi. It will be followed the week after by Literal translation. Please be bold in helping improve these articles!

Reader comments

2023-07-03

Imploded submersible outfit foiled trying to sing own praises on Wikipedia

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By Smallbones

Round one

The February UPE 2018 advertising wave, by an account named DanaOceanGate, increased the page length to 15,629 bytes. Most of this material was reverted by Diannaa, an unpaid volunteer administrator who specializes in patrolling and deleting copyright violations. She reduced the page length by 86% (to 2,237 bytes), removing the edits from public view (revision deletion) because of eight separate copyright policy violations.^[2]

In an interview with The Signpost, Diannaa notes that many paid editors simply do not know Wikipedia rules. They often refer to Wikipedia articles as "profiles", surmising that they can copy the company's media kit onto Wikipedia without a copyright release and dictate the article content. She was steered to the article by Wikipedia's automated copyright violation detection system. Almost all of the article was directly copied from OceanGate's website. "When I see something like that happening, I will typically check the entire article and keep cleaning it until I am satisfied that it's reasonably clean." It took her twenty minutes to clean up the article. "At that time my typical workload was around 60 reports per day." She usually doesn't have the time to file sockpuppet investigation reports, or to ask suspected paid editors to comply with the required disclosures. In this case, she did post template warnings at User talk:DanaOceanGate (for conflict of interest editing and WP:copyright). Five months later, she did follow up on that page with a short note. But DanaOceanGate did not respond.

Diannaa left two short sections in the article, one on the Titan submersible which imploded two weeks ago. That section had no references and presented very positive information on the Titan and its carbon fiber hull. "I don't know anything about carbon fiber or submersibles so there's no reason for me ... to suspect that there might be something amiss."

Round two

Five months later, the next wave of additions by DanaOceanGate increased the page length to 4,833 bytes. Kleuske quickly reverted with the edit comment "(WP:PAID WP:PROMO)", a reduction of page length by 54%. She also posted a warning at User talk:DanaOceanGate about advertising, promotions, and ’’neutral point of view’’ violations. DanaOceanGate did not respond. Kleuske told The Signpost that she doesn’t remember much about the five-year-old edits, but that "the username 'DanaOceanGate' may have something to do with the WP:PAID bit," and that she often reacts strongly to copyright violations.

Round three

Eleven months after that, Guideforcebd made their only two Wikipedia edits, increasing the page length to a whopping 29,969 bytes. None of that material was detected as a copyright violation, but appeared to violate our rules on advertising and neutral point of view.

Three months later, in September 2019, Smartse, an admin, reverted the new additions, reducing the page length by 92%. He told The Signpost that he arrived on the page by chance while checking the contributions of a disruptive editor. "It was apparent from even a very quick glance at the article that it had been rewritten entirely by someone working for the company, with much of the text being poorly sourced and promotional. Looking at the history obviously confirmed that, so I reverted. It's pretty unremarkable as COI editing goes to be honest."

The last round

By February 2023, with the last edit before Titan was reported missing, the article length had increased to 4,280 bytes, but the text was very similar to the versions last edited by Diannaa, Kleuske, and Smartse. The main difference was that four references were added, bringing the total to five. One of the references is now a broken link; two were to marginally reliable sources; and the one that linked to NBC news didn't go far beyond OceanGate's PR presentations; for example, there was little about safety.

It might have been difficult to find new information, at that time, about the safety concerns with the submersible, but there was some available back then, before the implosion. In OceanGate's own blog in 2019 they reported that the Titan was not "classified" for deep sea diving. While such a classification is not required in unregulated international waters, it is standard industry practice to have submersibles classified.

More direct information on safety problems was available from a CBS broadcast on November 27, 2022. Starting at 3:20 of the video CBS reporter David Pogue stated "I couldn't help noticing how many pieces of this submarine seemed improvised." Pogue then challenged OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush that "it seems like this submersible has certain elements of MacGyvery jerry-riggedness." Rush's response was less than satisfactory.

A technical knock-out or a split decision?

So how well did Wikipedia cover OceanGate before the implosion? Diannaa, Kleuske, and Smartse should be thanked for doing a great job on a difficult, time-consuming task. If the purpose of the article was to present information released by OceanGate about its subs, while eliminating obvious PR and UPE efforts, they did a nearly complete job. They eliminated the most obvious PR efforts three times, reducing the article size by 86%, 54%, and then 92% in the process.

But there was no time for the offending editors to be blocked. A warning template for readers never made its way to the article page. Paid-contributor warning templates were not placed for other editors on the talk page. If the purpose of the article was to present a neutral point of view from multiple independent reliable sources, the result could have been better, but there were not enough editors working on the article with enough time to complete the task. Finding multiple independent reliable sources can be difficult, and volunteers rarely have as much time or motivation to research obscure companies as their own employees do – after all, we do it for free. Volunteer motivation may be further decreased due to the time required to patrol multiple violations made by paid editors on the same article, and due to the time required to go through the article deletion process.

We could always use a hand.

References

^ According to David Lochridge, whose contract stated that he was ultimately responsible for "ensuring the safety of all crew and clients" until he was fired in 2018, quoted in Taub, Ben (1 July 2023). "The Titan Submersible Was 'an Accident Waiting to Happen'". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2 July 2023. (paywall)
^ The copyright violations are archived off-wiki as follows: archived June 25, 2018; archived February 25, 2018; archived June 25, 2018; archived June 13, 2018; archived June 3, 2018; archived June 1, 2018; archived May 31, 2018; archived June 19, 2018.

Reader comments

2023-07-03

Journo proposes mass Wiki dox, sponsored articles on Fandom, Section 230 discussed

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By Smallbones, Andreas Kolbe and Bri

Hakuna Matata and Wiki donations

Georgia Tech announced a forthcoming paper by Casey Wichman and Nathan Chan. Though only the abstract and the Georgia Tech announcement are currently available, we can say that it appears the people who watch a video of the "Hakuna Matata" song from The Lion King are likely to donate more to the WMF than those who don't.

We promise to dig a little deeper when the paper is available. – S

To move Forward we must name names?

The Forward, a non-profit newspaper written for a Jewish-American audience, has served its public for over 125 years

Robin Washington writes in Forward, where he is editor-at-large, about Wikipedia, where he was once an editor. He is upset about the Arbitration Committee's recent decision on a controversy brought to light by a paper called "Wikipedia's Intentional Distortion of the Holocaust". He says the Wikipedia model is fundamentally flawed, that it is "possibly the most widespread source of disinformation in human history", and that the only fix is to dox all our editors, from gnomes to arbitrators, an organizational model closer to those of Citizendium and Baidu Baike.

While it's impossible to accurately predict what the reaction of the broader editoriat might be to such a policy, we can only guess at how it would play out, although Citizendium and Baidu Baike provide obvious case studies.

Which is why I'm surprised to see Shira Klein, a respected scholar, devote any energy into proving that entries about the Holocaust are false. More baffling is her attempt to correct them by diving into Wikipedia's rabbit warren of arcane rules for article review — administered by volunteer site police who gleefully hide behind pseudonyms.

"Widespread" is accurate: the English version of Wikipedia has 6,676,896 articles, which were viewed 10 billion times last month, on 756 million unique devices, and edited by 39 thousand unique users during that time. "Disinformation" seems unlikely — articles can be edited at any time, they occasionally contain nonsense, and their contents are often the subject of contentious partisan debate, but they are provided without warranty. The Wikipedia article Reliability of Wikipedia, aptly enough, summarizes the state of the matter in great detail (checking the references for an encyclopedia article is a standard component of scholarship).

The Signpost takes no position on the Holocaust in Poland dispute, other than to predict that, unfortunately, it will continue. – S, J

What happens when adverts are allowed

Fandom (née Wikia (née Wikicities)), the wiki host spun off from Wikipedia in 2004 by Wikimedia honchos Jimbo and Angela, has grown alongside Wikipedia over the years as a host for less formal, more inclusive, and more heavily advertising-driven subject-focused wikis. To the morbid-minded, the popups and video ads offer a glimpse of the fate that Wikipedia has fortunately avoided over the years. However, the actual inline content of Fandom sites has typically remained more strongly under the editorial control of individual wikis' editors and administrators.

Recently, however, Fandom has begun to question that control: on June 14th, the McDonald's Wiki page on "Grimace" (a mascot character used in the company's advertising campaigns) was modified heavily at the behest of McDonalds. Afterwards, editing was fully protected (i.e. to administrators only) with the summary "switching over entirety of grimace article at mc∂onald's[sic] request, just for the length of this campaign in 2023".

The previous version can be seen here: it admittedly probably wouldn't have survived on Wikipedia, but it nonetheless features a long list of obscure trivia: he danced at a baseball game in July 2012, and was subsequently not seen in the company's promotions, except for Happy Meal toys in Malaysia. The version it was replaced with, on the other hand, gives a slimmed-down "greatest hits", presumably omitting ads that McDonalds finds irrelevant to their current campaign, and ends with "At participating McDonald’s for a limited time. While supplies last. Grimace’s Birthday Meal includes choice of 10 pc. McNuggets® or Big Mac® © 2023 McDonald’s. ADVERTISEMENT: This page is sponsored by McDonald’s."

The article's main contributor, Nathan Steinmetz (nom de poste Humanstein) said of the edits:

McDon*ld's took over the Grimace wiki page and removed all the real world information, appearances, and citations that I've added over the years and turned the whole page into one big in-universe ad for the birthday promotion :(
Like I can just add it back but what's the point if they're literally paying a dude to undo it. They're partnering with Fandom for an ad campaign for the page now too..

In an interview with Kotaku, he says that "While The Grimace is a very silly page for this to whole thing to be about, I think it probably sets a really bad precedent that an IP holder can approach Fandom or whoever and have user generated content basically 'suppressed' and replaced with a press release".

While Grimace is a silly mascot character created to sell hamburgers, and his appearance in Malaysian Happy Meal toys is largely irrelevant to the broader arc of history, this does raise some questions for the "information ecosystem" writ large. For example, the Ford Motor Company has a site on Fandom, with a (rather brief) article about Henry Ford — should it mention those antisemitic pamphlets he endorsed? Well, it currently does.

In a Wikia of another age, would a General Electric fansite in 1980 have received polite letters requesting its list of Pyranol-brand polychlorinated biphenyls be silently pared down after they were banned by the EPA?

Meanwhile, Wikipedia itself has not been completely immune: an article about the Grimace milkshake was created on June 26.

"Grimace" indeed. – S, J

Section 230 discussion

Partnering with Wikimedia: New America President and CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter

C-SPAN has video coverage and a full transcript of an event hosted jointly by New America and the Wikimedia Foundation. The topic: regulating big tech companies and social media platforms, and in particular Section 230.

Introductory remarks by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), who authored Section 230 together with Republican Christopher Cox back in the 1990s, were followed by a panel discussion featuring New America Senior Director Lilian Coral, Axios reporter Ashley Gold, Politico reporter Rebecca Kern, Association of Research Libraries Director Katherine Klosek, Wikipedian and journalism professor Andrew Lih, the WMF's Rebecca MacKinnon (herself a former New America fellow), Internet Archive counsel Peter Routhier and New America President and CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department under U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Ultimately, with AI ascendant, the panel seemed agreed that Section 230 was more vital than ever to safeguard the continued existence of the ecosystem of content and sources formed by Wikipedia and the Internet Archive and that Congress should appreciate that –

We are an ecosystem that is so crucial to not only global knowledge but American competitiveness. If you just want to ... pander to make America really competitive in this area, keep 230 around so that we are still in that leadership position.
— Andrew Lih, time code 1:40:18

– AK

Disinformation, dat information

The U.S. Republican Party is targeting universities, think tanks and also the Wikimedia Foundation "to undermine the fight against false claims about elections, vaccines and other hot political topics", reports The New York Times. Organizations researching disinformation stand accused of censoring conservative speech online. Specifically, it is mentioned that the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee "has sent scores of letters and subpoenas to the researchers — only some of which have been made public," and that "America First Legal", "a conservative advocacy group led by Stephen Miller, the former adviser to Mr. Trump, filed a class-action lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court in Louisiana that echoes many of the committee’s accusations and focuses on some of the same defendants."

The New York Times' article mentions the Wikimedia Foundation only once, as one of the targets. It remains unclear whether the Foundation is a defendant in the lawsuit, or just one of the recipients of the committee's letters and subpoenas. It appears to be the latter, based on the fact that Wikimedia and Wikipedia are not mentioned in America First Legal's press release about the lawsuit (filed "on behalf of Jill Hines, the co-Director of Health Freedom Louisiana, and Jim Hoft, the founder the popular news website The Gateway Pundit", which is listed as a deprecated source at WP:RSP).

In brief

Meetup: Yahoo! Life says the monthly Brooklyn Public Library meetup was highlighted in a TikTok video posted by Annie Rauwerda and attracted some potential new 'pedians.
It's smashing: Smashing Magazine has a "behind the curtains" interview with the designers of the new Wikipedia interface, Vector 2022. See prior Signpost coverage about the redesign.
Molly White interview: German business magazine Brand eins features an interview with cryptocurrency critic and Wikipedian Molly White.
Language divide: Global Voices reports on the way Google and Wikimedia are seeking to bridge the language divide in Africa.
Legal setback in France: The Wikimedia Foundation has lost an appeal in its French court case, reports Legalis (see previous Signpost coverage).
Open letter: The open letter by Wikimedia UK on the Online Safety Bill (see News and notes for further information) has attracted coverage by cybernews.com and uktech.news.

Do you want to contribute to "In the media" by writing a story or even just an "in brief" item? Edit next week's edition in the Newsroom or leave a tip on the suggestions page.

Reader comments

2023-07-03

Incensed

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By Adam Cuerden

Incense production in Vietnam, by Vietsui, one of our newest featured pictures.

This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 1 to 15 June.

So! Finally doing this in advance for once. To cover some business from last issue, although our good editor added a note at the last minute about how we could have run this article last time, I don't think he understood the situation,^[1] so I'll wait until next issue to consider running the greatest featured content hits that missed out on publication in early 2021. Ba Congress was a really interesting featured article, after all.^[2]

As for this fortnight's issue: Isn't that a lovely image for the start of this issue? It's not meant to be included until next issue, but there was such a pleasing colour gradient in the gallery of featured pictures that I just grabbed the next one that passed for the top-of-the-article slot. If you see it again next issue, well, I screwed up.

I guess this is coming out a bit near the fourth of July. We have that in Britain. We also have the third and fifth of July, and a variety of other days. It's apparently "Be Nice to New Jersey Week" and "Sidewalk Egg Frying Day", but then, anyone can declare a holiday, right? Whenever you read this, it's Wikipedia Day! Celebrate by reading something on Wikipedia. Good job! You did it!

—Adam

Featured articles

Five featured articles were promoted this period.

The Kinks' 1965 US tour nominated by Tkbrett: Their behaviour while they were on this tour arguably stinks,; Hence the four-year U.S. performance ban for U.K. band the Kinks.
Tiberius III nominated by Iazyges: One of the great Byzantine emperors, or so it's supposed; This one would have been, were he not soon deposed.; ("Posed" is a perfectly good rhyme for "posed", trust me.)

1995 Aigio earthquake nominated by SamBroGaming: "There's no chance of such an earthquake there in half a millennium."; This science proved,; And yet, it moved.
Takin' It Back nominated by MaranoFan (a.k.a. NØ): It's another featured content report! Give it a scan!; ... Right there! An article on pop music, by MaranoFan!; In the pop music field, it's a little bit frightening; To see the speed and quality of MaranoFan's writing.
Kingdom Two Crowns nominated by The Night Watch: Collect the coins! Upgrade your Kingdom!; See a monster, and with weapons ding 'em!; A strategy game, where you ride on a horse; And try and improve things as you go on your course.

Featured pictures

Twelve featured pictures were promoted this period, including the ones at the top and bottom of this article.

Ignace Tonené by William John Winter, restored by Adam Cuerden
Boeing KC-46 Pegasus by Ethan Wagner for the U.S. Air Force
Fred Sullivan by Oliver Sarony, restored by Adam Cuerden
Coenonympha glycerion by Ivar Leidus
Elizabeth II as Queen of Australia by State of Queensland
Dennis Schröder by Stepro
Wulfenite by Ivar Leidus
Very Large Telescope by Gerhard Hüdepohl for the European Southern Observatory
Emily Davison by Andrew William Dron, restored by Adam Cuerden
Chatham albatross by JJ Harrison

Featured lists

Eight featured lists were promoted this period.

List of international goals scored by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang nominated by Idiosincrático: Football time! Let us now grab on; To the international goals by this player from Gabon!
List of accolades received by Dune (2021 film) nominated by Birdienest81: When critics to see Dune would go,; Just like spice, awards must flow.
List of awards and nominations received by Anjelica Huston nominated by Leo Mercury: Awards for Huston? Yep, she's had 'ems!; I remember her best as Morticia Addams.
List of birds of Tokelau nominated by AryKun: When the birds of Tokelau are taken as a body,; You'll find that, within them, there's a lot of noddy.
Irrfan Khan filmography nominated by Cowlibob: I don't know everything, nor ever could,; But I hear in Life of Pi he's good.
List of COM-clade families nominated by Dank: The COM-clade are flowering plants that use serial interface to connect to your computer.; ... Wait! Turns out, no they aren't! My comment just made us all stupider!
Municipalities of Oaxaca nominated by Mattximus: I've never myself been to visit Oaxaca,; But if you want to learn more then this list here has got ya.
United States presidential elections in Florida nominated by 金色黎明: Did Bush win Florida? Well, let's let that point slide:; There's centuries' worth of voting to each president decide.

Winter moth caterpillar by Reinhold Möller, one of our newest featured pictures.

Reader comments

2023-07-03

Are you afraid of spiders? Arnold? The Idol? ChatGPT?

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By Igordebraga, Spinixster, Ollieisanerd and Benmite

This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, Spinixster, Ollieisanerd, and Benmite (plus a helpful IP).

On candy stripe legs the Spider-Man comes (May 28 to June 3)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse	1,756,037	Spider-Man, we're at it again. This time with 50% more Spider-Men! Oooh yeah. Not quite a bug. Not quite a man. How do I break out from this Spider-Man clan? Marvel's most popular character gets another animated feature about his multiple variations, most prominently the once Ultimate Spider-Man Miles Morales. Amazingly done regarding both visuals and writing, even if it's frustrating how everything ends in a massive cliffhanger for Beyond the Spider-Verse, due next March, Across the Spider-Verse has earned great reviews and had a massive opening of over $120 million in North America alone.
2	The Little Mermaid (2023 film)	1,699,397	In the latest case of Disney remaking their animated features in live-action (or in the most unnecessary and unfortunately most profitable case, trading 2D animation for photorealistic one), the return to the story of Ariel is comparable to Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, perfectly watchable with good production values and most of what made people love the original, as well as adding some stuff that only reminds people to skip rewatches of the remake and just go for the cartoon again – don't care if Lin-Manuel Miranda is involved, I certainly did not need to see a rapping Scuttle. Audiences are still making this a box office hit, albeit with better numbers in North America than overseas as seemingly mermaids have problems keeping up with cars and submarines (#4).
3	ChatGPT	1,354,094	People continue to be intrigued by the chatbot that this Report still hasn't "hired" to do write-ups.
4	Fast X	1,115,810	Like #1, the latest in an enduring franchise that ends in a cliffhanger.
5	Tina Turner	1,027,003	As big wheels keep on turning, the late Queen of Rock 'n' Roll keeps on rolling on this report.
6	Deaths in 2023	930,877	Though I'm poor, I am free When I grow, I shall fight For this land, I shall die Let her sun never set
7	Succession (TV series)	917,926	These critically acclaimed shows premiered their season finales on May 28th and May 31st respectively, but it is unclear if Ted Lasso's season finale would be its last like Succession's.
8	Ted Lasso	617,121
9	Al Pacino	607,104	Like friend and fellow acting legend Robert De Niro a few weeks ago, Pacino is here for fatherhood at a very advanced age (83!), once he announced his girlfriend is expecting his fourth child.
10	Danny Masterson	587,101	That '90s Show had one conspicuous absence from That '70s Show in Steven Hyde, who didn't even get a cursory mention. The reason is his actor being charged with three accusations of rape, and the trial has ended with Masterson convicted for two of the counts, leading to incarceration facing 30 years to life.

And they say that a hero could save us (June 4 to 11)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse	2,164,788	Holding itself onto the top spot is the congregation of Webheads that won reviewers and audiences in a way that no cliffhanger ending could hurt.
2	ChatGPT	1,635,172	One more week for the chatbot even used in the burger wars.
3	2023 ICC World Test Championship final	1,480,298	India likes cricket so much it is hurting Disney+ more than any backlash against the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So huge views came in the article for this match where the Indian national team lost to Australia.
4	The Little Mermaid (2023 film)	1,055,472	Disney's latest live action remake for their cartoons. This one has Ariel played by a Black actress, and the next remake will have Snow White as a Latina.
5	Fast X	1,006,072	This here writer had no interest in watching this movie about cars, family and a general disregard for physics. Box office of over $660 million worldwide shows he's in the minority.
6	Lionel Messi	991,865	Footballers ending their careers with paychecks in U.S. dollars happens ever since Pelé in the 1970s, so why not see it with the Argentinian some claim is his biggest contestant as the sport's GOAT? After choosing not to renew with Paris Saint-Germain, Leo's return to FC Barcelona was marred by financial constraints and he opted not to go to Saudi Arabia and renew the Cristiano Ronaldo rivalry, so off Messi went to sign with Inter Miami CF.
7	Zlatan Ibrahimović	962,908	Still on football, a Swedish striker that already earned his Major League Soccer money and returned for one last season in AC Milan before announcing his retirement at the age of 41, closing off a career that included over 500 goals scored.
8	Deaths in 2023	956,624	I am so high, I can hear heaven Whoa, but heaven, no, heaven don't hear me...
9	Arnold Schwarzenegger	888,276	One of the quintessential action stars gets his first show in Netflix's FUBAR, where somewhat similar to True Lies (which itself inspired an eponymous series in another streaming service) Arnie's status as a secret agent is revealed to his family, namely when he finds out his daughter (played by Monica Barbaro, fresh off Top Gun: Maverick) has also been hiding her job in the CIA.
10	Transformers: Rise of the Beasts	826,256	Bumblebee renewed faith in the film series about giant robots, so hopes were up for the seventh (!) movie, taking some pages from Beast Wars and featuring Cybertronians who look like animals. Even if not as good as Bumblebee, Rise of the Beasts is still one of the better Transformers movies in that it doesn't have the typical Michael Bay sensory overload that makes the viewer feel like a truck just ran over them. Hence its opening weekend outperformed both Bumblebee and the predecessor that showed audiences were tired of the 'Bayhem', while having mixed to positive reviews.

And she'll always get the best of me, the worst is yet to come (June 11 to 17)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	The Idol (TV series)	2,392,488	From the guy who brought you teenagers having lots of sex and doing hard drugs and a pop star who brought you adults having lots of sex and doing hard drugs comes a show about a pop star who, in a shocking turn of events, has lots of sex and does hard drugs—but this time, she's in a cult! The Idol stars self-proclaimed sleazeball The Weeknd as Tedros, a semi-convincing cult leader, alongside famed nepo baby Lily-Rose Depp as Jocelyn, the aforementioned pop star in the aforementioned cult. It premiered last week, with its second episode released this week, and what it lacks for in positive reviews or common decency, it makes up for in controversy and viewership (well, kind of), hence its taking of the top spot on this week's list. If you've missed out on the show's whirlwind first two episodes, like a certain writer here who may or may not be writing this very entry, then you can instead treat yourself to the many memes spawned by the show's uncomfortable sex scenes and The Weeknd's passing resemblance to celebrity stylist Law Roach, which are far easier to stomach.
2	Treat Williams	1,792,516	An American actor who was a "treat" to watch in films like the 1979 hippie flick Hair and the 2000s drama Everwood, Williams died this week at age 71 from a motorcycle crash on Vermont Route 30.
3	ChatGPT	1,777,074	Resist the urge to get ChatGPT to write it! Come on, you can do it! ChatGPT is... ChatGPT has been... You've got it, just a few sentences is all! Don't let AI win! ChatGPT has got... When ChatGPT... I can't. I have to do it. Nooo—! ChatGPT's exceptional popularity and influence in the realm of artificial intelligence was exemplified by its noteworthy inclusion in Wikipedia's prestigious Top 25 Report. Garnering an immense number of views from users worldwide, ChatGPT has become a captivating subject of interest and curiosity. As an advanced language model developed by OpenAI, ChatGPT's presence among the top-ranking pages underscores its significance as a cutting-edge technology that captivates and engages individuals seeking knowledge and understanding in the ever-evolving landscape of AI. Its appearance on the Top 25 Report solidifies ChatGPT's status as a prominent entity within the expansive universe of information and innovation.
4	Adipurush	1,691,430	A Bollywood epic based on the Ramayana, starring Prabhas as Raghava, Adipurush got negative reviews but has been picking the crore, nearly making back its massive budget (the only Indian movie to cost more was RRR) in just one week.
5	The Flash (film)	1,574,871	Flash! Aaaaaah! The Scarlet Speedster from DC Comics got his own feature film, one of the last in the DC Extended Universe before it folds over into the DC Universe, and indeed the movie can count as an adaptation of "reboot event comic" Flashpoint in which Barry Allen screws up with time and causes massive shifts to the world. Entertaining in a way that's easier to forget the horrible things star Ezra Miller has done, with highlights including the glorious return of Michael Keaton's Batman and some multiverse-related fanservice, The Flash got positive reviews and hopefully can earn more than Black Adam with its similar $139 million opening, no matter if it might not be one of the summer's biggest movies.
6	Nikola Jokić	1,239,609	The Serbian basketballer known as 'Joker' cemented himself as one of the NBA's alpha dogs, as just one year removed from two straight NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, he led the oft-underperforming Denver Nuggets to their first title in the 2023 NBA Finals, beating the Miami Heat with averages of 30.2 points, 14 rebounds and 7.2 assists that made him be chosen as Finals MVP.
7	Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse	1,226,927	But we move forwards Into emptiness Into the void Into the Spider-Verse
8	Ted Kaczynski	1,395,884	AKA 'Unabomber', this American terrorist died this week in prison at the age of 81. Kaczynski was originally a mathematics prodigy, but he abandoned this career in 1969 in order to pursue a primitive lifestyle. He was arrested in 1996 for murdering three people and injuring 23 others using mail bombs between 1978 and 1995. Kaczynski targeted these people as he believed they were hastening the destruction of the natural environment. Prison officials believe he committed suicide.
9	Juneteenth	1,070,811	One week before it actually happened in the 19th people were already seeking the holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.
10	Arnold Schwarzenegger	1,047,864	Along with FUBAR, Netflix released Arnold, a docuseries taking a look at the impressive life story of its star, who managed to go from a poor boy in Austria to a bodybuilding champion, the highest-paid movie star in the world and governor of California. A conspicuous absence is his ex-wife Maria Shriver, who probably does not want to recall something that, like Arnie's autobiography, the series pushes as close to the end as possible, how he had an affair with the housekeeper and fathered a son with her.

I said, ooh, I'm blinded by the lights (June 18 to 24)

Rank	Article	Views	Notes/about
1	The Idol (TV series)	6,517,575	Geez, those are some big numbers. The only other show to get over 5 million views in a week here on Wikipedia was Squid Game, and that one was breaking viewership records and getting acclaim, as opposed to The Idol barely registering (even if people might not see TV on TV anymore, episodes 2-4 combined barely beat the least viewed episode of fellow HBO show The Last of Us) and the discourse is mostly on negative qualities like a behind the scenes dispute, lots of sleazy content, and the questionable acting abilities of co-creator The Weeknd. In any case, the limited series ends with episode 5 this Sunday.
2	2023 Titan submersible incident	3,029,772	Titan was a submersible so-named because it was used for very expensive (at its lowest tickets were US$105,000!) trips to the most famous shipwreck in history, the Titanic. Its first dive of 2023 ended up going very wrong, as it lost contact on June 18, and after four days of search the discovery of a debris field made clear that Titan was almost close to the wreck when it suffered a catastrophic implosion (in fact, the page's current name is Titan submersible implosion). All five passengers were ruled to have died instantly, including one with many adventurer credentials, Hamish Harding, who had gone to the South Pole, the Challenger Deep and even space before the fatal voyage, only two days before his 59th birthday.
3	Hamish Harding	2,773,229
4	Adipurush	2,533,392	This Bollywood epic based on the Ramayana, starring Prabhas and Kriti Sanon (pictured), is currently climbing the highest-grossing Indian films ranking even if it's still halfway through the massive budget while earning negative reviews.
5	Wagner Group	2,292,021	A paramilitary group described as "Putin's private army", who eventually decided to launch a rebellion against him amidst growing tensions between leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Russian Ministry of Defence. He had previously denied having any involvement with the Wagner Group, until September last year when he admitted to being its founder. The mutiny eventually only lasted one day, with the president of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko intervening. Wagner was presented with three options: joining the Ministry of Defence, relocating to Belarus, or disbanding. Prigozhin stepped down as Wagner's leader, and his forces began retreating from Rostov-on-Don on 24 June.
6	Titanic	2,261,181	#2 has created a resurgence of interest in the Titanic. The guy who made the famed blockbuster about the sinking and visited the wreck over 30 times, down to filming a documentary there, was one of the people consulted regarding the incident, and declared that it was a disaster waiting to happen, claiming #7 was cutting corners while designing and building Titan.
7	OceanGate	1,980,596	The company behind the submersible involved in #2, co-founded by #17.
8	Juneteenth	1,850,138	One of the latest federal holidays in the United States (added only in 2021), celebrating how the Governor of Texas proclaimed freedom for emancipated slaves on June 19, 1865.
9	Shahzada Dawood	1,596,792	Pakistani businessman, victim of #2 alongside his 19 year-old son, whom he had brought with him for a Father's Day treat.
10	Wreck of the Titanic	1,377,230	The remains of #6, which the victims of #2 lost their lives in an attempt to see.

Most edited articles

For the May 19 – June 19 period, per this this database report.

Title	Revisions	Notes
Deaths in 2023	1747	When the biggest category is Living people, a natural extension is extensive updates on those who died. Ones not listed above include The Iron Sheik, Pat Robertson, Silvio Berlusconi, Cormac McCarthy and Glenda Jackson.
Tartan	1390	To quote Spaceballs, "They've gone into plaid!" thanks to one user cleaning up the article on the patterned cloth mostly associated with Scotland.
Legalism (Chinese philosophy)	1323	Like in April, one user is still cleaning up this article on a Chinese philosophy school of thought.
2023 French Open – Men's singles	1058	14 time champion Rafael Nadal was injured and thus absent for the first time since 2005. Rival Novak Djokovic took the opportunity to win his third title at Stade Roland Garros, also marking a record 23rd Grand Slam championship!
2024 Republican Party presidential primaries	946	Maybe it will be Donald Trump again, even if the law might be coming for him.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse	921	There's possibly as many Spider-Men in this movie (including Spider-Punk, Scarlet Spider, and a Lego Spidey!) as there were edits to the article.
2023 French Open – Women's singles	904	Polish powerhouse Iga Świątek, who has been leading the WTA Rankings ever since Ashleigh Barty retired out of nowhere last year, won her second straight and third overall title in the French clay, and she's just 22!
Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam	836	No one was expecting the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine to still be rolling by June 2023. One of the latest developments was a dam seized by the Russians early in the war being exploded, flooding the nearby regions and causing problems in the water supply.
2023 NCAA Division I baseball tournament	831	College baseball started on June 2, to culminate in a decisive "World Series" in Omaha.
Leonardo Torres y Quevedo	771	One editor is cleaning the article on this Spanish engineer and inventor.
2023 Pacific typhoon season	702	Our dedicated "storm watchers" were there to update on the year's first violent Pacific cyclone Typhoon Mawar, as well as the strong Typhoon Guchol.
Tina Turner	696	The recently deceased Queen of Rock N' Roll. What's love got to do, got to do with it?
2023 Odisha train collision	669	Three trains collided in India, killing 292 people and injuring over a thousand others.
Fast X	651	With three edits more than the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup won by Uruguay in neighbor Argentina is the blockbuster where again Vin Diesel and co. wreck their other neighbor Brazil.

Exclusions

These lists exclude the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the Top 25 Report talk page if you wish.

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2023-07-03

United Nations dispatches peacekeeping force to Wikipedia policy discussions

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By JPxG

Troops have been stationed at various discussion pages to ensure the safety of civilians.

In a concerted effort to address the mounting tensions in the English Wikipedia province of projectspace, the United Nations announced this Wednesday that they would dispatch peacekeeping troops to the war-torn region. This decision comes as a response to reports of escalating violence and political unrest in discussions regarding the manual of style, article deletion, and discussion of whether it's unjustified POV pushing to say "escalating violence" instead of "political unrest", as well as whether it's a WP:CIVIL violation to use the f-word when you revert them.

Projectspace, an area long ravaged by conflict and ideological strife, has been "on the brink of collapse" for some time, according to a statement released by the UN Security Council. One major threat to stability in the region is the ongoing skirmishes between paramilitary groups such as the En–Dash Liberation Army and the Hyphens-are-Fine Coalition. Increasing amounts of territory are currently de facto controlled by breakaway factions; the south of the region is disputed between the "People's Front of Wikipedia", the "Peoples' Front of Wikipedia", the "Peoples Front of Wikipedia" and the "People's front of Wikipedia".

The peacekeeping force, composed of troops from countries across the world, will be under the command of a senior UN official, responsible for coordinating actions on the ground and reporting to the Security Council. Their first task will be the three-hundred-kilobyte RfC about whether articles about diplomatic and military detachments such as itself should say they're "United Nations peacekeeping forces", "international peacekeeping missions" or "missions of UN peacekeepers".

Their mission is the protection of civilians, the maintenance of law and order, and the facilitation of political dialogue among warring factions.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, in a speech, that the peacekeeping force was aimed toward creating a secure environment for fair and nonviolent admin elections to take place.

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