Russian elite rule articles about themselves in “Wikipedia”
Articles in the largest online encyclopedia “Wikipedia” about representatives of the Russian elite, in particular, big businessmen, are being edited, as a result of which they are trying to remove information from “Wikipedia” that they are under sanctions or may be somehow connected with the Kremlin. An investigation into this was published by the publication “Vazhney istorii” together with the Wikiganda project.
The authors of the investigation studied the editing of almost a hundred biographical articles in Russian and English-language “Wikipedia” devoted to Russian billionaires, top managers, artists and public figures and found several patterns in them. In particular, they control information about the inclusion of billionaires in sanctions lists or their property in the West (Dmitry Pumpyanskyi, Andrey Skoch, Tatiana Bakalchuk, God Nisanov are mentioned in this context). Some anonymous edits are subsequently rejected by other editors (the best-known example of this kind is the attempt to edit data about any connection with Russia of the co-founder of Yandex, Arkady Volozh). Information about possible connections with the Kremlin is also being removed, in particular, corrections were made to articles about the co-owners of “Alfa-groups” Mikhail Fridman and Peter Avena.
They also edit information about origin and activities in Russia, trying to minimize information about it in every possible way. So, anonymous editors tried to correct the biography of opera singer Anna Netrebko, deleted part of the article that in 2014 she donated money for the restoration of the “Donbass Opera” and was photographed with the flag of the so-called Novorossiya. In the biography of Alexander Mamut, the former owner of the Rambler holding, they wanted to indicate that he has not been connected with Russia for a long time, but is an Israeli businessman living in London.
From “Wikipedia” they also tried to remove data on sanctions against Putin’s daughters Maria Vorontsova and Kateryna Tikhonova. From the publication about Tikhonova, they also tried to remove information from the investigation of “Important Stories” and Der Spiegel about her child and his alleged father, ballet dancer Igor Zelensky. They tried to erase the data about Dmitry Peskov’s son Nikolae Choulze, notes Sibir.Realii.
From the Russian-language article about the deputy of the State Duma and associate of Ramzan Kadyrov, Adam Delymkhanov, they unsuccessfully tried several times to remove the fragment that he “regularly recorded staged videos with the military, in which they allegedly take part in hostilities”, for which the Chechen units in Ukraine were nicknamed “ticking troops”.
As the interlocutor of “Important Histories” who is related to “Wikipedia” notes, “some large businessmen and politicians may not have wanted articles about themselves, but once someone has created it, they have to join the struggle for meanings. And then they will write everything, and then all this is displayed in the first line of the search result”. The publication reminds that, as it turned out, articles from “Wikipedia” were previously used even by EU officials to justify sanctions against a number of Russian businessmen.
They are ready to pay up to $5,000 for the editing of an article about a human being, said one of the editors of the encyclopedia with whom journalists spoke. Edits, as a rule, are carried out by anonymous editors.
