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Wikipedia Had No Idea YouTube Was Going To Use It To Fact-Check Conspiracy Theories (gizmodo.com)

Yesterday, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki announced that the company would drop a Wikipedia link beneath videos on highly contested topics. We have now learned that Wikipedia did not know about this move prior to the announcement. Gizmodo reports: In a Twitter thread asking the public to support Wikipedia as much as it relies on it, Wikimedia executive director Katherine Maher first suggested that the organization was unaware of YouTube's plans. When asked whether this new module would only apply to English Wikipedia pages, Maher responded, "I couldn't say; this was something they did independent of us." In a statement to Gizmodo, the Wikimedia Foundation confirmed that the organization first learned of the new YouTube feature on Tuesday. "We are always happy to see people, companies, and organizations recognize Wikipedia's value as a repository of free knowledge," a Wikimedia Foundation spokesperson said in a statement. "In this case, neither Wikipedia nor the Wikimedia Foundation are part of a formal partnership with YouTube. We were not given advance notice of this announcement."

2 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Do you know what this will actually do? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No it won't. Most of these "highly contested" topics aren't contested at all by people who make reasoned decisions based only on measurement and not feelings or "instincts". The people who are viewing them are not generally the type who will follow a link to a site that isn't speaking in an inflammatory fashion. They are drama seekers who "know" everything better than the people who spend a lifetime studying it because they have what they term "common sense" which seems to correspond way too much to selfish desires IMO.

    In any case, most will avoid non-dramatic information, especially anything that disagrees with them, like the plague. The click-through will be near zero.

  2. Re:Very Wrong by Aighearach · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can you link us to one of your edits that was reverted that you feel is a good example?

    That way we could judge for ourselves, instead of just reading your insistence that you are Virtuous and that others are not.