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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."

7 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Do you know what this will actually do? by ckatko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This means the WIKIPEDIA articles will start to huge a huge influx of people who aren't normally wiki editors. And you know what Wikipedia is? Free for ANYONE to edit.

    So what does that do? It means Wikipedia articles that get linked will 1) Have huge bandwidth costs thanks to YouTube, and 2) get edited by people who love conspiracies and end up way shittier.

    Thanks, YouTube!

    Ever think that Rage Against the Machine's Evil Empire album came out like... 15 yeas too early? If they had any idea how big Facebook and Google would become, they would have come up with another 5 albums worth of content.

    1. Re:Do you know what this will actually do? by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      YouTube could mitigate this by linking to specific revisions of the articles. So it will deincentivize people to vandalize them snice YouTubers won't see it.

  2. Re:Full Idiot Circle by DickBreath · · Score: 4, Informative

    Redundancy detected. If a Circle Jerk were not self referencing, then you wouldn't call it a Circle Jerk. It would be a Line Jerk. One end would be un-serviced while the other end would be capable of servicing but is under utilized.

    If Conservapedia has a page about Circle Jerks, then it needs to be updated to reflect this.

    At least YouTube has the good sense to not use Conservapedia to verify YouTube videos.

    --

    I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
  3. Re:Doesn't Matter by Pfhorrest · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Wiki's editorial staff" are just its general users. As a casual editor for well over a decade now (as in, I fix up little things I find while reading it, and watch pages on topics I'm interested in for updates and mostly just revert obvious vandalism that hits those pages), I've witnessed my fair share of edit wars, and for the most part I get the feeling that people who have a big problem with Wikipedia's processes are disruptive editors unhappy that they're not successfully able to push their agenda through it.

    Also, no encyclopedia is a reputable source in any academic institution. But unlike most encyclopedias, Wikipedia is supposed to point you to the reputable sources that it got its information from, instead of just asking you to trust it.

    --
    -Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
    "I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
  4. Good Lord! by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    One site showing links to another site, without even asking? Good grief. Is this what the internet has come to?

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  5. Encyclopedias are secondary sources, which cite by raymorris · · Score: 5, Informative

    > Wiki is not accepted as a scholarly or reputable source in any reputable academic institution.

    You don't cite an encyclopedia for the same reason you don't cite "the library".

    Encyclopedias, including Wikipedia, are secondary sources. That means they collect and summarize primary sources, such as peer-reviewed studies. (Just as libraries collect and catalog sources).

    Whatever is in an encyclopedia came from somewhere else, so you cite the source. It would be dumb to cite "Encyclopedia Britannica says that a study by Harvard says that ...". Just cite the study directly rather than indirectly.

    This does not mean that encyclopedias are unreliable or somehow "bad", they are just an unnecessary extra step when citing where information comes from. You wouldn't cite "my roommate, John Carter, showed me a study which he got from the Texas A&M library which states ..." You cite the source of the information, not the steps it took to get to you. Wikipedia is a conduit of information, like a library, not an original source.

  6. 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.