The 20-year old website has been sure of unpaid volunteers to handle issues of misbehavior. It is going to revise content rules and strictly implement them. Around 1,500 Wikipedia volunteers from five continents and 30 languages contributed to the creation of the new rules.
The new code of conduct has prohibitions on and off the site, banning behaviors like hate speech, the use of insults, conceptions, or assaults based on personal aspects. It intends to address the criticism around harassment and lack of assortment on the platform.
Wikipedia on Tuesday instructed a new global code of conduct to address pressure on internet platforms to prevent misinformation. It prohibits physical violence and the following someone across different articles. It is restricting who gradually submits false information into the content.
Katherine Maher, the executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation told Reuters that “There’s been a process of change throughout the communities. It took time to build the support that was necessary to do the consultations for people to understand why this is a priority. Our new universal code of conduct was developed for the new Internet era, on the premise that we want our contributor communities to be positive, safe, and healthy environments for everyone involved. This code will be a binding document for anyone that participates in our projects providing a consistent enforcement process for dealing with harassment, abuse of power, and deliberate attempts to manipulate facts.”
María Sefidari, the chair of the board of trustees of the Foundation said that “We need to be much more inclusive. We are missing a lot of voices, we’re missing women, we’re missing marginalized groups. The code of conduct will be enforced after it has been figured out with various communities.”
Wikipedia has over 2 lakh volunteer editors and over 3000 administrators. Complaints are decided by panels of users elected by the communities. Wikipedia completed two decades and is among the world’s top 15 websites.
