What role does Wikimedia play in strengthening or undermining credibility and reliability in the information ecosystem? How does it intersect with other projects on fact checking and misinformation and what new approaches are needed for dealing with Generative AI?
An extension to current research projects on misinformation and fact checking to encompass the WP ecosystem which is deeply enmeshed as both source and user of news and information.
Wikimedia is deeply concerned about mis and dis-information, on its own platform and across the wider information ecosystem and has developed a number of initiatives over the last few years to tackle the issue more actively. Wikimedia’s Strategy 2030 report identified misinformation and disinformation as threats to the Wikimedia movement’s goal of making free knowledge available to all. Specifically, “Wikimedia projects are vulnerable to government, political, cultural, or profit-driven censorship and misinformation campaigns, as well as outright falsified content”.
Various projects and tools have been developed to address mis/dis information on WP and across the wider info ecosystem which we could build on.
WikiCred supports research, software projects and Wikimedia events that explore information reliability and credibility.
Funded via WikiCred in 2022, the project aims to generate and assess actionable metrics for source controversiality in Wikipedia. Builds on Contropedia
A project to analyse and visualize controversies within Wikipedia articles developed by researchers at Barcelona Media, DensityDesign Lab, and the Digital Methods Initiative (DMI), University of Amsterdam.
Credibility Coalition is a research community that fosters collaborative approaches to understanding the veracity, quality and credibility of online information. We incubate activities and initiatives that bring together people and institutions from a variety of backgrounds.
MisinfoCon is a global movement focused on building solutions to online trust, verification, fact checking, and reader experience in the interest of addressing misinformation in all of its forms.
Wikimedia projects are increasingly coming under legislation designed to address the power and dangers of commercial big tech companies.
In April 2023, the European Commission designated Wikipedia as a “Very Large Online Platform” (VLOP) under the new Digital Services Act (DSA) in late April. The DSA places Wikipedia and 18 other platforms with over 45 million “monthly active users” within the European Union (EU) under greater regulatory scrutiny and additional obligations. As a VLOP, Wikipedia’s obligations include mandatory obligations to periodically assess any “systemic risks” that Wikipedia could be contributing to in the EU (e.g., disinformation), and ensure that adequate mitigations are in place. The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) is now investigating how to comply with the DSA’s VLOP status and demonstrate the necessary level of responsibility that comes with its size and social impact.