back to article Indian tech minister picks a fight with Wikipedia over cricketer's dropped catch

India’s IT minister has picked a fight with Wikipedia after alleging that Pakistani entities edited a page describing a member of the men’s national cricket team in ways that suggest the player has separatist affiliations. The edit happened after India’s national team lost a game against Pakistan. Despite being neighbors and …

  1. ChoHag Silver badge

    Definitely a CTO-type

    Good at complaining about the inability to make changes. Didn't see the edit button.

    1. Cederic Silver badge

      Re: Definitely a CTO-type

      I don't see the edit button either: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arshdeep_Singh_(cricketer)

      Not that it would matter if I did. My experience is that Wikipedia's self-appointed elites will delete any modification that doesn't comply with their own narrative.

      In this instance it looks the wrongful entry has been removed. That doesn't mean that the Indian Government can't complain that it was added, or about how long it took to remove.

      The US Government censors the internet, the Chinese Government censors the internet, the UK Government is trying to censor the internet, why wouldn't another nuclear power join in.

      1. General Purpose

        Re: Definitely a CTO-type

        You'd see the edit button if you logged in with an account that's been registered for the minimum number of days and made the minimum number of edits. That's the very low level of protection that's been applied to that article.

        1. Cederic Silver badge

          Re: Definitely a CTO-type

          Perhaps you could write to the Indian Minister and let him know.

    2. pradeepvasudev

      Re: Definitely a CTO-type

      That guy has achieved more than you can ever hope for - he founded one of India's first mobile companies, he founded a 800 million investment company, he was part of the team architecting the 486 processor, did a masters from Chicago, and has now chosen to serve the nation...

      You think he doesn't know about wikipedia and its editing policies? Who's the galaxy brain here?

      His point is a larger one - unlike the American concept of complete freedom of speech, many other nations believe that you have to be responsible for what you say. And if you are a publisher - you have to responsible for what is published on your site.

      But he's a brown boy, so obviously you can say whatever shit you want to about him.

      1. Missing Semicolon Silver badge

        Re: Definitely a CTO-type

        Here "Responsible" means "liable to be locked up if someone important doesn't like it". That's why freedom of speech matters.

      2. ChoHag Silver badge

        Re: Definitely a CTO-type

        Did somebody's buttons get pushed?

      3. John Savard

        Re: Definitely a CTO-type

        The point is that Section 230 is generally recognized in the United States as absolutely essential legislation in order to make it possible for people to have sites which allow user-generated content. Like the comments on news articles right here, and like the articles in Wikipedia.

        So we would expect anyone with any knowledge about computers and the Internet to recognize it. Thus, if one of the designers of the 486 expresses a different opinion - clearly he is someone who should know better, and he must be deliberately lying in order to serve as a shill for his government.

        Maybe that isn't fair. After all, in India, a lot of lives have been lost in what is euphemistically called "communal violence". So trying to keep the lid on things not only trumps the First Amendment for many in India, it also trumps the development of innovative new ways to make money off the Internet. That this means someone in India won't be able to create the next Facebook is an acceptable price by their standards.

        Rather than arguing about this... I think that Wikipedia will simply have to face the sad fact that it will not be able to include India in order to achieve their goals for the foreseeable future.

        I can understand India's position. But your wording, "many other nations believe that you have to be responsible for what you say" could conceivably be interpreted as a defense of the actions of the People's Republic of China as well, for example; that is an implication you really ought to have steered well clear of. India has a valid concern. China is simply a totalitarian dictatorship protecting its evil tyrants.

    3. simonb_london

      Re: Definitely a CTO-type

      But wouldn't he fall foul of the "conflict of interest" guidelines on Wikipedia?

  2. Trigun

    Not a new issue

    This isn't a great surprise or a new issue. Wikipedia has been known to be open to abuse just because of it's open nature.

    Don't like someone or something? Edit their wikipedia page to twist facts or even outright lie.

    1. MiguelC Silver badge

      Re: Not a new issue

      I remember once, when Wikipedia was relatively new, I edited the page about Wikipedia itself describing it as a site where any fool could write whatever they'd want to about anything they'd thought about.

      My edit lasted for just a few hours, but I was proud of it :)

  3. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Joke

    We can learn from errors and mistakes

    I see humanity as learning when it makes mistakes ... five million years ago, "Look at that idiot, he's just walking around on his feet and digging up potatoes, he's going to get eaten by a lion unless he starts to get back up in the tree!"

    That's the joke but I'm currently reading a published science paper written about 20 years ago by a very highly respected doctor (deceased nowadays) and I'm seeing a number of errors which I suspect are due to his attempt to get some information from the company selling him the technology that he used to collect the data that the paper describes. The errors are basically just mistakes but unlike Wikipedia they can't be corrected now.

  4. Frank Bitterlich
    Thumb Up

    "Please explain" session

    A "please explain" session would be a good idea IMHO. Everyone should have a chance to learn how Wikipedia works (especially when throwing around oxymorons like "safe and trusted internet".)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Please explain" session

      There is no 'safe and trusted internet.'

  5. Danny 2

    Same abuse in Edinburgh

    Some petty vandal Hearts fan claimed a '60s Hibs' cup win as their own on Wikipedia. As if we wouldn't notice, we have a limited amount to keep track of. I was moved to register to correct the injustice with a supporting link. I wanted to demand they ban the vandal and pass their info to the Leith police, but there wasn't enough characters in the box.

    I managed to cut my mum's Virgin bill from £131pm to £53pm this month, mainly by cancelling my dead dad's football but my timing was off. No Celtic vs Real for me tonight, except on the radio and highlights like any other poor person. Options are not an option.

  6. Blackjack Silver badge

    This looks like India wants to become a police state.

    1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
      Alert

      I doubt that India wants to become a police state, that's "becoming a western" state. I see India as having a religious view of the world, but the Indian attitude is much more complicated and covers far more of the universe than western and middle eastern religions which have "evolved" from world-wide religious views about three thousand years ago.

      I believe in God, but I'm confident that God laughs when human opinions are discussed.

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