Wikipedia temporarily blocked its co-founder, Larry Sanger, from editing pages on the platform, a report has claimed, adding that the block was handed down following Sanger’s demand of more balance, fairness and intellectual diversity on the heavily criticised website. Sanger co-founded the online encyclopedia alongside Jimmy Wales in 2001, coined the name “Wikipedia,” and drafted its original foundational rules.According to a report by The New York post, he expressed shock over the decision, saying, “I am flabbergasted.” The feud reportedly ignited last month when Sanger launched WikiProject Intellectual Diversity (WID) initiative that has been designed to reinforce Wikipedia’s “original, firm commitment to intellectual diversity” by focusing on neutrality and transparency.While the exact official reason for the block was not provided, Sanger described the modern Wikipedia editing community as acting like a “mob or a blob” where users are loyal to each other rather than a shared vision of objective rules.“Even a lot of the hard and fast policies are regarded as just guidelines if everybody is on board,” Sanger was quoted as saying.
Sanger says ‘faceless mob’ controlling Wikipedia
While Wikipedia claims its content is democratically managed by hundreds of thousands of volunteers – citing 267,000 active contributors over the past month, Sanger argues that the control sits with a small, secretive group of administrators he calls the “Power 62.” He claims that 85% of these powerful accounts hide entirely behind anonymous screennames.The campaign to oust Sanger was reportedly instigated by an anonymous, highly controversial editor known on the platform as “TarnishedPath.” The ban on Wikipedia’s co-founder caused a stir within the community with several internal editors quickly interjecting to question the appropriateness of the block. Following the immediate public backlash after Sanger exposed the block on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, his editing account was quietly reinstated.
