Mar 03, 2022 20:00:00

How are Russian Wikipedia editors reacting to the military invasion of Ukraine?

In Russia's invasion of Ukraine , not only local military operations but also information warfare such as online fake news, spread of hoaxes, and impression manipulation are occurring. So, the American news media SLATE summarizes the reaction in Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia seen by people all over the world, and the behavior of Russian Wikipedia editors.

How the Russian invasion of Ukraine is playing out on Wikipedia.
https://slate.com/technology/2022/03/wikipedia-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-edits-kyiv-kiev.html

Russia's military invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, has shocked the world, with Ukrainian officials announcing that more than 2,000 civilians have been killed in the week following the invasion, the international community. Is increasing sanctions on Russia and Ukraine. Meanwhile, many people who are interested in the situation are accessing the Wikipedia page related to this situation, and the number of people who access the ' Ukraine (Ukraine) ' page in the English version of Wikipedia is February 2022. It is said that it exceeded 22 million times alone. The page was viewed about 290,000 times in February 2021, indicating how much interest in Ukraine is growing.

In addition, along with this military invasion, a page called ' 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine ' was created on Wikipedia of each country, and many editors proceeded in real time. Editing, adding, and correcting the invasion. Since the information spread on the Internet is a mixture of truth and falsehood, the editors are paying attention to fake news and trying to eliminate propaganda from the description.

However, this is not the first time that a Wikipedia editorial battle has occurred regarding Ukraine, and in the past there has been a long battle over the notation of the capital ' Kiev '. In Japan, the notation 'Kiev' is common, but 'Kiev' is based on the notation ' Kiev ' derived from Russian, and based on the notation ' Kyiv ' based on Ukrainian, 'Kiev' is closer. increase. In the English version of Wikipedia, an editorial battle has occurred since around 2003 depending on whether the notation is 'Kiev' or 'Kyiv', and discussions have continued for more than 10 years. Then, in the wake of the merger of Russia's Crimean in 2014, many Western countries began to use the 'Kyiv' notation derived from Ukrainian, and in September 2020, the English version of Wikipedia officially called ' Kyiv '. Was adopted.

The controversy over Kieu's notation is over, but at the time of writing, Wikipedia editors in each country are busy working to put together a page describing Russia's military invasion of Ukraine. In the English version of Wikipedia's '2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine', in addition to the ongoing update of the war situation, actual military invasion will occur, such as the 2014 Crimean annexation and Russia's movement against Ukraine to join NATO. The previous historical background is also described.

Wikipedia aims to build on historical world historical views as much as possible, such as an encyclopedia, and ideally summarize them in an easy-to-understand summary rather than all the details. However, since the situation of this military invasion is changing from moment to moment, there is a problem that it is difficult to judge what is considered to be an important event in the end, which is a problem for Wikipedia editors. And that.

Even so, the editors have taken great care in writing Wikipedia, and when '

a photo of a missile fragment falling on Kiev ' was posted, the authenticity was verified, and finally the photo was taken. It seems that it was judged to be genuine based on the metadata of. The guidelines also stipulate that 'unreliable sources' such as RT (Russia Today), which is the de facto state media of Russia, should not be used as a source of information.

Also, most pages on the English Wikipedia invasion of Ukraine have a blue padlock icon with the letter 'E' in the upper right corner. This shows that only editors who have been editing Wikipedia for at least a month and have done more than 500 edits can edit it. Despite the Wikipedia spirit of 'everyone can edit,' experienced Wikipedia editor Samuel Breslow said, 'Writing on Wikipedia always carries a lot of responsibility.' In an article that many people read, he understood that it was a measure to maintain neutrality.

There are at least 323 language versions of Wikipedia, and Russia's stance on military invasion varies. For example, in Ukraine, which is actually invaded, the number of Wikipedia edits per day has decreased by more than 50% since the invasion began, indicating that it is busy dealing with the invasion. 'It's difficult to edit Wikipedia from an air raid shelter,' said Mykola Kozlenko, who belongs to the Ukrainian user group of the

Wikimedia Foundation , which runs Wikipedia. He said that priority was given to volunteering, volunteering, and joining the army.

Meanwhile, Georgia 's Wikipedia editors, who have also experienced conflicts with Russia in the past, have expressed solidarity with Ukraine. If you look at the Georgian version of Wikipedia , you can see that the familiar Wikipedia logo is painted in blue and yellow, which is the image of the Ukrainian flag.

The English version of Wikipedia has not changed the logo because it is argued that issuing a public political statement is contrary to the neutrality effort. Regarding the neutrality of Wikipedia, 'whether to suspend (blackout) Wikipedia' has been debated in the past during the Black Lives Matter movement.

'Battle for justice and neutrality' is also unfolding on Wikipedia regarding protests against black discrimination --GIGAZINE

by quinn norton

And in the Russian version of Wikipedia, which is conducting a military invasion of Ukraine, there are also conflicts between editors in the description of the invasion. On the page of ' Вторжение России на Украину (2022) ('2022 Russia's invasion of Ukraine 'in the Japanese version)', there was a movement to edit the title to 'Ukraine's military operations in Russia' and 'Ukraine liberation'. matter. Russian Wikipedia editors claim that Russia is engaged in peacekeeping activities in Ukraine, and that 'the word'invasion'is too strong to be against Wikipedia's neutrality.' There are also editors. SLATE points out to this claim that 'it is a strategy to weaponize the concept of neutrality, hide the underlying facts, and falsely characterize it.'

After all, the Russian Wikipedia editor decided that the word 'aggression' was appropriate, and the title of the article was not edited. 'Russian troops have invaded Ukraine. This is just a fact, not a point of view,' one editor wrote in a discussion .

SLATE said, 'Given the Russian government's willingness to arrest those who oppose Putin, it may seem surprising that users of the Russian version of Wikipedia make statements against Putin's intentions. 'No,' he said, pointing out that Russians are demonstrating against military invasions in various parts of the country, knowing the dangers of being arrested. 'In the best scenario, this is a leading indicator that'Russians are against Putin's war',' SLATE said.

by Antonio Marín Segovia