Neowin News Feed for: Wikipedia

Wikipedia's UK legal challenge fails, leaving volunteers exposed to danger

Paul Hill — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 15:28:01 +0000

The Wikimedia Foundation has lost its legal challenge against the Online Safety Act's categorization regulations, depriving it of immediate legal protections it wanted. Read more...

Wikipedia's privacy at risk under UK Online Safety Act, legal challenge to be heard

Paul Hill — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 05:02:01 +0000

Wikimedia, the organization behind Wikipedia, is going to challenge some of the provisions of the UK's Online Safety Act related to user verification. Read more...

Wikipedia suffers backlash from human editors over AI summaries, prompting feature pause

David Uzondu — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 21:38:02 +0000

Wikipedia was testing an AI summaries feature similar to Google's AI Overviews but has now paused it following editor outcry. Read more...

Wikipedia announces new AI strategy but it won't sacrifice human editors

Aditya Tiwari — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 19:46:01 +0000

Wikipedia is working on a new AI strategy, but it won't replace the humans who built the platform for over 25 years. Read more...

ChatGPT scores 49 million pageviews, becomes Wikipedia's most viewed article in 2023

Aditya Tiwari — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 06:44:01 +0000

ChatGPT grabbed the crown of the most-viewed page on Wikipedia in 2023 with 49 million views. Read about the top 25 Wikipedia pages that generated the most number of pageviews this year. Read more...

Russian district court fines Google $32,000, Wikipedia also under fire

Ishtiaqe Hanif — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 18:24:01 +0000

Google was fined after failing to remove an alleged fake news video about the Russia-Ukraine conflict from YouTube, a Russian district court ruled after the company broke its administrative laws. Read more...

Pakistan unblocks Wikipedia after its Prime Minister intervenes

Justin Luna — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 04:06:02 +0000

Wikipedia can now be accessed again on Pakistan after the country's Prime Minister ordered its unbanning. The PM said that the blanket ban's unintended consequences outweighed its benefits. Read more...

Pakistan degrades access to Wikipedia and threatens to block it over "sacrilegious" content

Usama Jawad — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 09:10:01 +0000

Pakistan's government has degraded access to Wikipedia following news of the platform hosting certain content deemed objectionable by local authorities. The website could soon be blocked completely. Read more...

Wikimedia Foundation rolls out new Wikipedia UI to English-language edition

Paul Hill — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 14:26:01 +0000

The English edition of Wikipedia has received an interface overhaul. Article menus are now easier to access and the search tool is more powerful. It's also easier to switch languages. Read more...

Wikipedia seeks exclusion from UK Online Safety Bill for community moderation

Paul Hill — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 16:40:01 +0000

A leading member of the Wikimedia Foundation has said sites with community moderation like Wikipedia should be treated differently to centralized platforms like Facebook under the Online Safety Bill. Read more...

Indian government calls Wikipedia officials after controversial edits to cricketer's page

Usama Jawad — Mon, 05 Sep 2022 14:30:01 +0000

Following a tight India-Pakistan cricket match recently, controversial edits were made to the Wikipedia page of an Indian player. The government has now demanded clarification from Wikipedia. Read more...

Google to pay for Wikipedia content displayed in 'Knowledge Panel' and search results

Alap Naik Desai — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 21:10:01 +0000

Google and Wikimedia have entered into a formal agreement to pay for content the search giant sources from Wikipedia. Additionally, Internet Archive which operates Wayback Machine will benefit. Read more...

Climate change is being thrown into doubt on foreign-language editions of Wikipedia

Paul Hill — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 02:44:01 +0000

A BBC investigation has found that climate change conspiracies are widespread on foreign-language editions of Wikipedia. The problem is due to those Wikipedia editions having fewer editors. Read more...

Wikimedia's Content Translation tool has helped create a million articles

Paul Hill — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 04:26:01 +0000

The Wikimedia Foundation is celebrating the fact that its Content Translation tool, which launched in 2014, has now contributed to more than one million articles on Wikipedia, boosting knowledge. Read more...

Snapchat introduces recipe-finding tool called Food Scan

Paul Hill — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 18:56:01 +0000

Snapchat's Scan feature can now suggest recipes to users based on the ingredients they scan. The data for this feature is provided by Allrecipes and Wikipedia. Food Scan is only available in the U.S. Read more...

New wiki project - Abstract Wikipedia - will boost content across languages

Abhishek Baxi — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 21:00:01 +0000

Abstract Wikipedia will allow more contributors and more readers to share more knowledge in more languages. The project was first proposed in a paper by Denny Vrandečić, founder of Wikidata. Read more...

Facebook tests showing Wikipedia information in search results

Jay Bonggolto — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 03:58:01 +0000

Facebook has confirmed that it is testing a new feature that shows factual information from Wikipedia when users search for specific topics like people, places, interests, and photos. Read more...

Wikipedia is instituting new rules to battle "toxic behavior" by volunteers

Usman Khan Lodhi — Sat, 23 May 2020 08:58:01 +0000

Volunteers, particularly women and members of the LGBTQ community, have complained of "toxic behavior" from other editors on the site. Thus, rules are being instituted to maintain civility. Read more...

Wikidata founder floats idea for balanced multilingual Wikipedia

Paul Hill — Mon, 13 Apr 2020 17:02:01 +0000

The founder of Wikidata has published a new paper that looks at how non-English Wikipedia version can get more content using complex tools that he describes called Abstract Wikipedia and Wikilambda. Read more...

Turkey lifts ban on Wikipedia for the first time since 2017

Paul Hill — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 14:16:01 +0000

Turkey's Constitutional Court has ruled the country's ban on Wikipedia is a violation of free expression. ISPs that serve the country have now started to lift the ban on the website. Read more...

Internet Archive boosts open-access book references on Wikipedia

Paul Hill — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 01:48:01 +0000

Internet Archive has announced that books on its lending platform can now be directly cited in Wikipedia articles. This gives users direct access to more primary sources, helping scholars. Read more...

Wikimedia announces reception of $2.5 million donation after DDOS attack on Wikipedia

Hamza Jawad — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 19:50:01 +0000

The Wikimedia Foundation is receiving $2.5 million in support from Craig Newmark Philanthropies. This news comes in the wake of a DDOS attack last week on Wikipedia that is still being investigated. Read more...

Wikipedia confirms website outages due to malicious DDOS attack

Hamza Jawad — Sat, 07 Sep 2019 18:16:01 +0000

Wikipedia went offline today in many countries due to a broad DDOS attack. It looks like the service seems to have been resumed in several countries, though the incident is still being investigated. Read more...

YouTube takes on conspiracy videos, offering fact-check links while watching

Jonathan Nolan — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 03:20:01 +0000

YouTube has announced plans at South by Southwest to tackle conspiracy theories on its site with fact-based information. It comes at a time when the site is battling divisive content. Read more...

Wikipedia updates iOS app with black theme, perfect for iPhone X

Timi Cantisano — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 05:14:01 +0000

The iPhone X has an OLED panel and some developers are taking advantage of this by adding a dark theme to their apps. Wikipedia has now added a black theme to its app in the latest update. Read more...

China wants to launch a homegrown Wikipedia rival in 2018

Florin Bodnarescu — Wed, 03 May 2017 19:22:01 +0000

Chinese authorities are seemingly working on a Wikipedia competitor of their own, based on the country's "Encyclopaedia of China". It will reportedly have 300,000 entries of about 1,000 words each. Read more...

Wikipedia blocked in Turkey, complete with approved court order

Florin Bodnarescu — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 21:02:01 +0000

By all accounts, it seems as though Wikipedia has been blocked by authorities in Turkey. The site is inaccessible from the country's ISPs, regardless of which language version you use. Read more...

Wikipedia's founder to launch Wikitribune, an evidence-based news site

Gabriel Nunes — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 20:58:02 +0000

In an attempt to fight fake news, Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder, has announced the creation of Wikitribune, a novel news organization that will deliver news "by the people and for the people". Read more...

Wikipedia bans the UK Daily Mail because of 'sensationalism and flat-out fabrication'

Vlad Dudau — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 10:48:01 +0000

The online encyclopedia's editors decided the UK tabloid and its digital counterpart can no longer be cited as trusthworthy sources because of the publication's predilection for making up stories. Read more...

Wikipedia to build speech synthesis for the visually and learning impaired

Boyd Chan — Sun, 13 Mar 2016 03:14:01 +0000

In a joint endeavor with KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, Wikipedia is set to implement new open source text-to-speech capabilities spanning several languages by September 2017. Read more...

Wikipedia turns 15 years old today

Justin Luna — Fri, 15 Jan 2016 13:02:01 +0000

The popular free online encyclopedia Wikipedia has turned 15 years old today, since its launch in 2001. The service has grown to incorporate more articles, many of which are in different languages. Read more...

Wikipedia blocks 381 accounts for "dishonest editing" (aka: being paid to edit)

Steven Parker — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 09:48:48 +0000

While Wikipedia is a great source of unbiased info, there are entities who seek to beef up their pages in return for compensation, which is an ongoing battle that the foundation wants to stamp out. Read more...

Wikimedia Foundation sues the NSA, looking to end the mass surveillance program

Adrian Potoroaca — Tue, 10 Mar 2015 14:02:01 +0000

The nonprofit organization behind Wikipedia is joining forces with eight other organizations to sue the NSA, aiming to put an end to the mass surveillance program that also affects its users. Read more...

Wikipedia starts accepting Bitcoins, receives $140,000 in the first week

Jett Goldsmith — Sat, 09 Aug 2014 19:28:51 +0000

After it started accepting the popular virtual currency, Wikipedia has seen a surge in donations via Bitcoin -- over $140,000 worth -- in its first week alone. Read more...

Microsoft mashes up Wikipedia and Bing in new Windows 8.1 app

John Callaham — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 07:19:30 +0000

Microsoft has released a new Windows 8.1 app called Bing Wikipedia Browser that combines all of the content in the user-created encyclopedia with Bing search engine features. Read more...

Wikipedia Founder derides UK porn filters, says they "won't work"

Michael Allison — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 14:35:14 +0000

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is joins many others in criticising the UK's internet censorship program. He states that more resources should be poured into enforcing existing child porn laws Read more...

Developer who brought Wikipedia to Windows Phone working on Instagram app

Anthony Tosie — Sun, 21 Jul 2013 20:21:50 +0000

Rudy Huyn, the developer behind the Wikipedia app for Windows Phone, plans on releasing a new third-party Instagram app for Windows Phone within about two weeks. Read more...

Windows 8 Wikipedia page vandalized, 'review' inserted

John Callaham — Fri, 03 May 2013 03:30:00 +0000

The editing for the Wikipedia page devoted to Microsoft's Windows 8 has been disabled after someone deleted much of its content and replaced it with message of hate against the OS. Read more...

Rudy Huyn's Windows Phone Wikipedia app named Next App Star

John Callaham — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:00:04 +0000

Microsoft has announced that Rudy Huyn's Windows Phone Wikipedia app won in the voting for the Next App Star competition and will be featured in an upcoming Windows Phone TV commercial. Read more...

Third-party Wikipedia app updated with Windows Phone 8 support

Anthony Tosie — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 05:29:49 +0000

Rudy Huyn has updated his third-party Wikipedia app, which is now at version 2.0, to Windows Phone 8. The update includes 720p support and now features live tiles and voice recognition. Read more...