Wikipedia owner sends strong message after Elon Musk offers a billion dollars to change company’s name to D***ipedia – and it’s not the first time he’s shut down advances from the Grim Reaper of Twitter
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales boldly declared the site ‘not for sale’ after Elon Musk offered $1 billion if they changed the name to ‘D***ipedia’.
The billionaire – who has accused founder Jimmy Wales of showing “non-trivial left-wing bias” in the past – responded to Wikipedia’s call for the year.
“I’ll give them a billion dollars if they change their name to D–kipedia,” Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.
On Tuesday, two funding notices appeared at the top of many of the site’s pages that appeared to rebut Musk, with the headlines “Wikipedia: Beholden to No One But You” or “Wikipedia is not for sale.”
“We’re sorry to interrupt you, but today’s fundraiser won’t last long. Our nonprofit organization asks for your support,” it said.
“Wikipedia was one of the first places online where you could learn for free, without ads.”
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales boldly declared the site ‘not for sale’ after Elon Musk offered $1 billion if they changed the name to ‘D***ipedia’
They then claimed that only two percent of readers actually donate and advocated that people who use the site donate something to the Wikimedia Foundation.
Musk and Wales have clashed in the past, with Musk joking that Wikipedia should add that he made the offer on his biography page: which he said also includes the cow and poop emojis after criticizing the Wikipedia Foundation.
Earlier this week, Wales denounced Musk’s leadership of the social media giant in a post to his
“Fast-moving claims and counterclaims, and @elonmusk has removed all the core features that even remotely made it possible to distinguish real journalists from fakes.”
In an additional message signed by Wales himself, he wrote to Wikipedia users that it is “hard to know what to trust online these days” to encourage people to donate.
‘Disinformation and scammers are everywhere. Wikipedia is different: not perfect, but also not here to make a profit or push a certain perspective. It was written by everyone together.’
“Wikipedia is something we all share, like a library or a public park,” Wales added.
‘We are passionate about our model because we want everyone to have equal access to high-quality information – something that is increasingly difficult to find online.’
Musk paired his offer with a post in which he questioned why Wikipedia needed to continually raise money.
The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has offered $1 billion of that cold hard cash to the owners of Wikipedia, with the aim of crudely changing its name to “D***ipedia,” he wrote on Sunday.
“I’ll give them a billion dollars if they change their name to D–kipedia,” Musk posted on X, formerly Twitter, which is owned by the Tesla CEO.
Earlier this week, Wales criticized Musk’s management of the social media giant in a post on his X account, while commenting on the fallout from Hamas’ shock terror attack on Israel.
‘Have you ever wondered why the Wikimedia Foundation wants so much money? There is certainly no need to exploit Wikipedia,” he wrote on Sunday. ‘You can literally put a copy of the entire text on your phone!
“So, what’s the money for? Inquiring minds want to know…’
Musk received a “community note” – a fact-checking mechanism he has implemented since purchasing the site – correcting him and noting that Wikimedia had $154 million in revenue in 2022, but $145 million in expenses.
“The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit, charitable organization that provides free access to Wikipedia,” the note said.
‘Although a text and English copy of Wikipedia is approximately 51 GB in size, adding all media + supported languages brings this to 428 TB.’ In 2022, Wikimedia had $154 million in revenue and $145 million in expenses.
He joked with journalist and Brian Krassenstein that the offer was only for “at least one year.” I mean, I’m not crazy lol.’
In December 2022, tThe billionaire CEO accused the website of showing its ‘non-trivial left-wing bias’ by debating removing an article about the recently released Twitter files, which show how its staff tweets and stories about Hunter’s laptop Biden suppressed.
The Wikipedia article for the study now has a note stating that it is “being considered for removal in accordance with Wikipedia’s removal policy.”
The billionaire – who has accused the website of showing “non-trivial left-wing bias” in the past – responded to Wikipedia’s call for a year-long
He then jokingly asked for that to be added to his Wikipedia page, which also, as he points out, includes the cow and poop emojis, after criticizing the Wikipedia Foundation for its generosity.
He also joked with journalist and Musk acolyte Brian Krassenstein that the offer was only for “at least one year.” I mean, I’m not crazy lol’
On the takedown discussion page, the editors label the Twitter files as “nothing civil” and “not notable.”
Musk seized on the debate, saying it shows how Wikipedia, like the mainstream media, has a left-wing bias that goes against his agenda.
He wrote on Twitter: ‘Most of the Earth: ‘The MSM is biased.’ Wikipedia: ‘Cite MSM source to confirm this claim.’ “Wikipedia has a non-trivial left-wing bias.”
The row came after Musk fired his general counsel James A. Baker, citing his alleged involvement in suppressing the release of internal documents about the Hunter Biden scandal.
“In light of concerns about Baker’s possible role in suppressing information important to public dialogue, he was left from Twitter today,” Musk wrote in a tweet on Tuesday.
Musk added that Baker’s explanation of the events surrounding the laptop saga was “unconvincing.”