{"id":2728,"date":"2026-06-22T23:36:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T23:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2728"},"modified":"2026-06-22T23:36:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T23:36:37","slug":"left-leaning-wikipedia-blocked-founder-from-editing-site-after-he-campaigned-to-make-it-more-balanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=2728","title":{"rendered":"Left-leaning Wikipedia blocked founder from editing site \u2014 after he campaigned to make it more balanced"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Left-leaning\u00a0website Wikipedia took the drastic action of blocking one of its founders from editing pages on Monday \u2014 after he had campaigned to make it more balanced and fair.<\/p>\n

Read more Exclusive | Video shows MSG concertgoer Paul Kueker jumping to his death \u2014 with witnesses saying dad of two appeared \u2018intoxicated\u2019: sources<\/a><\/p>\n

Last month, Larry Sanger launched WikiProject Intellectual Diversity (WID), a group designed to help reinforce the online encyclopedia\u2019s \u201coriginal, firm commitment to intellectual diversity,\u201d by emphasizing neutrality and transparency.<\/p>\n

However, Sanger \u2014 who coined the name \u201cWikipedia,\u201d drafted the site\u2019s foundational set of rules and guidelines, and launched the site alongside Jimmy Wales in 2001 \u2014 was indefinitely blocked from editing, the most drastic action the site can take against an editor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am flabbergasted,\u201d Sanger told The Post, saying the decision was made by a group of the site\u2019s volunteer editors. He described the modern Wikipedia community as being like a \u201cmob or a blob,\u201d noting users do not feel obligated to a specific vision of the rules, but rather to each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are constantly trying to gauge what other people think, and this is the way ultimately these people are able to influence each other,\u201d Sanger said. \u201cEven a lot of the hard and fast policies are regarded as just guidelines if everybody is on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanger became unpopular among the site\u2019s most prolific editors for making public calls for those whose viewpoints have typically been underrepresented \u2014 Hindus prominently, but also, most pointedly, American conservatives \u2014 to be more involved. The exact reason for his blocking was not given.<\/p>\n

Wikipedia makes a lot of noise about how its content is created by volunteer users, citing a figure of 267,000 people contributing or editing over the last 30 days on its website.<\/p>\n

However, Sanger has long argued the real power rests with a small, largely anonymous class of Wikipedia administrators \u2014 who he has identified as being just 62 accounts, which he calls the \u201cPower 62,\u201d of which 85% hide behind their screennames and have never revealed their true identities.<\/p>\n

For Sanger, the swiftness of the block highlights a glaring lack of procedural fairness. \u201cThere is no due process,\u201d he argued. \u201cPeople are being blocked\u2014in other words, disciplined\u2014and yet there is no respect for certain expectations that any other serious disciplinary procedure would be held to.\u201d<\/p>\n

He likened the platform\u2019s arbitration to being judged by a \u201cfaceless mob,\u201d with the absence of basic structural safeguards like a distinct prosecutor, jury, or opportunity to mount a formal defense.<\/p>\n

After making the fact he had been blocked public on X this Monday, Sanger\u2019s account was reinstated.<\/p>\n

Some editors had interjected with questions about the appropriateness of the block decision against Sanger, arguing it was hastily implemented. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The campaign to oust him was instigated by one of the most combative editors on the platform, who goes by the handle TarnishedPath. The same editor was a driving force behind one of the most controversial maneuvers in Wikipedia\u2019s recent history: a 12-month \u201cmoratorium\u201d that froze the lead of the site\u2019s \u201cZionism\u201d article, locking in a sentence that critics \u2014 and this reporter, in Tablet Magazine \u2014 have documented as effectively equating the movement for Jewish self-determination with ethnic cleansing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TarnishedPath has been extremely active in gender issues on Wikipedia, pushing strongly to have JK Rowling labeled \u201canti-trans\u201d or \u201ctransexclusionary radical feminist\u201d (TERF). The editor eventually placed a banner on Rowling\u2019s entry alleging it expressed a non-neutral point of view. \u201cShe should be referred to as having \u2018anti-trans\u2019 or \u2018trans-exclusionary radical feminist\u2019 views,\u201d the editor wrote last June.<\/p>\n

The editor wrote in 2023 of people who sought to lend credence to the idea that the theory that COVID-19 originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology: \u201cThey might have a political smear that they wish to push, but anyone who knows what terms properly mean, can\u2019t say that the Lab Leak conspiracy is a scientific theory with any sort of integrity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Iran has arrested more than 3,000 citizens for \u2018collaborating with the enemy\u2019 during war<\/a><\/p>\n

Just weeks ago, Wikipedia\u2019s own administrators banned TarnishedPath from editing in the entire Israel-Palestine subject area on account of the editor\u2019s problematic behavior.<\/p>\n

This didn\u2019t stop the anonymous editor from playing a key role in the ban of Sanger \u2014 indicating the kind of palace intrigue that Sanger has critiqued as being detrimental to the open exchange of ideas on Wikipedia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wikipedia has come under intense scrutiny for leftwing bias, including a successful effort to brand Donald Trump as a fascist and authoritarian.<\/p>\n

The site notably uses a list of reliable sources whose reporting can be cited as fact. While mainstream media outlets like CNN, New York Times, NBC, and BBC are almost universally rated as green for \u201cGenerally reliable,\u201d conservative outlets, including Fox News, Newsmax, and Federalist are rated red for \u201cGenerally unreliable\u201d\u2014 a rating lower than even Chinese state media outlet China Daily, which has a rating of yellow for sometimes reliable.<\/p>\n

To justify the ban against Sanger, editors categorized Sangers\u2019 recent efforts \u2014\u00a0most notably his intellectual diversity project \u2014 as \u201ccanvassing.\u201d Wikipedia policy describes canvassing as alerting other editors on the site about editorial activity \u201cwith the intention of influencing the outcome of a discussion in a particular way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sanger strongly pushed back against the canvassing charges, saying: \u201cThe people who found fault with that\u2026 pointed to the fact that I was recruiting for a project that, in their opinion, is aligned with the radical right wing, which is absolutely absurd,\u201d Sanger explained.<\/p>\n

However, the first sentence of that same policy specifies that \u201cit is perfectly acceptable to notify other editors of ongoing discussions, provided that it be done with the intent to improve the quality of the discussion by broadening participation to more fully achieve\u00a0consensus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanger has returned to being active on Wikipedia in recent months after a long hiatus. Last September, he published his \u201cNine Theses,\u201d a set of essays demanding a top-to-bottom overhaul of a site he argues has been captured by a \u201cGlobalist, Academic, Secular, and Progressive\u201d\u2014or GASP\u2014 worldview.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the eighth of Sanger\u2019s nine theses called for an end to the practice of indefinite blocking, which the co-founder called \u201cdraconian.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Sanger\u2019s return to active engagement had already thrown the site into turmoil. In November, Sanger\u2019s decision to weigh in on the Gaza genocide entry \u2014 one of the most contentious on the site \u2014 threw Wikipedia into what editors called \u201cpandemonium\u201d after Wikipedia\u2019s other co-founder, Jimmy Wales, waded into the Talk page of the same entry with a heavy critique.<\/p>\n

Reacting to his former partner stepping in to defend him, Sanger expressed appreciation, but remained fatalistic about his standing on the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so interesting that Jimmy has come out and defended me,\u201d Sanger noted. \u201cBut I have a feeling he\u2019s going to be very unsuccessful and that I am going to be permanently banned. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s ultimately going to make any difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sanger left Wikipedia in 2002, and Wales has largely erased any mention of him as co-founder.<\/p>\n

Wales stormed out of a podcast interview last November when asked about whether he was the sole founder of Wikipedia, telling the host: \u201cIt\u2019s stupid. Don\u2019t ask me stupid questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Golf Channel analyst unloads on Long Island fans as \u2018stain\u2019 on the game of golf after unruly behavior<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, Larry Sanger launched WikiProject Intellectual Diversity (WID), a group designed to help reinforce the online encyclopedia\u2019s \u201coriginal, firm commitment to intellectual diversity,\u201d by emphasizing neutrality and transparency. 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