Wikipedia turns 25 today but faces more threats than ever before

Wikipedia is today celebrating its 25th birthday, but its long-term future has never been less certain due to a range of threats with the potential to become a perfect storm ... Wikipedia turns 25 I rarely feel my age, but there are certain tech anniversaries that bring me out in a slight sweat; the idea that Wikipedia is now a quarter of a century old is one of those. The site launched on this day in 2001 with just four pages . Today it has more than 65 million, and receives billions of views per month. The Wikimedia Foundation has celebrated the achievement with a new microsite . Wikipedia was first founded on January 15, 2001. Today, 25 years later, it has become the backbone of knowledge on the internet, informing everything from day-to-day life and AI chatbots to journalism and trivia wins. Nearly 250,000 volunteers write, edit, and fact check its 65 million articles across 300+ languages, all guided by standards on neutrality and reliability. You can watch a celebratory video, enjoy a historical look at key stages in the development of the site, take a quiz about your attitude to the future, and purchase Wiki merchandise . Wiki faces multiple threats But Wired notes that despite all its achievements, Wikipedia has never been under greater threat. Forces on the political right have attacked Wikipedia for alleged liberal bias, with the conservative Heritage Foundation going so far as to say that it will “ identify and target ” the site’s volunteer editors. AI bots have relentlessly scraped Wikipedia’s information, straining the site’s servers . Compounding these issues is the struggle to replenish the project’s volunteer community, the so-called graying of Wikipedia. Perhaps the biggest threat of all is an existential one. The foreboding feeling that the culture has drifted away from Wikipedia’s founding ideals. Aiming for neutrality, evaluating sources, volunteering for the public benefit, sustaining a noncommercial online project, these concepts seem at best old-fashioned and at worst useless in today’s overtly partisan, lawless, antihuman, “greed is good” phase of the internet. The full piece is worth reading, and ends with a stark warning that whether or not Wikipedia survives is ultimately up to us. Official Apple Store on Amazon Wireless CarPlay adapter NordVPN - privacy-first VPN with no logs and independent audits to verify Official Apple iPhone Air cases and bumpers iPhone Air MagSafe Battery Official iPhone cases : iPhone 17 | iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max | iPhone Air Image: Wikimedia Foundation FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on exclusive stories , reviews , how-tos , and subscribe to our YouTube channel

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