The affected administrators were already given a global ban on the platform last month. Wikimedia had justified the ban with conflicts of interest. Now the two organizations DAWN and SMEX have disclosed what the specific reason for this was. According to DAWN, Saudi Arabia has recruited the country’s top 16 administrators as agents to control information about the state and track users. Wikipedia editors and administrators work on a gratuitous and voluntary basis and can achieve various ranks.
Infographic: Wikipedia has a maintenance issue
A good two years ago, the two Saudi Wikipedia administrators Osama Khalid and Ziyad al-Sofiani became loud The Guardians Arrested for “influencing public opinion” and “violating public morals” and sentenced to five and eight years’ imprisonment. In September, a court extended Osama Khalid’s sentence to 32 years. The editors are said to have published critical information about political prisoners in Saudi Arabia. The administrators have also contributed to articles accusing the government of human rights violations.
Wikimedia denies an infiltration
Wikimedia has noisy BBC however, denied that agents from the country infiltrated a team in the Middle East. Despite anomalies in the activities of the blocked administrators, there is no evidence, contrary to the reports from DAWN and SMEX, that Saudi Arabia has influenced the content of the encyclopedia. The Saudi Arabian government has not yet officially commented on the issue.
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