Of course not, we have a strong bias in favour of freedom of information, accuracy, and verifiability to reliable sources. Also, officially, civil discourse and decision by consensus. It is written into our basic policies (speaking as an en: Wikipedian, other projects may differ). Most policy will impose some kind of bias. As soon as there is something one may not do, or must do, there is a bias. Cheers, Peter
-----Original Message----- From: Wikimedia-l [mailto:wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Tito Dutta Sent: 26 April 2020 01:43 To: Wikimedia Mailing List Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Is the Wikimedia-movement apolitical?
Greetings, It is asked: "are we apolitical?" A spin-off question: "are we unbiased?" On Wikipedia, we (are to) provide and serve knowledge/information, not any particular view(s)
Thanks Tito Dutta
On Sun, 26 Apr 2020 at 00:34, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l < wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Agreed. There is no way to get around the fact that some people oppose our message of free access to our projects for everyone, and the actions we make in favor of that goal are often political.
However, there is a very large gap between publicly supporting such policies as a less regulated internet, copyright advocacy, etc., and Earth Day Live's endorsed viewpoint.
If they were solely about Earth Day, we'd have no issues, as the few people who oppose Earth Day are probably living in the mountains somewhere with a half dozen solar panels and tinfoil hats to protect themselves from the flying saucers surveying the flat earth.
The problem I have with Earth Day Live is that, were the Wikimedia Foundation to publicly endorse those views, it would inherently be isolating of people who do not share them. For example, there were many people on the endorsed streams advocating for all industries to have unions and a universal $15 minimum wage. Ignoring the fact that it's specifically American and was shown to everyone globally, I do not support either of those policies for various reasons (primarily that much of my work is done for under $15/hr, and I would likely lose some of those jobs), and should not be forced at odds with the WMF's party line.
If the Foundation begins publicly endorsing certain policies or viewpoints that are not directly a part of the mission which we all agree with and work towards, people who disagree with those viewpoints would be forced into opposition of the foundation intended to represent the work they volunteer for Wikimedia projects. Our intention is to deliver unbiased information to people, and if the Foundation has a declared political stance other than our mission statement, it also opens the Foundation to legitimate criticism on claims of bias.
There is also the argument of timelessness. Two hundred years ago there was a very different political landscape with very different arguments taking place. Two hundred years from now, provided humanity still exists, would likely be very different than today. Assuming that the WMF and Wikipedia will still be around, is it better to attempt to remain out of political advocacy (with the exception of our mission), or to take distinct political stances whenever the political field shifts? I fall in the former category.
Best regards, Chris Gates (User:Vermont)
On Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 12:45 PM Camelia Boban camelia.boban@gmail.com wrote:
Absolutely agree with both. Everything we do in the wiki movement (as everything we do in our whole life) has (also) a political meaning. As we have certain goals and we take certain positions.
Camelia
-- *Camelia Boban*
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Il giorno sab 25 apr 2020 alle ore 18:12 Rebecca O'Neill < rebeccanineil@gmail.com> ha scritto:
Well said. Everything is political, and when the movement choses not to speak out or state an opinion on something, then we are giving our
support
to the status quo.
Believing yourself to be apolitical is as much a fantasy as being completely objective, it is inherently impossible.
Rebecca
On Sat, 25 Apr 2020, 16:50 John Erling Blad, jeblad@gmail.com wrote:
It is said quite often that the Wikimedia-movement is apolitical. In strongly believe the movement with its goal has never been, and never
will
be apolitical. When we say that knowledge should be free and fully available for everyone, then we make a political statement. It may
not
align with you favorite love/hate political party, but it is still a
very
strong political statement.
So please, don't claim the movement to be apolitical. We may not
align
with
any specific political party in any specific country, but we are
still
not
apolitical.
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