Wikipedia Content Moderation:
India summoned officials of Wikipedia, in response to a national cricketer’s Wikipedia page being edited with misleading information.
- The Minister of State for Electronics and IT has expressed that no intermediary operating in India can permit this type of misinformation, as it violated the government’s expectation of a safe and trusted internet.
- Content Moderation refers to the process of ensuring user-generated content upholds platform-specific guidelines and rules to establish the suitability of the content for publishing.
- Under the majority of laws regulating online content, intermediaries are endowed with immunity from the user generated content they host, provided they maintain some due diligence over their platforms.
- In previous challenges to the content on wikipedia, it has been ruled that the Wikimedia Foundation does not own the content, and does not have the legal responsibility for it.
- However, administrators or editors have taken notice of the content concerns arising out of the situation and have made suitable edits.
- Wikimedia can also “contribute, monitor or delete content” for legal compliance.
- Therefore, it is arguable that since Wikimedia can exercise such power, it can be held responsible for illegal content being hosted on Wikipedia.
