Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia, said on Thursday that the firm hasn’t received an official notice from the Indian government over alleged concentrated editorial control and persistent complaints about bias and inaccuracies on the platform.
A number of outlets, including TechCrunch, reported on Tuesday that the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had questioned the encyclopedia’s intermediary status that’s offered to tech platforms in India.
A Wikimedia spokesperson denied receiving an official notice from the Indian government in the last two days and said the foundation “stands behind its community of volunteers and core values, enabling millions worldwide to access well-sourced information at no cost.”
The Indian ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The supposed query from Ministry of Information and Broadcasting follows a contentious case in the Delhi High Court, where judges have described Wikipedia’s open editing feature as “dangerous” and threatened to suspend its operations in India. The court is hearing a defamation case brought by news agency Asian News International, which seeks to identify Wikipedia contributors who allegedly characterized the news agency as a “propaganda tool” for India’s government.
Justice Navin Chawla had dismissed Wikipedia’s plea for additional time to respond due to its lack of physical presence in India, warning of initiating contempt proceedings against the platform if it failed to comply with orders to disclose user information. “If you don’t want to comply with Indian regulations, then don’t operate in India,” the judge stated.
Wikipedia has maintained that its volunteer editors must adhere to its established policies regarding verifiable content and legal guidelines, though this defense has faced increasing scrutiny from Indian authorities concerned about the platform’s content moderation practices.
Nikhil Pahwa, editor of MediaNama and a prominent voice on technology policy, questioned the legal basis of the government’s move, arguing that India’s IT law determines platform status based on function rather than the number of editors.
“You can be a platform with one user/editor or a billion,” he wrote on X.
“Wikipedia volunteers carefully curate information from reliable news sources and other reputable external publications; they don’t add original content to the site,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch. “This approach ensures that Wikipedia compiles information from credible sources. All sources are cited on article pages, upholding our commitment to transparency. Wikipedia articles are required by its editorial policies to maintain a neutral point of view. Volunteers from many backgrounds and political persuasions edit Wikipedia. This model reinforces that Wikipedia articles present a broad view of knowledge on a topic, rather than any one perspective.”
The story has been updated with Wikimedia’s comment.
