Are foreigners deleting Wikipedia's India content?

MUMBAI, INDIA: Wikipedia, the free web-based, collaborative and multilingual encyclopedia project run by Wikimedia Foundation, is accessed by millions of users globally as a source of reference and information.

However, India’s contribution to this online collaborative multilingual encyclopedia remains low as there are not many Indian users that are registered with the site and involved in writing, editing or approval of content and articles.

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Because of the low presence of Indian registered users with Wikipedia, majority of the submitted articles and content from India are edited, reviewed or approved by non-Indian users.

This has led to such a situation that many Wikipedia users in India are alleging that many articles and content on local subjects and topics have been altered, misinterpreted and even deleted after uploading.

According to Mumbai-based Kundan Amitabh, Ang India Technologies’ managing director, the submitted content or articles for the English Wikipedia site by Indian users is largely edited by non-Indians.

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“These foreigners’ edit or modify the submitted Indian content and articles as per their own knowledge and understanding. As they are based outside India they often alter the content or even go to the extremes of deletion,” Amitabh alleges.

Sharing his own experiences with Wikipedia, he says, “I myself have come across many times, where the articles or content on Indian topics were found missing or altered in short time after being uploaded.”

Since 2004, Amitabh has been using Wikipedia and is involved in writing and editing of articles and content in Hindi language.

Meanwhile, Pradeep Mohandas, a Wikipedia member from Mumbai rejects the allegations made by Amitabh, but admits that he has deleted local advertisements that were found on a Wikipage created by him.

For the past two years, Mohadas regularly contributes and edits articles on the subject of Astronomy. About the content distortion allegations he comments, “I write my articles quoting the names of journals, references along with the reference links. Hence, I haven’t come across any incident where my articles or content was deleted or altered.”

Even Amitabh agrees on content references and says, “The content or articles doesn’t get deleted if there are references or sources mentioned.”

“To confront with the issue of outside users who edit the content, we need to develop guidelines for Wikipedia users in India. Firstly, there aren’t many Indian registered users who can edit or submit content about India related topics or subjects,” stresses Amitabh, adding, “And secondly, the users need to be educated about providing facts, figures, references and even sources to curb the chances of deletion.”

Even Barry Newstead, WikiMedia Foundation’s chief global officer (CGO) was briefed about the issues faced by Indian users such as the content deletion. Newstead was in India a few months back when Wikipedia announced its India operations.