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Elon Musk urged people to stop donating to ‘Wokepedia’ and they did the opposite – the Farage RNLI effect in action

Oonagh Keating. Updated December 30th, 2024

Elon Musk‘s ongoing feud with Wikipedia flared up again over the holiday season, after the right-wing Libs of TikTok account thought it had found evidence of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) hiring at the online encyclopaedia.

They shared a chart that caught the eye of the tech billionaire-turned-political-bankroller.

Wikipedia’s annual budget report from 2023—2024 reveals that they spent over $50 million of their total $177 million budget on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Stop donating to Wokepedia. With a pie chart showing that two sections of Wikipedia spending were 'Equity' and 'Safety and Inclusion'

Musk repeated their plea to stop funding ‘Wokepedia’ – a name he had used in the past, albeit with a slightly different spelling.

Stop donating to Wokepedia until they restore balance to their editing authority

It followed his 2023 offer of a billion dollars to the company if it would change its name to ‘Dickipedia’ – which he claims is still on the table.

I will give them a billion dollars if they change their name to Dickipedia

Wikipedia’s ‘editing authority’, however, is the public, or to be specific, a community of volunteers – something that is common knowledge even to people who aren’t frequently described as geniuses. There is literally zero DEI hiring in the commonly understood sense.

What the company described as ‘Equity’ referred to its drive to make Wikipedia easier to access in areas that currently don’t use it frequently, and to include content relevant to wider demographics, while they described ‘Safety and Inclusion’ as an intention to –

“Defend our people and projects against disinformation and harmful government regulation. Work across the Movement to Provide for the Safety of Volunteers.”

We’re not sure whether it’s their opposition to disinformation or their attempt to protect workers from harm that most offends Musk.

via GIPHY

People commented on his Christmas Eve social media activity.

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It apparently didn’t have quite the effect he’d hoped.

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It reminded a few people of a similar backfire.

Oh, and this is what Musk had to say about Wikipedia before it became important to him to avoid being fact-checked.

I love Wikipedia. Just gets better over time.

Let that sink in.

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There’s a fundraiser to name an RNLI lifeboat after Nigel Farage and he’s absolutely fuming

Image Wikipedia Screengrab