<
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/may/04/wikipedia-founder-brands-australias-social-media-ban-an-unmitigated-disaster-and-an-embarrassment>
"Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, has branded the Australian social media ban
an “unmitigated disaster” and an “embarrassment” that is teaching kids to
accept surveillance from tech companies when they go online.
The online encyclopaedia that anyone can edit was born in a world before social
media, in 2001. But Wales told
Guardian Australia that many of the ills of
social media existed even in the earlier stages of the internet.
“Before social media, before Wikipedia, there was Usenet, which was like a
giant, unmoderated message board,” he said.
“It was unbelievably toxic: flame wars constantly and personal attacks and just
general horribleness.
“Humans don’t need algorithms to be mean to each other. We can do it on our
own, so we shouldn’t be too rose-tinted about the past.”
Wales is visiting Australia in May for writers’ festivals promoting his book,
Seven Rules of Trust, a look at how the model of trust between people who
edit Wikipedia pages can be applied to political polarisation in modern
discourse.
The seven rules include being transparent, making discussion between two people
personal and being courteous.
Wales said the core bedrock rule of the Wikipedia community is no personal
attacks.
“If you are attacking the other person, that’s really viewed negatively in the
Wikipedia world,” he said.
“It’s very different from a lot of free-wheeling social media, where if you fly
off the handle and start attacking someone, the algorithm notices that you’re
causing engagement and you get promoted and get more followers.”
Wales describes the current social media environment as one where users are
“just serfs on the master’s estate” where rules are made from above, enforced
by “anonymous, faceless moderators” who work for the platforms.
“Whereas at Wikipedia, it’s all in the hands of the community.”
Despite his criticisms of social media – including the algorithms that are part
of the Albanese government’s justification for banning under 16s from the
platforms such as X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok – Wales expressed his
opposition to government policies, such as that in Australia, for keeping teens
off social media.
“I think it’s an unmitigated disaster, and it’s an embarrassment,” he said.
“When it comes with demands that we adults have to prove our age, ie identify
ourselves with personally identifying information … this is madness and it’s
really unsafe.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
