In early August 2023, the news was widely spread that Larry Sender confessed to the intervention of the American special services in the work of the largest Internet encyclopedia. We checked whether he claimed this.

Senger from August 1 to August 3 on Telegram wrote channels about the "caming out" Readovka (885,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Signal" (426 000) and "Sheikh Tamir" (144,000), as well as a TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov (199,000) and showman Andrey Bocharov (113,000). Plot Also I got it in a row regional And federal Media (in particular, about Senger's statement "Sight", "Gazeta.ru" And "News 24/7"), Distant in" "VKontakte", on the platforms "Zen" And "Picabu". In publications Approvedthat, according to Larry Sanger, the signs of US intelligence agencies in Wikipedia have appeared in 2008 and since that time their activity has increased, and since 2015 the site has been used to promote the agenda of the Levoliberal Istscd. In some videos with Senger's monologue, common In VKontakte, in the subtitles you can see the phrase that the encyclopedia "went under government control" at the same time.

On July 31, Larry Sender gave an interview to journalist Glenn Greenwald for his System Update program. Throughout a 25-minute conversation under the broadcast called Wikipedia: from Democratized Knowledge to Left-Establishment Propaganda (“Wikipedia”: from democratized knowledge to the promotion of the left-wing establishment ”) We discussed the history of the free encyclopedia and its problems, in particular the issue of the quality of articles and neutrality of authors and moderators.

The dissolved information about the recognition of Senger relys on his answer to one of the questions: does it not seem to him that the “ideologization of journalism” that occurred during Trump’s presidency also spread to Wikipedia, which should be true, but “no longer exists without ideological coloring”? Literally Senger's answer (1:13:39) It sounded as follows: “They are not guided by the original policy of the neutrality of Wikipedia or something like that, it does not bother them at all. They focus on CNN, MSNBC, New York Times and what these publications consider it convenient to say. And you also need to remember that they stated that 80% of the news sources on the right side are unreliable. Officially. Such is their policy at the moment. Many are not aware of this, but this is true. And this really stains the articles and the fact that editors allow to write in articles. But a deeper explanation is ... It seems that I now propose to develop a conspiracy theory. But in essence, the left - and this is not such a conspiracyology, everyone knows and believe in it, right? - They are very purposefully looking for opportunities to take control. Of course, not only the left, we are all subject to this, right? There is a gray zone, as in the example that you have brought. This is an establishment, they have their own agenda. And I do not want to express any opinions, because I did not study how they achieve this. Obviously, in the period from 2005 to 2015, Wikipedia was in the field of view of the establishment. And we really have evidence that - it seems that Vörjil Griffith discovered this in 2008 - the CIA and FBI computers were used to edit Wikipedia. Do you think they stopped doing it? No. And not only them. We know that intelligence now, most of the intelligence activities are now an information war online. And where, if not on sites such as Wikipedia, right? So they bribe the most influential people to promote their agenda. Or create their own talents within the community, teaching them to “play the Wikipedia”, and then promote what they want to say through their own people. This is what I think about it. ”

As can be seen from the text, Larry Sanger’s responsibility containing a number of reservations containing a number of reservations, and he does not say about the “transition of the Wikipedia” for government control. For the most part, he expresses his opinion and position, operating, including a well -known fact: in 2007, the programmer Vöril Griffith developed a program for tracking anonymous amendments Wikiscanner, with which it was possible to find that a number of articles were edited from computers in the CIA and FBI networks. The fact that Wikipedia can rule anyone is also no secret, but that by this Used And officials use and, probably, special services of different countries, for many years the Wiki community itself has been discussing, including Russian -speaking. Activists seek to track the dubious statements, distortions, propaganda and other information prohibited in the rules of the free encyclopedia that appear in the articles. If such activity is detected, the community collects evidence, publicly discusses them, and the result of discussions may be deprivation of violators of editing rights or blocking the account.

In the same interview, but a few minutes later, answering another Grinwald question, Sender recalls that he is not an expert in the internal affairs of Wikipedia because he left the project. Russian-speaking Telegram channels, in turn, ignored that the Signer He left Wikipedia back in 2002, and from the mid-2000s regularly Speaks with criticism free encyclopedia, Trying With varying success to create a competitor to her. One of the main conceptual claims of Senger is that the moderators Do not observe The principle of neutrality, which intention The creators should be central to Wikipedia. In his blog and in an interview, Sender has expressed his Enchanting The understanding of this principle in which neutrality prevails over factuality or scientific consensus, and it defends this concept, including throughout the interview with Greenwald.

The problem of the bias of some moderators and editors of Wikipedia is also not news, on the contrary, this issue is constantly discussed in the community itself, and in the English version of the encyclopedia the problem of the bias of editors in different countries is devoted to a separate large article. From year to year, accusing Wikipedia of the absence of balance, bias and participation in levoliberal propaganda, Sender does not give any evidence of the bribery of moderators or other direct external intervention (including from the special services) to the work of the encyclopedia.

We also note that the information given by Senger about 80% of the news sources officially declared on the right side, apparently the result of distortion: “verified” could not detect such information in open sources, the 80% indicator appears in American studies of media consumption in another context. So, in the 2018 Gallup poll It is saidthat the US residents consider 80% of the news on social networks and 62% in traditional media.

Thus, in an interview with Glenn Grinwald, Larry Sender really expressed his conviction that Wikipedia ceased to be a neutral source and the maintenance of the articles in the encyclopedia strive to influence the special services and political establishment. However, the Sender did not give any evidence. At the same time, his words are not recognition and a sensation: the co -founder of the free encyclopedia has not been involved in its work for 20 years, most of this time criticizes her, and almost any user has the possibility of entering the Wikipedia content. Every day, thousands of people use it, among whom there may well be employees of various special services. Russian -speaking publications about Senger’s statement are deprived of context, the essence of the statements is distorted in part of them, and in some posts the words of Sanger are completely distorted.

Photo on the cover: Stop frame from the Glenna Greenwald program.