The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has summoned executives of the Wikimedia Foundation, the organisation that runs Wikipedia, seeking an explanation on how the Wikipedia page of Indian cricketer Arshdeep Singh was vandalised Sunday night after he dropped a crucial catch during a Asia Cup match that India eventually lost against Pakistan. Key details on Singh’s Wikipedia page about his nationality were edited with references to ‘Khalistan’. The cricketer was also subjected to vicious trolling on social media after he dropped the catch in the 18th over of the match. What are MeitY’s concerns? Senior government officials said that the edits could potentially lead to national security issues for the country and have implications of law and order. They said that the edits were made using networks that originated from neighbouring countries. “We will ask them how such edits could be allowed to stay on their site which could have serious implications for India’s national security and law and order in the country,” a senior government official said. A review of the edits on the cricketer’s Wikipedia page shows that the first edits with reference to 'Khalistan' were made by a user using the Internet on the network of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), the country’s state-owned telecom company. Reacting to the incident, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrashekhar tweeted, “No intermediary operating in India can permit this type of misinformation and deliberate efforts to incitement and user harm - it violates our government’s expectation of a safe & trusted Internet”. How do edits on Wikipedia work? Wikipedia pages are written and edited by volunteers, and when someone makes an edit on a certain page, the task can not be completed until the user either logs in or completes the task anonymously. In case a user logs in to make an edit, the edit history of a page shows their username along with the edit they have made. If a user makes an edit anonymously, the platform records their IP address. Anyone can make an edit on a Wikipedia page and changes are typically visible to everyone. However, there are certain safeguards. Wikipedia has page histories, so along with the latest version, the previous version will exist too, available to both readers and editors. Wikipedia editors monitor what is happening across the site on a page that lists all the most recent changes, and they will revert to the older version if the latest change is erroneous or malicious. The website also uses bots to weed out wrong or misleading information. How has Wikipedia reacted to the incident? Acknowledging that the Ministry has sought answers about the vandalism, a spokesperson for Wikimedia Foundation said that the wrongful edits made on Singh’s page were “removed within minutes by Wikipedia's volunteer community”. “Right now, the article on English Wikipedia is semi-protected (which allows edits by only trusted users) to restrict further vandalism on the page.” “Vandalism does occur on Wikipedia from time to time, as can occur in any open, online platform. It is a violation of the trust and good faith of our editors and readers, and runs contrary to the values on which Wikipedia is based. The majority of vandalism on Wikipedia is reverted by bots or editors within minutes, as was done in this recent case,” the spokesperson added.
