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New Delhi [India], May 5 (ANI): A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Supreme Court to direct the Respondent the Ministry of Ayush and the Ministry of IT and Electronics to take necessary steps that compel Wikimedia Foundation to remove references from the articles regarding Ayurveda published on its website.

The PIL further sought direction to the respondent Ministry of Ayush to consider the representation dated October 2, 2021, sent by the petitioners.

The petitioner, Ayurvedic Medicine Manufacturers Organisation of India (AMMOI), is an association registered under the Travancore-Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Act, 1955 was established to find remedies to the common problems of manufacturers of Ayurvedic medicines. The Association was registered at Trichur, Kerala.

The petitioner organization, through its petition moved by advocates Shweta Garg, Robin Raju, Deepa Joseph and Blessan Mathews, has highlighted an article that is published about Ayurveda on Wikipedia as maligning, defamatory and biased.

The contents of the matter shown on Wikipedia totally malign the natural system of

medicine which has a history of more than 3,000 years and is widely respected and accepted the world over, the petitioner said, pointing out the fact that the incumbent Government of India has also constituted a separate Ministry named AYUSH for Ayurveda and other alternative medicine systems.

The petition further stated that the Constitution of a separate ministry is an acknowledgment of this ancient stream of medicine, the petition said.

The petition said that the matter of concern for the petitioner is that the second line of the article published on Wikipedia, which is hosted by the Respondent Wikimedia Foundation, terms Ayurveda as a pseudoscientific, and needlessly at the start of the article cites the statement of Indian Medial Association that describes Ayurvedic practitioners as Quacks. The referred article has unnecessarily and purely with the intent to tarnish Ayurveda, the plea said.

That the matter of concern is that this utterly absurd, poorly researched and prejudiced article pops up as the first article when Ayurveda is searched on Google, The petition said.

This article also affects the morale of the thousands of Ayurvedic practitioners in India and the World over. The article published does more harm to a natural system of medicine which has legacy and acceptance for thousands of years, the petition said.

It reiterated that the contents of the article do harm to the hard-earned reputation of Ayurveda, built through sheer dedication and constant research over a substantial span of time.

The said articles clearly overlook the fact that there are numerous Ayurvedic Medical colleges in the country where Millions have been invested and innumerable people visit for treatment, the petition said. (ANI)

This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.

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PIL in SC seeking removal of defamatory references on Ayurveda from Wikipedia - ThePrint

THE Tories and Labour have been accused of attempting to hide their coalition on West Lothian Council days before the local election after an anonymous user removed their partnership from the local authoritys Wikipedia page.

The edit was picked up by Livingston South Green candidate Cameron Glasgow who noticed the Conservative part of the coalition formed in 2017 had been removed from a table showing the councils electoral history, leaving it to just say Scottish Labour Party.

An anonymous user thought to be from the Edinburgh area according to the IP address had made the change just before 10pm on Sunday.

Glasgow said on social media the low move showed the Tories wanted to hide the fact they chose to team up with Labour to form an administration in 2017 just before voters go to the polls on Thursday.

While sharing a screenshot of the edit, he tweeted: I know the @ScotTories dont like to acknowledge the agreement with @ScottishLabour in West Lothian Council, but editing Wikipedia at night to hide the fact is a low move.

The electoral history table was edited to look like this

In a panel down the right-hand side of the Wikipedia page, it still says only Labour form the administration and the Conservatives are under other parties.

Once Glasgow spotted the edit, he swiftly corrected it to make sure residents were clear on the facts before heading to the ballot box.

The edit history shows the change was made on Sunday night

Anyone can edit Wikipedia pages at any time.

Glasgow added: Labour and the Conservatives have been in an alliance in West Lothian for around 10 years, although both are very keen to deny this.

The joint administration have continually used the constitutional debate to block any opposition.

Both Labour and the Tories have distanced themselves from each other in West Lothian but trying to rewrite history like this is shocking.

READ MORE:New Labour grandees in London Wetherspoons bash for '97 anniversary

I'm glad I managed to catch this and change it back as it's important that people know the facts that voting Labour in West Lothian is a vote for the Conservatives.

Greens will never go into any kind of agreement with the Tories. Our focus is on building a fairer, greener future and securing the first Green councillors in West Lothian.

Although his tweet only accuses the Tories of making the edit, Glasgowtold the National he felt it could've been either group attempting to cover up the alliance.

READ MORE:BBC refuses to say why it hasn't covered Tory peer Michelle Mone's London house raid

The Tories have since hit back and said a conspiracy theory has been conjured up and they are completely unaware of any activity on the Wikipedia page.

A Scottish Conservative spokesperson said: We've not got the slightest idea what's happened on the West Lothian Wikipedia page and we won't be looking into any conspiracy theories on that front either.

There's an important election on Thursday and we're going to focus on that."

Scottish Labour have refused to comment.

Here is the original post:
Tories and Labour accused of covering up Better Together coalition in Wikipedia edit - The National

There's a Wikipedia page just for toilet paper folding techniques at hotels.

There's also a Wiki list dedicated to sexually active popes. Another list focuses on future astronomical events.

Annie Rauwerda is well aware. The 22-year-old University of Michigan student spends about an hour each day scouring the web for anything delightful or weird. Then, she shares those findings to her viral page, Depths of Wikipedia.

Rauwerda, a Grand Rapids native, started Depths of Wikipedia in 2020 while she was bored during COVID lockdown. Now, it has more than one million followers across Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

WKARs Sarah Lehr spoke with Rauwerda about her favorite corners of the internets largest crowdsourced encyclopedia.

Interview Highlights

On how casual browsers should approach Wikipedia

On the fan base and sensibility of Depths of Wikipedia

Interview Transcript

Kevin Lavery, host: Did you know Wikipedia has a page just for toilet paper folding techniques at hotels? Or that Wikipedia keeps a list of sexually active popes?

Annie Rauwerda knows. The 22-year-old University of Michigan student scours the web for anything delightful or weird and shares those findings to her viral page, Depths of Wikipedia.

Rauwerda, a Grand Rapids native, started Depths of Wikipedia in 2020 while she was bored during COVID lockdown. Now, it has more than one million followers across Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

WKARs Sarah Lehr spoke with Rauwerda about her favorite corners of the internets largest crowdsourced encyclopedia.

Sarah Lehr: If you're just meeting someone and they're not extremely online, how would you describe what Depths of Wikipedia is?

Annie Rauwerda: I screenshot things on Wikipedia that I think are interesting or funny or make you slow your scroll just a little bit.

Lehr: Have there been posts from Depths of Wikipedia that really took off in a way that surprised you you didn't think they would necessarily be so popular?

Rauwerda: One that was popular that I didn't quite expect was, there is this photo of popcorn and they showed two different types of popcorn kernels and one is called a mushroom it's a circle, and the other has little things sticking out of it more wispy and they call it a butterfly. And I've eaten popcorn many times. I have thought a little bit about the different shapes of popcorn. I have never known that there were names. And it started a big debate and Twitter and Instagram (people) were arguing about the merits of the mushroom and the butterfly-shaped popcorn.

Lehr: Do you have any advice for other people for using Wikipedia and vetting what they're looking at? What should they be looking out for?

Rauwerda: I think Wikipedia is one of the most incredible things that exists the way that it self-moderates, the way that it allows for democratic discussion. I think Wikipedia has like this ethos of the early internet before we had these big giants that were capitalizing off of it and I think it's the best site ever.

Obviously, Wikipedia has inaccuracies on it. It's the encyclopedia that everyone can edit. So, definitely don't believe every single thing you read on Wikipedia. But the best way to engage with it is to read everything with a grain of salt. If you're not sure about something, check the citation that's on Wikipedia. And if you if you're not quite satisfied with the way something is discussed on Wikipedia, look into editing it and changing it.

Lehr: Are there aspects of Wikipedia that you think could be improved as someone who's very, very familiar with the platform?

Rauwerda: Oh my gosh, yes. Editing Wikipedia is never ending. And sometimes people wonder they're like, Okay, well, I mean, Wikipedia has, like, almost 7 million articles in English at least. What else do you need? But, in reality, like the world is always changing. Every article needs updating.

For example, you know, the population of Battle Creek. I was just looking on Wikipedia and the last citation was from 2019. And I was like Oh, I gotta quick update this. Another problem with Wikipedia, I would say, is that it can be very hard to start editing. The Wikipedia editor demographics do not represent the English speakers in the world. Right now, the percentage of Wikipedia editors that are male, it's somewhere in the 80s, in the 80 percents, which is a little bit better than it used to be, but it's certainly still not equal. And so there are projects like Wiki Women in Red that are working to get more female editors.

Lehr: How would you describe the sense of humor that your pages have and do you think there are any generational aspects and who your fans are?

Rauwerda: I do. I have statistics from Instagram of who my followers are and the demographics are pretty interesting. The gender distribution is pretty down the middle and the ages are mostly like 15 to 35. I have a friend and her mom told me, she's like, Annie, I don't get it, but my daughter loves it. And I do think that's true. It skews young.

I think the humor is kind of subtle, and there's no clear punch line. And it's less about like a ha-ha, knee- slapper joke and more about like a, oh, you kind of breathe heavily out of your nostrils because this thing is kind of interesting and a little bit funny. One example of is there's this molecule. It's an organic compound and its just the way that this molecule looks exactly like a teenage mutant ninja turtle. And so I posted it and I said, forbidden Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, and people thought it was really funny. I would say that the humor is subtle, maybe is the best word.

Lavery: That was WKAR's Sarah Lehr talking with Depths of Wikipedia creator Annie Rauwerda.

This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

Original post:
Depths of Wikipedia: Meet the Michigander who scours the web for anything weird and wonderful - WKAR

What does this mean for the worlds accumulated knowledge?

For more than 20 years now, people can look up online answers to all manner of questions. With some 50 million articles in almost 300 languages, Wikipedia would appear to be a treasure trove of knowledge. Anyone can contribute. But little is known about the individual creators of this enormous pool of information. What motivates them to devote unpaid time in the service of human knowledge?

And what happens if the collective is infiltrated by contributors with a hidden agenda in the pay of nations or industry giants? Why is 85% of the content provided by whats become known as stereotypical "angry white men contributing content that they consider relevant for the planet? And will artificial intelligence soon take over? This film provides a critical appraisal of the pros and cons of the online encyclopedia.

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world.wide.wikipedia - Whos Feeding the Hive Mind? - DW (English)

Steven Pruitt, the Virginia resident who has made over 3 million edits on Wikipedia.

For every article that you read on Wikipedia, there is a writer and an editor. A towering figure among them is Steven Pruitt, the Virginia resident who has made over three million edits on the "free encyclopedia".

Mr Pruitt made the news back in 2017 when TimeMagazine named him one of the 25 most influential people on the internet, alongside former US President Donald Trump, JK Rowling and Kim Kardashian. Since 2006, he has made over three million Wikipedia edits, more than any other English-language editor. He has personally also written hundreds of new articles on influential women in order to correct Wikipedia's gender imbalance and also strengthen the backbone of the platform itself.

Wikipedia is such an incredible tool because it makes so much information accessible to so many people at once, he told Time.

Mr Pruitt was named one of the most influential people on the internet in part because one-third of all English language articles in the online encyclopedia have been edited by him. He goes by the name Ser Amantio di Nicolao on Wikipedia, the name of his favourite Opera character. In an interview with CBS News, Mr Pruitt revealed that he is deeply obsessed with historyand his first article was about Peter Francisco, who was his great great great great great great grandfather.

Mr Pruitt's primary profession is at the US Customs Office, where he organises documents. However, in the evening, after completing his duties, he spends more than three hours a day researching, editing and writing for the online portal. He doesn't receive any compensation for his work, but he has remained true to his interests.

"The idea of making it all free fascinates me. My mother grew up in the Soviet Union... So I'm very conscious of that -what it can mean to make knowledge free, to make information free," he said.

Further, speaking to CBS News, Mr Pruitt revealed that the longest he has gone without editing Wikipedia is two or three weeks. In fact, WikiMedia's vice president of communications, Kui Kinyanjui, had also stated that the site would not exist without the dedication of its volunteers, especially Steven Pruitt.

We're very excited about projects like Women in Red, which seeks to identify and place more content on women on our platform... Steven has been a large contributor to that project," Kui Kinyanjui said.

Several of the other top 10 Wikipedia editors also agree that Mr Pruitt's contributions have been remarkable.He is notable not just for the sheer number of articles and edits he has contributed, but for what he chooses to highlight as well. For example, he learned that women were the subjects of just 15 per cent of biographical articles on the site, and worked to fix that imbalance by writing hundreds of articles about influential women.

To put into perspective what it took for Mr Pruitt to become the top editor, he has been dedicating his free time to the site for more than 13 years now.

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Steven Pruitt, The Man Who Has Freely Edited Over 3 Million Articles On Wikipedia - NDTV