Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says 'Twitter is making Elon Musk stupid' after billionaire's 'left-wing bias' claim
29 April 2023, 19:12
The British-American founder of Wikipedia has called Elon Musk "stupid" and said he spends too much time on Twitter.
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Jimmy Wales hit back at the Twitter owner after Musk lambasted Wikipedia for what he called its "left-wing bias".
Musk tweeted criticism of the site last December amid controversy around Wikipedia editors who considered deleting articles about Hunter Biden's laptop.
The Twitter and SpaceX entrepreneur wrote: "Wikipedia has a non-trivial left-wing bias."
Jimmy Wales claimed he told Musk: "Reading too much of Twitter is making you stupid", claiming the billionaire did not understand how Wikipedia works before weighing in.
In an interview with The Times, Wales also said the government's upcoming Online Safety Bill is clumsy and misguided.
Parent company Wikimedia UK has said that the legislation could lead to Wikipedia being banned in the UK.
That's because of a mandatory age check in the proposed law.
Wales said: “Everybody is very confidently happy to say, ‘It would be absurd for kids to have to prove they are adults before they can use Wikipedia to do their homework’.
"Okay, great. We’re happy to hear that. Can we just maybe put that in the law somewhere?”
Wales, who has made no money from Wikipedia since founding the company in January 2021, has lived in London since 2012.
He became a British citizen in 2019.
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