Wikipedia is the world’s single largest online information repository. As of 2 years ago, a record 5 million articles had been published on the English language version of the site which is also its most visited. Thanks to the pivotal role it plays in information dissemination, the crowd-sourced online encyclopedia is easily a target for manipulation every now and then despite increasing efforts to rid it of misinformation.
The latest culprit in Wikipedia’s quest to provide truthful information and not what we now cheekily refer to as “alternative facts” (read: falsehoods) is popular British tabloid the Daily Mail.
The site’s volunteer editors for its English language section voted unanimously to remove the tabloid from its list of reliable sources, a move that means that the Daily Mail can no longer be cited as a reference in any entries and users will be encourage to use other sources.
The Daily Mail’s main undoing is was its “reputation for poor fact checking, sensationalism, and flat-out fabrication” according to the Huffington Post.
Some of the 12,000 links to the Daily Mail‘s (Mail Online) website will be gradually removed by the Wikipedia editors as part of the process.
Being a tabloid, the Daily Mail draws its fair share of controversy both in its traditional print editions targeted at its British readership and its burgeoning online presence. Just recently, US First Lady Melania Trump moved to court to file libel charges accusing the British publication of reporting on rumours that she once worked as an escort.
The Daily Mail is the single largest English language online news publisher in the world after pursuing an aggressive digital strategy driven by increased demand for celebrity gossip and news items bordering on click bait.
