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Jimmy Wales

Founder Wikimedia Foundation

Co-founder of Wikipedia and founder of the Wikimedia Foundation. Holds the Founder's Seat on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Known for advocacy on free knowledge, press freedom, and criticism of AI hallucination problems. British citizen since 2019.

Career History

Founder

Track Record

Wales publicly criticized the Wikipedia article on the Gaza genocide, calling it 'one of the worst Wikipedia entries I've seen in a very long time' for stating 'in Wikipedia's voice, that Israel is committing genocide, although that claim is highly contested.' He called it a violation of NPOV (Neutral Point of View) policy requiring immediate correction.

Wales stated Wikipedia would not comply with UK Online Safety Act age verification requirements, saying 'We will not be identifying users under any circumstances. We will not be age-gating Wikipedia under any circumstances. So, if it comes to that, it's going to be an interesting showdown, because we're going to just refuse to do it.'

In a Times Radio interview, Wales criticized President Trump's repeated 'fake news' claims, saying they mirror tactics used by strongmen around the world. He noted it was 'an astonishing situation' when a President 'clearly contradicts himself, or denies that he said things that we can all play tapes of him saying.'

Wales criticized Musk for Twitter censoring posts at Turkey's request during elections, contrasting it with Wikipedia's successful legal battle in Turkey. He stated 'We do not bend to the will of governments, anywhere' and questioned whether Musk was saying 'we don't care about freedom of expression if it interferes with making money.'