India has summoned Wikipedia’s executives after a cricket player’s page on an online encyclopedia was edited with links to a separatist movement.
The country’s IT ministry ordered on Monday to request clarification from Wikipedia executives about the incident.
A key IT minister has publicly voiced his concern about the edits to cricketer Arshdeep Singh’s page, which show that some people from Pakistan are behind the move and are trying to disrupt the peace in South Asian market.
Singh’s Wikipedia page, who played several India-Pakistan matches on Sunday, has been edited to incorrectly state that he has been selected to play for Khalistan, a fictional independent homeland plagued by a number of separatist groups sought.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s senior IT minister, said in a tweet that no intermediary, a service with more than 5 million users, could enable this kind of deliberate disinformation campaign. Such actions “violate our government’s expectations for a secure and reliable internet,” he tweeted.
Edits have been reversed.
Amendment of India It ruleswent into effect last year, imposing tighter oversight on intermediaries, requiring them to appoint and share details about representatives tasked with compliance and complaint resolution.
Even if Meta, Google, Telegram, LinkedIn and some other companies have fully or partially complied with the order, they still looking for a bit of relaxation with the rules.
Monday’s incident is the first time in recent years that Wikipedia, compiled and edited by unpaid volunteers, has landed in the hot waters of the South Asian market.
