Wikipedia co-founder permanently banned from editing the website

The co-founder of Wikipedia, Larry Sanger, has been banned from editing the online encyclopedia after he started a campaign to make it ‘more balanced’ with other sources.

As a teacher or professor has probably told you at some point, Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, so you might want to be careful when it comes to using it as your primary source on some things.

However, in amongst those almost 53 million contributors, the website’s co-founder, Larry Sanger, will no longer be able to edit any articles.

Sanger, 57, co-founded the online encyclopedia back in 2001, and is even the one behind the name Wikipedia. However, he left Wikipedia in 2002 and has previously called it “broken beyond repair.” The 57-year-old has now had his editing powers stripped away.

Wikipedia co-founder banned “indefinitely”

The co-founder started the WikiProject Intellectual Diversity project to get behind Wikipedia’s “original, firm commitment to intellectual diversity,” and said he is aiming to help “underrepresented” voices get a bit more of a say.

Editors accused Sanger of “canvassing” with posts outside of Wikipedia, which were “done with the intention of influencing the outcome of a discussion in a particular way.” The co-founder had invited social media users to edit articles.

Sanger was noted as being “not here to constructively build the encyclopaedia,” which Wikipedia cites as a key behavior that contributors should abide by.

“Well, that’s that—I’ve been blocked by Wikipedia “indefinitely” for unstated reasons, by the “consensus” of a mob,” Sanger posted on X on June 22.

“There was no due process, no prosecutor, no dispassionate judge, no jury, no interpretation of law. All my judges were self-selected and hated me.”

Sanger said he was briefly unblocked by the site on June 23, but had been “blocked indefinitely” following another change. 

“Well, now it’s really official. After being blocked this morning, then unblocked (after being defended by Jimmy Wales), I have now, as of this evening, been “blocked indefinitely” from editing Wikipedia,” he added. “The charges are lies and misrepresentations.”

Sanger told the New York Post that he was “flabbergasted” by the decision, and blamed a “faceless mob” for being behind things.

“I *told* you lot back in 2004 that Wikipedia desperately needs a proper community charter and rule of law,” he added on X.

-Dexerto