Head of Roskomnadzor: "Wikipedia is built as an absolutely oligarchic structure"

Roskomnadzor is now engaged in an active dialogue with the online encyclopedia "Wikipedia" on the issue of editing articles, the head of department Alexander Zharov said in an interview with TASS. He also added that this issue is very serious and important. “We tried to create a working group together with the editors of Wikipedia, but, unfortunately, I have to state that Wikipedia is built as an absolutely oligarchic structure, when the power of units essentially controls a huge horizontal structure,” explained Zharov.



“The fact is that the editors have the right to vote on Wikipedia, and there are several thousand of them in the Russian-language segment of Wikipedia, but higher-level editors who are in the Wikimedia manual (administrative structure that leads Wikipedia) ... in essence, they have concentrated the decision right in their own hands, ”said the head of department. In his opinion, this small group of editors, rather, pursues questions of public relations and self-promotion, when it says that Wikipedia is independent and will not fulfill the requirements of any state bodies.



Roskomnadzor announced its intention to establish a partnership with Wikipedia on the operational editing of controversial articles in April of this year. Then the agency proposed to create a joint working group to perform this task. The composition of such a group, it was claimed, could include service experts, as well as employees of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to officials, such steps would establish a permanent channel for communication.

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Wikipedia representatives abandoned this form of collaboration. A spokesman for Roskomnadzor, Vadim Ampelonsky, gave the following comment on this matter: “They are against interaction with any authorities whatsoever, and they make consensus unattainable. It is generally obvious to me that interaction is always better than the absence of this kind of interaction. We always urge the administration of any sites, and even more so of such a significant resource as “Wikipedia”, to ensure that we have a permanent communications journal, that we have a permanent working group with which we could discuss the filing of one or another material. "



According to Alexander Zharov, now Wikipedia is turning into a resource where drugs and suicides are promoted. The problem, he said, is the refusal to correct or delete articles from the administration of the resource. If the materials are edited, then with great difficulty.



“We are in dialogue with these people. Road going by walking. We are pursuing constructive goals, and I am absolutely sure that Wikipedia is an absolutely important, necessary resource from which millions of people draw knowledge and information, therefore, it seems to me, finding balance in a dialogue is essential, ”said the head of Roskomnadzor. He also added that the position of the editorial "top" and the position of thousands of ordinary editors of Wikipedia do not coincide on many issues.



In turn, representatives of the online encyclopedia stated that no working group would have special powers. And if some editors delete information from controversial articles, they will most likely be blocked. At the moment, the total number of Wikipedia editors is 1.8 million.



The confrontation between Roskomnadzor and Wikipedia lasts quite a long time. In November 2015, Roskomnadzor even prepared to block the entire resource in Russia. But then he reversed that decision .



UPD . As for the “oligarchic structure,” Alexander Zharov may have read the results of a study by sociologists about the work process and the interaction of the editors of Wikipedia. This paper was published in early 2016 in Future Internet magazine. The authors of this study analyzed the dynamics of the number of editors of the online encyclopedia. The development of the social hierarchy and behavioral norms among the editorial staff of Wikipedia was also studied. The work includes data from the inception of the encyclopedia in 2001 to 2015.







According to the authors of the work, the rule of the “power of the elect” works here. In the same "Wikipedia" this is called the "Iron Law of Oligarchy" (" Iron Law of Oligarchy "). The basic principles of work proposed by a team of 100 editors are still valid. At the same time, a relatively small team of editors has a significant impact on the site.