Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has rejected claims by Elon Musk that the online encyclopedia has a left-wing bias, describing the Tesla and X owner’s remarks as “just factually wrong.”
In December 2024, Musk urged his more than 200 million followers on his social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to stop donating to Wikipedia, dubbing the site “Wokepedia”.
In September, he announced plans to launch his own version, Grokipedia, through his AI company xAI, calling it “a massive improvement over Wikipedia”.
Speaking on the Instant Genius from BBC Science Focus podcast, Wales said the accusation “doesn’t make any sense whatsoever,” while acknowledging that Wikipedia’s volunteer community is not without bias.
“The idea we’ve become some sort of crazy left-wing activists is just incorrect – factually incorrect,” he said. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t areas where we can improve.”
Wales added: “The right answer is to get more people involved. I’d like more kind and thoughtful people who see a bias in a Wikipedia entry not to assume it’s caused by some crazy woke activists who’ll block you the moment you disagree, but to understand that people are just writing from sources. They may not have seen the other side of the debate.”
In January this year, Musk’s criticism of Wikipedia intensified after footage from a rally celebrating the inauguration of US President Donald Trump circulated online, with several users on X (formerly Twitter) suggesting a gesture he made resembled a Nazi salute.
Musk rejected the interpretation and criticised Wikipedia’s entry on the incident, which noted that some observers had drawn the comparison. He reposted a quote from the article on X, accusing Wikipedia of echoing “legacy media propaganda.”
Wales responded on X, saying the article accurately summarised verifiable facts: “It's true you did the gesture (twice) and that people did compare it to a Nazi salute (many people) and it's true that you denied it had any meaning. That isn't [mainstream media] propaganda. That's fact. Every element of it.”
Wikipedia’s editorial guidelines stipulate that all entries must be written from a neutral point of view, “which means representing fairly, proportionately, and, as far as possible, without editorial bias, all the significant views that have been published by reliable sources on a topic.”
Wales added in the interview with BBC Science Focus that Wikipedia welcomes contributors from across the political spectrum, provided they follow its neutrality rules.
“If somebody is a very kind and thoughtful conservative – an intellectual – I’d love for them to come and join Wikipedia," he said. ”And if somebody is a crazy, woke, left-wing activist who’s here to crusade, I’m like, ‘oh, you’re going to be so tedious and annoying’.”
“Please don’t think that because Elon calls us Wokepedia that you found your new woke home,” he added.
Grokipedia was due to launch on 20 October, but Musk said it had been delayed “to purge out the propaganda.” In the same post, he claimed the site would go live by the end of the week; yet, at the time of writing, it remains offline.
BBC Science Focus contacted Musk’s team for comment, but did not receive a response.
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