Mikhail Gruznov: We do not understand what is happening on Wikipedia

Friday, August 2, 2019

Russian Wikinews talked to Mikhail Gruznov, a Russian wikipedian who nearly 14 years has worked in the project; he used to work as administrator, pioneered the Wikipedia lawful paid-contribution, and has made the paid editing his profession.

Mikhail caused a political scandal that could affect the presence of Wikipedia in Russia. According to online newspaper Meduza, on July 2 he initiated the blocking of a group of 12 users he identified, who introduced edits to the encyclopedia in the interests of the Kremlin. In addition, a month later, four media related to Yevgeny Prigozhin were included in the spam-blacklist, as reported by newspaper Kommersant on August 5. This also happened due to Gruznov, and Mikhail’s actions led to attacks on him and Wikipedia in the Russian media. Online information agency URA.Ru accused Gruznov of creating fake articles about Russia. Wikipedia was called the “propaganda tool from the USA”. According to online newspaper Novye Izvestia, on August 6 the head of the Russian Union of Journalists Vladimir Solovyov proposed to create a national analogue of Wikipedia.

Dmitry Rozhkov, an experienced Russian wikipedian, interviewed Mikhail on behalf of Russian Wikinews. We present the interview here in translation from the Russian-language original.

Contents

  • 1 About the ‘group of twelve’
  • 2 About deputies and Dissernet
  • 3 About monitoring of Wikipedia
  • 4 About lack of resources
  • 5 About paid editing
  • 6 About sponsors and philanthropists
  • 7 Sources

((Dmitry Rozhkov)) Hello, Mikhail. ((ru))Russian language: ???????????, ??????.

Mikhail Gruznov: Hi. ((ru))Russian language: ???????.

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