Wikipedia is the center of attention.
But for the wrong reasons.
The famous universal and multilingual encyclopedia, created by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001, has been the focus of criticism for several days.
What is the reason?
The word "recession."
Current economic uncertainties, fueled by inflation that has not been seen in 40 years and a hike in Federal Reserve interest rates, have many economists and the markets fearing a hard landing for the economy.
The ongoing second-quarter corporate earnings season and macroeconomic indicators are doing nothing to allay those fears.
Business leaders across industries sent clear signals that there was an economic slowdown but none of the multinational tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft mentioned the word recession. Instead they used words like economic uncertainties and difficult times.
What Is a Recession?
The U.S. economy shrank far more sharply-than-forecast over the three months ending in June, recording its second consecutive quarterly drop, the Commerce department announced on July 28.
The first estimate of second quarter GDP indicated a -0.9% annualized contraction for the world's biggest economy. That compares with a 0.5% gain expected by forecasters.
The data has fueled a hot debate as to whether the economy is officially in recession, following the 1.6% contraction over the first three months of the year.
"It doesn’t sound like a recession to me," President Joe Biden reacted after the GDP figures were published.
A recession is defined in theory as "a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months”.
But some economists and the Biden administration say the U.S. economy is not in recession because of other more favorable indicators, like the relatively strong job market. The U.S. unemployment rate has been running at 3.6% for several months, its lowest level in more than 40 years.
"I do not think the U.S. is currently in a recession," Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told reporters in Washington yesterday following the central bank's second consecutive 75 basis point rate hike, noting low level of unemployment and solid wage gains.
White House and Wikipedia
The White House has just published a blog post that gives an extensive definition of recession.
"What is a recession? While some maintain that two consecutive quarters of falling real GDP constitute a recession, that is neither the official definition nor the way economists evaluate the state of the business cycle," says the Biden administration.
"Instead, both official determinations of recessions and economists’ assessment of economic activity are based on a holistic look at the data—including the labor market, consumer and business spending, industrial production, and incomes."
As a result, "based on these data, it is unlikely that the decline in GDP in the first quarter of this year—even if followed by another GDP decline in the second quarter—indicates a recession," concludes the White House.
The post had been published a week before the release of the first estimate of second-quarter GDP.
In the context of the midterm elections, the squabble is likely to last a long time because the Republicans want to take advantage of the uncomfortable position in which the current economic difficulties, which impact households, place the Democrats.
Wikipedia now appears in these political battles. The encyclopedia has changed, according to several screenshots circulating on social media, its definition of recession following the post of the White House.
Until July 11, the encyclopedia included this in its definition of recession: "two negative consecutive quarters of growth." Users could continue to amend the page.
As of July 25, the page dedicated to recession reads this: "Although the definition of a recession varies between different countries and scholars, two consecutive quarters of decline in a country's real gross domestic product is commonly used as a practical definition of a recession," Wikipedia says.
Then it added that: "in the United States, a recession is defined by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) as 'a significant decline in economic activity spread across the market, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales'. In the United Kingdom and most other countries, it is defined as a negative economic growth for two consecutive quarters."
To the right of the page also appears a lock, which means that users cannot make additions or modifications to the page.
Changes Are Not 'Uncommon for Topics in the News'
A spokeswoman from the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects, confirmed the changes but insisted that it was not unusual for such edits to be made when a topic is in the news.
"It’s not uncommon for topics in the news to receive sudden interest on Wikipedia," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "Volunteer editors know this, and have created tools and mechanisms for responding to an influx of edits on articles that are in the public eye in order to maintain the standards of neutrality and verifiability that govern the site. Protecting an article is one common tool they use."
She added that the recession article on English Wikipedia is "semi-protected" until August 3rd.
"At which point, other users will be able to edit it again, but their edits will be reviewed by other volunteers before being visible to most readers. Semi-protected articles can only be edited by logged-in users whose accounts are at least 4 days old and have made at least 10 edits. This means that anonymous editors (editing without a Wikipedia account) are not able to edit the article."
Nevertheless, these changes have caused an outcry, especially in the ranks of conservatives who now believe that Wikipedia has lost its credibility and has become a "political weapon" in the midst of culture war.
"Wikipedia is now a weapon," said one Twitter user on July 28.
"Wikipedia changed the definition of recession to favor the Biden regime, and then locked the page," said another user.
Is Wikipedia Losing Its Objectivity?
Almost 24 hours later Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla who announced that he would now vote Republican, seems to join the outcry.
"Wikipedia is losing its objectivity @jimmy_wales," the tech tycoon said, speaking directly to the co-founder Jimmy Wales via his Twitter handle.
Two hours later, the post had already received more than 164,000 likes. Musk's influence is significant: the billionaire has more than 102.3 million Twitter followers.
"Wikipedia is written by volunteer editors around the world, and there is no central body that determines how information is presented on the site," the spokesperson told TheStreet. "Our role at the Foundation is to support volunteers and provide core global infrastructure to Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects, but the organization itself does not write, edit, or otherwise control content on the site."
Wikipedia has always defined itself as a collective work. Any Wikipedia reader is a potential editor or proofreader, the site explains. Everyone can therefore write, but you have to agree to be proofread and corrected.
There are, however, users (volunteers) with extended content editing rights. They are responsible for monitoring articles in their chosen field or whose sensitivity is recognized.
Other contributors are robots who mainly edit for spelling issues, although some are also real editors.
Wikipedia’s volunteer editors have created an FAQ about the recent changes to the English Wikipedia recession article that you can read here.
