Fact or propaganda? Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales & Elon Musk debate over 'Nazi salute' row

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and Elon Musk engaged in a war of words over the Tesla CEO's 'Nazi salute' at the Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony.

While Musk criticised the encyclopedic platform for being "an extension of legacy media propaganda" regarding the reportage of the controversial gesture, Wales defended his website saying that everything that was written in the report was a "fact".

Propaganda?

Musk was caught in a controversy after he made a hand gesture twice at Trump's inauguration which was being compared to a Nazi salute.

The Wikipedia page reported on this saying: "In his speech during the second Trump inauguration, Musk twice extended his right arm towards the crowd in an upward angle. The gesture was compared to a Nazi salute or fascist salute. [596] [597] Musk denied any meaning behind the gesture."

This did not go down well with Musk who commented saying that "since legacy media propaganda is considered a 'valid' source by Wikipedia, it naturally simply becomes an extension of legacy media propaganda!"

Facts?

Wales defended the report saying that whatever was written was a fact.

"Is there anything you consider inaccurate in that description? 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 MSM propaganda. That's fact. Every element of it," he said responding to Musk's tweet.

As the majority owner of X, Musk has relaxed content moderation rules, leading to widespread disinformation on the platform, while aligning himself as a close ally of former President Donald Trump.

'Elon unhappy that Wikipedia not for sale'

As Musk continued his attack on Wikipedia asking to "defund" the platform "until balance is restored!", Wales took a jibe saying that "Elon is unhappy that Wikipedia is not for sale."

Operated by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia stands apart in today’s internet landscape dominated by giants like Google and Meta. It embodies the spirit of the web's early, idealistic era, leveraging the open-source movement and volunteer contributions to provide free access to knowledge and resources.

"I hope his campaign to defund us results in lots of donations from people who care about the truth. If Elon wanted to help, he'd be encouraging kind and thoughtful intellectual people he agrees with to engage," he added.

Following Musk's 2022 acquisition of Twitter, now rebranded as X, he dismantled trust and safety teams and implemented Community Notes—a crowd-sourced moderation tool designed to allow users to add context to posts.