New Delhi: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology may issue summons to India-based executives of Wikimedia Foundation after false information was published on cricketer Arshdeep Singh’s page — linking him to the Khalistani movement — following India’s loss to Pakistan in the ongoing Asia Cup late Sunday.
The 23-year-old Indian cricketer had dropped a regulation catch off the bowling of Ravi Bishnoi, which would have dismissed Pakistan batsman Asif Ali while he was yet to get off the mark. Ali went on to score 16 runs from 8 balls before being adjudged LBW off Singh’s bowling in the final over of the match. However, Iftikhar Ahmed hit the winning runs the very next ball, marking Pakistan’s victory over India by 5 wickets.
Singh soon became the subject of criticism on social media, purportedly by Indian cricket fan accounts and Twitter users who labelled him as a “Khalistani”.
Videos of cricket fans in the UK celebrating Pakistan’s win by waving Khalistan flags were also apparently circulated across messaging apps, ThePrint has learnt.
On his Wikipedia page, Singh’s name was changed to “Major Arshdeep Singh Langra” and his nationality labelled as that of a “Khalistani cricketer”.
This is what he gets for dropping a catch. Disgusting kaum. pic.twitter.com/Hl7MSytriG
— Jas Oberoi | ਜੱਸ ਓਬਰੌਏ (@iJasOberoi) September 4, 2022
However, the IP address belonging to the user who allegedly vandalised the Wikipedia page was found to be from Pakistan, prompting a condemnation from the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrashekhar.
“No intermerdiary operatng [sic] in India can permit this type of misinformation [and] deliberate efforts to incitement [and user harm] – violates our govts expectation of Safe & Trusted Internet,” Chandrashekhar tweeted Monday.
No intermerdiary operatng in India can permit this type of misinformation n deliberate efforts to incitement n #userharm – violates our govts expectation of Safe & Trusted Internet #wikipedia @GoI_MeitY #SafeTrustedInternet pic.twitter.com/Qm6HdppM1k
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) September 5, 2022
“It is a serious issue. The edits have been traced back to servers in neighbouring countries and can cause serious damage to the internal peace and national safety of India. We will ask [Wikipedia executives] how such an edit could be allowed to stay on for quite some time,” The Economic Times cited an anonymous senior government official as saying.
Also read: To seek or not to seek aid? How India, Pakistan have dealt the question — Bhuj to Sindh
Wikipedia’s policy on editing and vandalism
A salient feature of the global online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, is that the page content is generated, edited and managed collaboratively by a broad user base, and users are encouraged to “learn to edit” via an extensive tutorial.
“Anyone can edit nearly any page and improve articles immediately. You do not need to register to do this, and anyone who has edited is known as a Wikipedian or editor. Small edits add up, and every editor can be proud to have made Wikipedia better for all,” the website says about its editing policy.
However, some pages — known as “protected pages” — are marked by a lock symbol on the top right, signifying that unregistered users are not authorised to edit those pages. Singh’s Wikipedia page has now been marked as protected following the vandalism incident Sunday.
“Semi-protection is useful when there is a significant amount of disruption or vandalism from new or unregistered users, or to prevent sockpuppets of blocked or banned users from editing, especially when it occurs on biographies of living persons who have had a recent high level of media interest,” Wikipedia says.
“It is not a criminal act to vandalise Wikipedia. However, it is against the site’s terms of use to vandalise or otherwise cause disruption. Vandals are blocked from editing, and may also be further banned according to the terms of use. Vandalism can be committed by either guest editors or those with registered accounts; however, a semi-protected or fully protected page can be edited only by accounts that meet certain account age and activity thresholds or administrators respectively,” Wikipedia says on its vandalism policy.
Also read: ‘No Indian intermediary can permit such deception,’: IT minister on Arshdeep Singh Wiki hack