The fight pits two of the internet's best-known tech giants against each other -- and highlights the starkly different ethos behind Musk's X social media site and Wikipedia, founded by American entrepreneur Jimmy Wales.
Musk, as the majority owner of X, is behind recent easing of content moderation rules, which has allowed for rampant disinformation across his social media platform, while simultaneously positioning himself as President Donald Trump's right-hand man.
While Musk's animosity towards Wikipedia may focus outwardly on the hand gesture, Wikipedia's goal of factual neutrality makes it a natural adversary to X, a platform increasingly synonymous with heated culture wars, hate speech and disinformation.
Wikipedia and the media at large -- which Musk has increasingly criticized -- also pose a threat by holding him accountable as he thrusts himself into the center of US politics.
In a December interview with New York magazine's Intelligencer, Wales said the aim at Wikipedia is for editors to create content that is "clear and acknowledges the different viewpoints out there" even amid "the rise in divisive feelings, partisanship, culture wars, all of that."
At present, the site is regarded as generally reliable despite being written by a community of volunteers.
The dustup between Musk and Wales began after the billionaire raised eyebrows Monday with his gesticulation at a Trump inauguration event.
Thanking a crowd for returning Trump to the White House, Musk tapped the left side of his chest with his right hand and then extended his arm with his palm open. He then turned around to the crowd behind him and did it again.
As of Wednesday, both Musk's biographical Wikipedia page as well as the page on the "Nazi salute" mention the episode.
- 'Defund' Wikipedia -
On Tuesday, Musk reposted what appeared to be part of that Wikipedia entry, although the wording found on Wikipedia as of Wednesday was slightly different.
The reposted text read: "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. Musk denied any meaning behind the gesture."
Alongside the repost, Musk attacked both Wikipedia and the news media, another favorite target, suggesting that each is a purveyor of disinformation.
"Since legacy media propaganda is considered a 'valid' source by Wikipedia, it naturally simply becomes an extension of legacy media propaganda!" Musk wrote.
He additionally called on his supporters to "defund" Wikipedia.
Trolling Musk for his 2022 purchase of X for $44 billion, Wales shot back that: "I think Elon is unhappy that Wikipedia is not for sale."
Run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia is an outlier among today's internet landscape, dominated by the likes of Google and Meta -- instead harking back to the web's early, idealistic days when the open-source movement harnessed the talents of volunteers to offer free access to tools and knowledge.
Wales asked Musk whether there was "anything you consider inaccurate in that description?" and added that it wasn't propaganda but "fact. Every element of it."
- 'Trying to be clear' -
Founded on January 15, 2001, the Wikipedia website started in English but within two months had already launched in German and Swedish. It is now available in hundreds of languages.
"I would say the decline of trust in journalism and politics is quite severe, which then, in some cases, translates into people feeling more angry and lost," Wales told Intelligencer.
But among the Wikipedia community, he said, "we just plug away, trying to be neutral, trying to be clear."
After Musk's 2022 purchase of Twitter, rebranded as X, he gutted trust and safety teams and introduced Community Notes, a crowd-sourced moderation tool that the platform has promoted as the way for users to add context to posts.
But researchers say the lowering of the guardrails on X, and the reinstatement of once-banned accounts of known misinformation peddlers, has turned the platform into a haven for misinformation.
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