Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, said he would fork over $1 billion of his fortune to Wikipedia if the donation-based online encyclopedia changed its name to “D–kipedia.”
The X CEO, who last year feuded with the nonprofit site over its lack of “objectivity,” made the below-the-belt offer on his social media platform on Sunday.
“I will give them a billion dollars if they change their name to D–kipedia,” Musk tweeted.
“(Please add that to the [cow and poop emojis] on my wiki page) in the interests of accuracy,” he added in response to an earlier post where he criticized the nonprofit behind the site, Wikimedia Foundation, for wanting so much money.
“Have you ever wondered why the Wikimedia Foundation wants so much money?” said Musk, whose net worth is around $204 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. “Wikipedia is losing its objectivity.”
“It certainly isn’t needed to operate Wikipedia. You can literally fit a copy of the entire text on your phone! So, what’s the money for? Inquiring minds want to know…” he added.
Musk’s commentary accompanied a Community Note that said through Wikipedia — which relies on its informational landing pages to be written and maintained by a community of volunteers — the Wikimedia Foundation handles over 25 billion page views and 44 million page edits per month.
The large-scale operation calls for some $146 million in expenses spent across product development, design improvements and legal support, as well as training, administration and fundraising.
When The Post sought comment from the Wikimedia Foundation, a spokesperson pointed to its donation-based funding model.
“Wikipedia is the only website among the top 10 most-visited global websites that is run by a nonprofit, the Wikimedia Foundation. It is run at a fraction of the cost of those websites, and we invest every donation received back into serving Wikipedia, other Wikimedia projects, and the free knowledge mission,” the spokesperson said, adding that the average donation is $11.
Meanwhile, a message to X returned the auto-response: “Busy now, please check back later.”
It’s not the first time that Musk has had a bone to pick with Wikipedia, slamming the site last year for blocking users from editing its “recession” page — prompting accusations that it was running interference for the Biden administration.
“Wikipedia is losing its objectivity,” Musk tweeted in July 2022, tagging its co-founder Jimmy Wales on the social media site, which was then known as Twitter.
According to Wikipedia itself, anyone can become a so-called “Wikipedian” — volunteers who contribute to Wikipedia’s pages — simply by making an account on the website.
“Don’t worry too much if you don’t understand everything at first, as it is acceptable to use common sense as you go about editing,” says Wikipedia’s how-to page on contributing.
“Perfection is not required, as Wikipedia is a work in progress,” it adds.
Of the more than 46 million Wikipedia accounts, 121,540 have made at least one edit to a Wikipedia page within the last month, according to the encyclopedia.
A breakdown of Wikipedians shows that 59% are between the ages of 17 and 40, while a staggering 87% of contributors are men.
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