According to the revelations of the Journalist Vincent Bresson, activists multiplied in the free encyclopedia contributions to the Far right candidate in the presidential election.
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From Thursday, February 17, the Wikipedia pages dedicated to Eric Zemmour and his party, reconquest!, Display a warning banner: “This article seems to be an autobiographical or autocentrated page that has been subject to substantial modifications. , either by the principal concerned or by one or more people in close connection with the subject. “
The warning is consecutive to the revelations of the Journalist Vincent Bresson in his book published on the same day, in the heart of the Z (Editions Drop d’Or). The author, who has infiltrated several months in the campaign team of Eric Zemmour, tells how a group of activists having baptized “Wikizedia” coordinated to amend texts and promote the candidate. ‘extreme right to the presidential election on the very popular participative encyclopedia online.
Other measures were taken by the administrators of Wikipedia in France. Seven accounts of contributors who participated in this operation, qualified by the encyclopedia of “attempting of manipulation”, were banned indefinitely from the platform. Among them, CHEEP, who has been participating for more than fifteen years in the encyclopedia, a far-right partisan, whose expertise has been put at the service of Zemourian activists as Vincent Bresson.
The encyclopedia administrators also alerted the ARCOM (EX-CSA) by email, and continue their investigation, as explained by the Board of Directors of Wikimédia, the association that hosts the free encyclopedia, In a statement published on February 18 . In addition, the encyclopedia has put online the log of interventions and decisions taken in this case.
“War of Publishing” and information
In a Tweets series , Samuel Lafont, head of the digital campaign of Eric Zemmour, who leaned according to Vincent Bresson the operation “Wikizedia”, denounced a “censorship” on the part of the encyclopedia and asserted that, “under the posted neutrality, a political fight has been playing there for years “.
“The WikiZedia cell has intervened in violation of the spirit and rule of several founding principles, rules and recommendations, including: neutrality of view (…), spirit of non-violence”, explains the statement of Wikimedia, which accurate: “Wikipedia is not a platform for propaganda or promotion”. It also learns that a contributor has closed his account because of the threats sent to him, via Telegram Messaging, regarding his physical integrity.
“This is not the first attempt to manipulate the encyclopedia by a personality or even a political party, [even in the context of the preparation of a presidential election,” says Wikimédia. But in this “publishing war” and information, the challenge is important: the most consulted Wikipedia page in France in 2021 is Eric Zemmour (seen 5.2 million times) in front of those of Elizabeth II and Cristiano Ronaldo, according to the numbers of The Wikimedia Foundation .