Wikipedia’s founder had some strong words for Elon Musk this week.
Jimmy Wales, who founded the popular internet encyclopedia, said X has been overtaken by bad actors and is bad news for the internet.
“Twitter was, and now I guess X sort of is, in a way, the default public square for the world,” he said at a tech conference in Lisbon, Portugal, this week. “And if it’s being overrun by trolls and lunatics, it’s not good for any of us.”
Mr. Wales said users recognize the shift in tone on X and are abandoning it for other platforms.
“I think a lot of people are fleeing Twitter; a lot of thoughtful and serious people are fleeing Twitter,” he said.
His comments are the latest in a feud between the two. Recently, the X owner offered Mr. Wales $1 billion if he would change his site’s name to a profane rhyme of Wikipedia. Mr. Musk said the site has a “nontrivial left-wing bias” and isn’t trustworthy.
Mr. Wales jumped on the X-competitor bandwagon by launching his own social media site, TrustCafe, this year. He said he hoped to build a more respectful and trustworthy community.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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