Ties between the Kazakhstani government and WikiBilim, the NGO founded to promote the expansion of the Kazakh-language version of Wikipedia, have prompted critics of the online encyclopedia to accuse it of providing the Kazakh regime with an opportunity to use the website as a propaganda machine. WikiBilim founder Rauan Kenzhekhanuly denies that the government pressures editors to change articles, while Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales says he takes up a nuanced approach in countries where freedom of speech is restricted.
Following up on an announcement that Jimmy Wales will visit Kazakhstan in 2013 to meet with Wikipedians, Andreas Kolbe, a vocal critic of Wikipedia’s management, said that Wikipedia in Kazakhstan is not an independent resource. Instead he believes the Kazakh-language Wikipedia, which under WikiBilim’s guidance has grown from 7,000 to 200,000 articles in two years, is a mouthpiece for the government. He notes that WikiBilim is sponsored by Samruk-Kazyna, the sovereign wealth fund of Kazakhstan, and that the National Academy of Sciences provides a content and quality review process, as well as adding 50,000 articles from the state-sponsored paper encyclopedia. According to Kolbe, a contest run by WikiBilim to encourage more people to write articles in Kazakh will lead to editors being uncritical if they want to collect prizes, which include laptops and mobile phones.
The critics also accuse Jimmy Wales of being too close to the regime due to his connections with Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell, who were present at his marriage to Blair’s secretary earlier this year. Blair’s PR firm works for the Kazakh government and is suspected of editing articles of the English-language Wikipedia.
In response, WikiBilim’s Kenzhekhanuly has stated that his organisation draws funds from a variety of sources, including the pro-democracy Open Society Foundation. He says that while they are accused of being government agents in the West, in Kazakhstan they are suspected of working against the state, and that neither is true. He adds that editors are not paid to write articles, nor is the NGO pressured by the government to change articles critical of the authorities.
According to WikiBilim’s mission statement, it exists to promote and develop access to Kazakh-language materials through modern technology. While its most eye-catching project is the development of the Kazakh-language version of Wikipedia, it is also cooperating with Google to add Kazakh to the languages of Google Translate, and it is establishing a free library of Kazakh books.
In his response to the criticism, Jimmy Wales denied being close to Tony Blair or the Kazakhstani government and maintains he works to ensure that Kazakh-language Wikipedia is neutral. When it comes to the question of neutrality in countries with limited freedom of speech, Wales acknowledges that there are a lot of difficult “middle ground” positions. “If, in order to have a chapter in Kazakhstan, we have to accept that the chapter, although independent, will have to deal with a very restrictive environment overall, and will not be able to approach political matters at all, but the chapter will be able to assist in getting scientists and academics and smart members of the general public to help contribute, then… well, that depends on a lot of complex variables.”
Jimmy Wales said to me and others on his talk page in the English Wikipedia (before he banned me from his talk page):
‘The Wikimedia Foundation has zero collaboration with the government of Kazakhstan. Wikibilim is a totally independent organization. And it is absolutely wrong to say that I am “helping the Kazakh regime whitewash its image”. I am a firm and strong critic. At the same time, I’m excited by the work of volunteers, and I believe – very strongly – that an open and independent Wikipedia will be the death knell for tyranny in places like Kazakhstan. Perhaps I’m wrong, but it is absolutely silly to suggest that I’m in any way actively supporting tyrants.–[[User:Jimbo Wales|Jimbo Wales]] ([[User talk:Jimbo Wales#top|talk]]) 15:33, 21 December 2012 (UTC)’
But this is inconsistent with the facts.
The Creative Commons website (Wales is on the board of Creative Commons) describes WikiBilim as ‘a non-profit organisation which also operates as the local representative of Wikimedia. Wikibilim in turn is supported by the Government of Kazakhstan and personally by the Prime-Minister Mr. Karim Masimov.’
WikiBilim say they are licensed to use Wikimedia trademarks. The WikiBilim website displays the Wikimedia Foundation logo underneath a picture of Mr Massimov (the President’s chief of staff and former prime minister), and the logo of state fund Samruk-Kazyna.
Wales created the Wikipedian of the Year award in 2011, saying it was to be presented to the founder of WikiBilim in a ceremony attended by the Kazakh Prime Minister. Whose idea was this? Who was on the committee selecting the award winner?
Kazakh media report that at the 2012 Wikimania conference in Washington, “Jimmy Wales thanked the Kazakh government for creating conditions for significant achievements in the development of the Kazakh language Wikipedia.”
All of this is very hard to reconcile with Jimmy Wales’ statement quoted above. Such mismatches are cause for concern.
And notwithstanding his statement above, in practice, Jimmy Wales’ cheerleading for the Kazakh Wikipedia both in Western and Kazakh media has been an image boost for the Kazakh government, with the Wikipedian of the Year award mentioned prominently on government and Kazakh embassy websites, at a time when human rights organisations express profound concern over a crackdown on freedom of speech in Kazakhstan.
Steven Hermans has written a rather balanced assessment of what is going on with the Kazakh Wikipedia, the Kazakhstan government, and the Wikimedia Foundation. One thing that is unfortunately absent in this discussion is what is happening on Quora.com regarding this issue. Marc Bodnick is a business developer for Quora, and Jimmy Wales is an investor in Quora. Bodnick and Wales are friends. When people ask questions on Quora about Wales’ involvement with people and organizations being paid by the Kazakhstan regime, Wales has asked that the questions be removed, and Bodnick (or his staff) comply within hours to have those questions removed. Wales has also been caught privately e-mailing other Quora members, asking them to upvote his answers and downvote the “smear campaign” he believes is being waged against him regarding Kazakhstan. You can follow my link to read a detailed timeline that clearly establishes that Jimmy Wales is steeped in the social and political circles that are attempted to paint a rosy picture of the Kazakhstan government, even though that regime is quite oppressive when it comes to free speech and the opposition press. Apparently the tactic of shutting down opposition thought is also alive and well at Quora.