Recently, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger indirectly responded to a tweet by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, stating that the website “is not for sale”.
The exchange began when Musk, whose companies Tesla and SpaceX have long been heavily reliant on the online encyclopaedia, joked on Twitter about buying the non-profit website. In response, Sanger, one of the original developers of Wikipedia, indicated that the site was not up for sale.
“I hear you’re looking to buy Wikipedia? Count me out,” Sanger posted. The tweet, from the Wikipedia co-founder and Chief Information Officer of the blockchain-based education platform, Degreed, went on to confirm that the online encyclopedia is, indeed, “not for sale”.
The tweet marked the first public statement from Sanger on the user-led site, which powers some of the largest companies in the world, after it had come under fire recently due to its reliance on largely anonymous contributions.
In addition to Musk’s tweet, recent reports have made claim that Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel had separately explored the possibility of investing in Wikipedia. While no official statement from the Wikipedia Foundation has been issued, the tweet from Sanger puts an end to any speculation about an imminent sale.
Sanger’s tweet also comes just days after the online encyclopaedia, which boasts more than 5.8 million articles in more than 300 languages, began offering its first official move to support the coronavirus pandemic response. Wikipedia announced that it was opening the billing API so that doctors and other healthcare workers could access its vast, collaborative database of information on the outbreak.
Despite Musk’s lighthearted suggestion, Sanger’s tweet makes it clear that the Wikipedia Foundation is making a distinction between its current not-for-profit approach and any possible future commercial interests.
The website remains a valuable source of reliable information, with more than 1.5 billion page views running through it each day and remains firmly in the hands of the creators—even if someone with Musk’s resources shows an interest.
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