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The Politics of the World Encyclopedia. A Study of Political Leanings of the Wikipedia User Base

Norman Paul Cohen and Emil O. W. Kirkegaard

10.46469/mq.2024.65.1.7

Published: 2024/09/01

Abstract

We scraped user pages of 7,739 Wikipedia editors. Of these, 224 users positioned themselves politically using the semi-standardized "userboxes". Based on this sample, Wikipedia editors’ views had a strong tilt towards the left. The results are congruent with the political leanings of related occupations, such as journalists and academics. Keywords: Wikipedia, Bias, Ideology

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