Open Source Summit + Embedded Linux Conference + OSPOCon 2021

The Japanese Wikipedia is the most visited language in Wikipedia after the English Wikipedia. Increasingly, it’s contributing to the rise of historical revisionism in the country. On the pages of particularly sensitive historical topics, Japanese Wikipedia tends to exclude important information inconvenient to the Japanese public and/or include inaccurate and biased information. In other words, many of the articles whitewash war crimes by spreading disinformation. A similar trend exists in other languages, such as Croatian Wikipedia. Non-English Wikipedia communities such as a Japanese and Croatian tend to be much more isolated and likely have inherent bias on certain topics. Cultural differences also play a major part in the way technology platforms are used. Digital solutions created by people of a similar background and language may miss important implications of how the product gets used by other people. Yumiko has presented this topic at conferences such as Interaction 21 and IAC 21. In this presentation she will discuss in depth how the Japanese Wikipedia community spreads disinformation and the possible solution to this problem. She will also discuss the response from the Wikimedia Foundation that hosts Wikipedia.