The information on Wikipedia is curated by a global community of over hundreds of thousands of volunteers. Together, they compile and share information on notable subjects, citing reliable sources such as newspaper articles and peer-reviewed journals, according to the encyclopedia’s editorial policies and guidelines, which are also developed by volunteers. Watch this video to learn more about how Wikipedia works.

For over 20 years, a global community of volunteers has moderated the content on Wikipedia. Together, their unique, collaborative content moderation systems have helped to ensure that information on the platform is fact-based, neutral, and cited with reliable sources. These systems work effectively to address issues such as misinformation and disinformation. 

Volunteers on Wikipedia vigilantly defend against information that does not meet the site’s policies. They regularly review a feed of real-time edits to quickly address problematic changes; bots spot and revert many common forms of negative behavior on the site; and volunteer administrators (trusted Wikipedia volunteers with advanced permissions to protect Wikipedia) further investigate and address negative behavior.

The whole process of content moderation by Wikipedia volunteers is open and transparent. Everything from the way an article grows and evolves over time, to the citations used to verify the facts, to the content discussions amongst editors, are all publicly available on the article’s history and talk pages.

While volunteers address the vast majority of content and conduct issues on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, the Foundation has a Trust and Safety function that alerts and supports the volunteer community on some extreme cases when they are reported to them.

Wikipedia has long-standing policies to ensure information is presented as accurately and impartially as possible. One of the oldest and most fundamental pillars of Wikipedia is that it must be written from a neutral point of view. This means that all encyclopedic content on Wikipedia must be attributed to a reliable source and presented fairly, proportionately, and as far as possible, without editorial bias. Additionally, only encyclopedic content is allowed on Wikipedia. Personal experiences, opinions, or original research are not permitted. Watch this video to learn more about why you can trust the information on Wikipedia.

In this historic year of global elections, Wikipedia is needed more than ever. Wikipedia volunteers and the Wikimedia Foundation are prepared. 

Volunteer community efforts 

Wikipedia’s global community of volunteers have decades of experience in providing reliable, unbiased information during elections and other situations of global importance. During these times, Wikipedia editors will often take steps to ensure that information about relevant topics stays as reliable as possible. For example: 

Administrators on Wikipedia have the ability to temporarily “protect” a page from modification by less-experienced and new users. For instance, during the 2020 US Elections, Wikipedia volunteers protected about 2,000 election-related pages. Restrictions were put in place so that many of the most important election-related pages, such as the one about the U.S. 2020 Presidential Election, could be edited only by the most experienced Wikipedia editors.

Experienced editors also use watchlists to keep track of pages that they are interested in, helping them to quickly identify and respond to mis-/disinformation attempts on those topic articles. This feature is particularly useful at times when certain pages get a high number of new edits.  

Wikipedia’s volunteer-based Arbitration Committee has built specific rules to tackle some contentious topic areas that are more prone to persistent disruptive editing than others. These rules provide more latitude to Wikipedia administrators in enforcing Wikipedia’s guidelines and taking action more promptly to mitigate and prevent disruptive edits. Like all other activities on Wikipedia, the arbitration enforcement actions are logged publicly and can be appealed through community channels. 

Foundation efforts 

For this election year, the Foundation has developed a cross-functional working group of staff across the organization to prepare for risks and support volunteers. 

Since 2020, the Wikimedia Foundation has had a dedicated Trust and Safety Disinformation team, which supports global volunteer communities in identifying and countering disinformation campaigns on Wikimedia projects.
Ahead of major elections in 2024, a Disinformation Response Taskforce (DRT) has formed to partner with trusted Wikimedia volunteers and Wikimedia affiliates to identify potential information attacks on Wikipedia. DRT members coordinate through a dedicated communication channel and use reporting mechanisms to speedily flag and address any elections-related disinformation attempts on Wikipedia. Each report of disinformation activity is appropriately handled depending on its nature and severity.

The more humans take part in Wikipedia, the better the internet’s knowledge becomes. Anyone can join Wikipedia as a volunteer. We encourage Wikipedia readers to engage as editors on the project and contribute to the mission of making free, reliable knowledge available for all. Users can also share comments about specific information in a Wikipedia article on its respective talk page, which is public for anyone to view.

Wikipedia is the only top global website operated by a non-profit organization, the Wikimedia Foundation. The site is not funded by advertising; it does not track your activity, sell your information, or use algorithms to promote content. The majority of our funding comes from donations ($11 is the average) from people who read Wikipedia. To learn more about how we are funded, you can watch our video and read our blog.