Elon Musk, the man behind SpaceX and Tesla, is once again making headlines. This time, it is not about some new venture but about an entertaining offering to Wikipedia. Musk, known for his regular posts on Twitter, made an unusual proposal. He said he would give Wikipedia a whopping $1 billion, but there was a catch: He had to change its name to “Dikipedia”. Musk, known for his cheeky humor, claimed it was all in the name of accuracy.
As you can imagine, this caught the attention of Twitter users around the world. One user encouraged Wikipedia to do this, and Musk added another twist. He said they would have to keep the name for at least a year, and cheekily remarked, “I mean, I’m not stupid.”
Musk also shared a screenshot of Wikipedia’s homepage, where it read, “Wikipedia is not for sale” and displayed “A personal appeal from Jimmy Wales.” He questioned why the Wikimedia Foundation needed so much money when the entire text of Wikipedia could fit on a smartphone. He left a humorous request to add it to his Wikipedia page.
Additionally, Musk asked if cow and feces emojis could be added to his Wikipedia page. This playful joke gained massive attention on Twitter with millions of views and likes.
Some Twitter users were cautious, noting that Wikipedia frequently asks for donations, so they may indeed be attempting to collect billions of dollars. Others found the entire situation amusing and compared it to a “cage match challenge”. Suggestions were made to buy Wikipedia and let AI take over the updates, and some mocked Musk’s typical “rich guy” move.
In a previous incident, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales criticized Musk for censoring critics of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan just before a crucial election. Musk had complied with Turkey’s demands to restrict the content, which did not sit well with Wells. He pointed out that Wikipedia had faced a similar situation, but had protected freedom of expression, even going to the Turkish Supreme Court to protect it.
Musk’s response was, “The alternative is to shut down Twitter entirely or limit access to certain tweets. Which do you want?”
It is important to note that Wikipedia was blocked in Turkey for more than two years due to the country’s regulations allowing the banning of sites deemed obscene or a threat to national security.