Wikipedia: indefinite ban for co-founder Larry Sanger

Wikipedia has indefinitely banned one of its two founders, Larry Sanger, after a group of editors deemed him guilty of canvassing: calling his followers off the platform to influence an internal discussion. The decision comes at the end of a closed community discussion where an administrator cited a clear consensus for exclusion.

Sanger has criticized Wikipedia for over a decade, accusing it of having a left-leaning ideological stance. On his X profile, he presented the ban as yet another proof of this claim, and the New York Post covered the story with a headline favorable to him. The platform's editors reject this interpretation.

According to them, Sanger used his online following to influence an internal decision-making process rather than to defend the principle of editorial balance. "There is a general agreement among participants that he was engaged in external canvassing and that he is not here to constructively build the encyclopedia," wrote the editor who closed the discussion, adding that several users see in his actions an attempt to out other community members.

At the center of the matter is the WikiProject Intellectual Diversity, an initiative promoted by Sanger to bring more viewpoints, especially conservative ones, to the encyclopedia. In itself, the project would not violate any platform rules.

The problem, according to the editors, arose when Sanger invited his 91,000 followers on X to intervene in the discussion that was to decide whether to recognize the project as an official WikiProject. He wrote that Wikipedians were debating whether his initiative should become official, noting that opinions were divided. When asked by a follower how to "join the movement," he joked that a direct response could cost him another ban.

In the discussion that led to his ban, a volunteer wrote that since his return to the platform, Sanger has primarily attempted to build a conservative pressure group within Wikipedia, more interested in rewriting policies to suit his political orientation than in improving articles. Administrator Ilyas Lebleu recounted having warned him about similar behaviors roughly two months prior, without any results.

Internal rules require that discussions about bans remain open for at least 72 hours. Sanger was banned before the deadline, briefly readmitted, and finally excluded again indefinitely once the discussion was formally closed.

In a statement released through a spokesperson, Sanger described an encyclopedia now governed “by the mob” and characterized the proceedings as a popular tribunal devoid of formal charges, a judge distinct from the accusers, and any procedural guarantees. According to him, the community would have punished him for trying to bring diversity of thought to the platform, while adherence to the dominant thinking would have become an implicit requirement to remain a compliant editor.

Accusations of bias against Wikipedia are not new: even Elon Musk has long criticized the encyclopedia, going so far as to launch Grokipedia, a competing version generated with artificial intelligence which proved to be unreliable. This incident arrives at a time when Wikipedia's reputation as a verified source weighs more than ever, while the rest of the web struggles to contain the spread of AI-generated content that is full of errors.