Politician takes on Wikipedia
2007-12-07 09:33
Berlin - A left-wing German politician has
filed charges against online encyclopaedia Wikipedia for
promoting the use of banned Nazi symbols in Germany.
Katina Schubert, a deputy leader of the Left party, said she
had filed the charge with Berlin police on the grounds that
Wikipedia's German language site contained too much Nazi
symbolism, particularly an article on the Hitler Youth movement.
"The extent and frequency of the symbols on it goes beyond
what is needed for documentation and political education, in my
view," she said. "This isn't about restricting freedom
of opinion, it's about examining what the limits are."
Schubert said she had taken legal advice before making her
move, and that she hoped it would encourage public debate on how
far internet platforms should be allowed to aid proponents of
extremist, anti-semitic and racist ideologies.
"There are signs neo-Nazis are trying to take advantage of
such structures, and this needs to be stopped in good time,"
Schubert said. "Especially given that Wikipedia is too important
to jeopardise as an open and self-regulating project."
A spokesperson for Wikimedia Deutschland, an organisation that
promotes the internet lexicon in Germany, rejected the charge.
"We don't really know what Ms Schubert's problem is," Arne
Klempert, managing director of Wikimedia Deutschland, told
Reuters. "What's important is the context the symbols are used
in, and here it's quite clearly education and documentation."
"Anyone who tries to prevent the Nazi period being
documented properly has a strange understanding of the world, in
my view," Klempert said. "Because that's the best weapon there
is (to prevent) something like that from happening again."
Public display of Nazi symbols is illegal in Germany, but
they can be used for educational and artistic purposes.
Schubert also came under fire from party colleagues.
"Katina Schubert fails to grasp the self-regulating
mechanisms that work in Wikipedia," Heiko Hilker, a Left party
media expert in Saxony's state parliament, said in a statement.
"Right-wing extremism on the World Wide Web cannot be
tackled via national criminal proceedings," he added.
Schubert said police would pass on the charge to state
prosecutors, who would decide whether to open an investigation.
Klempert said Wikipedia's structure, which enables internet
users to discuss and edit content, ensured no bias arose.
"Particularly on subjects like the Hitler Youth, you can be sure
it would be changed in seconds if it did (show bias)," he said.
The Hitler Youth was the Nazis' official youth organisation.