'Wikipedia Has Been Captured By Establishment Left': Co-Founder Larry Sanger | Video

Last Updated:November 16, 2025, 00:14 IST

Sanger also warned that Wikipedia’s structure itself is part of the problem

According to Sanger, a number of outlets are effectively “blacklisted” on Wikipedia. (AF file photo)

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger claimed that the online encyclopaedia is no longer politically neutral, saying it has been “captured by the Establishment Left".

Speaking on a podcast hosted by Mario Nawfal, founder of the IBC Group, Sanger argued that the platform suffers from a lack of “effective pushback" against left-leaning viewpoints. He said the site’s content and rules have slowly shifted in favour of one political bloc.

According to Sanger, a number of outlets are effectively “blacklisted" on Wikipedia. These include the Daily Mail, Fox News, and the New York Post, as well as Sputnik and other Russian media.

He argued that Wikipedia’s very structure contributes to the problem. “It’s not decentralised, it’s very centralised," he told Nawfal.

Sanger explained, “What made us call it central or decentralised in the beginning, in the first years of Wikipedia, is that anyone could come to the website and work independently. There were no work assignments handed out from above or anything like that. There was no bureaucracy. There was no editor-in-chief. I called myself the chief instigator of Wikipedia, not the editor-in-chief."

He added, “It was supposed to be “as you want to participate." To that extent, I suppose it’s still decentralised, but it’s all very centralised in the sense that it’s all on one website, and therefore it has a single neck that you can cut or take control of."

News world 'Wikipedia Has Been Captured By Establishment Left': Co-Founder Larry Sanger | Video

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