Here’s why the ‘free knowledge’ platform Wikipedia is raising funds in India

• In early February this year, users saw a message on Wikipedia asking for donations worth just about their coffee consumption for a week, which would keep the website ‘thriving’.
• Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company of Wikipedia, has confirmed to Business Insider that it recently began running tests on online donations in India.
• These online donations will help the company sustain its ‘free knowledge aim’ and has both local and global impact.

Internet users in India recently saw a banner ad on the Wikipedia page, asking for donations. While users were perplexed as to why the free knowledge information site is asking for donations, Wikipedia was actually testing the waters for further donation messages.

In early February this year, users saw a message on Wikipedia asking for donations worth just about their coffee consumption for a week, which would keep the website ‘thriving’.

“But if Wikipedia became commercial, it would be a great loss to the world. Wikipedia unites all of us who love knowledge: contributors, readers and the donors who keep us thriving. The heart and soul of Wikipedia is a community of people working to bring you unlimited access to reliable, neutral information. Please take a minute to help us keep Wikipedia online and growing,” they wrote on the website.

Several payment methods were included for the same – Paytm, RuPay etc.

And Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company of Wikipedia, has confirmed to Business Insider that it recently began running tests on online donations in India, and looks forward to providing readers in India the ability to support Wikipedia.

“These pre-tests that we run are important to confirm that the backend system and messaging are working as expected, and integrate local feedback into future donation messages,” Anusha Alikhan, senior communications director, Wikimedia told Business Insider.

These online donations will help the company sustain its ‘free knowledge aim’ and has both local and global impact.

“Donations go directly toward sustaining the organization’s work, including activities such as hosting and running our sites, building and improving software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, supporting the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, advocating for policies that enable Wikimedia and free knowledge to thrive, and more,” said Alikhan.

In recent times, Wikimedia has been concerned about its presence in India with the country laws regarding data and internet set to come up soon. Wikimedia had joined companies like Mozilla, GitHub to write to the Indian government about the internet intermediary liability rules.

The proposed rules which will make way for automated censorship would ‘severely disrupt’ the ability of Wikipedia to operate in India.

Wikimedia, which aims to provide access to free knowledge and information, has a problem with the law which will force it to set up a local entity. Also, it would be asked to filter its content.

India is one of Wikipedia’s leadership markets. In November 2019, Indians visited Wikipedia over 771 million times which is its – fifth highest number of views.

See Also:
Wikipedia says it may not be accessible in India if government pushes through new internet rules
Mozilla, GitHub and Cloudflare fear ‘automated censorship’ ⁠in India’s new internet laws
Here’s why Wikipedia is threatened by India's internet intermediary liability rules