Wikipedia founder brands Australia’s social media ban an ‘unmitigated disaster’ and an ‘embarrassment’

Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, has branded the Australian social media ban an “unmitigated disaster” and an “embarrassment” that is teaching kids to accept surveillance from tech companies when they go online. The online encyclopaedia that anyone can edit was born in a world before social media, in 2001. But Wales told Guardian Australia that many of the ills of social media existed even in the earlier stages of the internet. “Before social media, before Wikipedia, there was Usenet, which was like a giant, unmoderated message board,” he said. “It was unbelievably toxic: flame wars constantly and personal attacks and just general horribleness. “Humans don’t need algorithms to be mean to each other. We can do it on our own, so we shouldn’t be too rose-tinted about the past.” Wales is visiting Australia in May for writers’ festivals promoting his book, Seven Rules of Trust, a look at how the model of trust between people who edit Wikipedia pages can be applied to political polarisation in modern discourse. The seven rules include being transparent, making discussion between two people personal and being courteous. Wales said the core bedrock rule of the Wikipedia community is no personal attacks. “If you are attacking the other person, that’s really viewed negatively in the Wikipedia world,” he said. …