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5 June 2023

 

2023-06-05

WMRU director forks new 'pedia, birds flap in top '22 piccy, WMF weighs in on Indian gov's map axe plea

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By Andreas Kolbe, Jonatan Svensson Glad and HaeB
The Picture of the Year 2022, by Prasan Shrestha, showing a great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), little egret (Egretta garzetta) and a gadwall (Mareca strepera) in Taudaha Lake, near Kathmandu, Nepal

Picture of the Year 2022

The Picture of the Year contest on Commons for the year 2022 has concluded. The top 12 images can be viewed here; all 56 finalists can be found here. – AK

Wikimedia Russia director starts Russian fork and is replaced

Wikimedia Russia logo

On 24 May 2023, long-time Wikimedia Russia director Vladimir V. Medeyko (User:Drbug) announced "Рувики" ("Ruviki"), a Russian fork of Wikipedia (Google translation of the announcement). Below are some excerpts from the announcement on habr.com, as translated by DeepL and Google:

I have been a part of the Wikimedia movement for nearly 20 years. And I can say with absolute certainty: Wikipedia is a great project. Because of its importance to the world, it has become a natural monopoly. This means that it is very difficult to reform. Primarily from the fact that it is scary to screw it up.

My colleagues and I have long wanted to try various innovations and reforms. But, as mentioned above, this is extremely difficult in Wikipedia.

Fortunately, Wikipedia is a free project. Anyone can use its content for any purpose, including creating their own project based on it. A project that one can safely try to develop!

And this is what we (as individuals) have decided to do: to start a new encyclopaedic project which is a fork of Wikipedia. That is, it is based on its content (all 1.9 million articles in Russian), but it will develop in a different way – with the said innovations and fundamental reforms.

We have only started to implement our project now, because two powerful motivating factors have emerged in 2022.

The first has to do with the issue of credibility. It has been bothering me for a long time. Back in 2008, at a Wikimedia conference, I discussed the problem of unreliability of articles in Wikipedia, the negative impact on readers, and ways to overcome it. Various mechanisms for ensuring reliability and neutrality have emerged and evolved since then. But the events unfolding in Ukraine have created unprecedented pressure on them – and in my view, the Wikipedia mechanisms are not coping well with this pressure. The need to find additional mechanisms has increased dramatically.

The second factor has to do with artificial intelligence. This topic interests me even more. At a press conference in 2007 I predicted that Wikipedia materials would be actively used in training samples for artificial intelligence systems. By 2022, this has become a reality, with Wikipedia texts used to train a wide variety of systems. On top of that, the past year has seen a boom in large language models. And it was found that the quality of a training sample is especially important for them, otherwise the occurrence of "hallucinations" in the output increases sharply. It is easy to predict that both search engines and Wikipedia will become irrelevant unless ways are found to integrate them with artificial neural networks.

I've also always been concerned about the atmosphere of the project – the friendliness, the focus on compromise for the sake of education and cooperation. I have had many discussions with fellow Wikimedians on this topic. In our view, Wikipedia is suffocating without an influx of newcomers; drastic measures are needed to attract them.

Finally, Wikipedia has an ambiguous reputation in Russia, and it has become difficult to attract participants as well as partners to organize events to support it. But at the same time the public demand for new Wikipedia-like projects has grown.

According to Russian Wikinews, this is the last known photograph (on Commons) of the fork's founders Vladimir V. Medeyko (middle) and Dmitry Rozhkov (left) as members of Wikimedia RU, showing them attending the funeral of User:Соколрус who had volunteered to serve in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and was killed in a mortar attack near Lysychansk in March.

The fork has been welcomed by those media outlets which are still allowed to publish in Russia, such as TASS. Ruviki will not be the first Wikipedia fork to be published in Russia. Runiversalis, which had difficulties getting started last fall, now claims to have 1,920,588 entries, but does not seem to be operated according to the usual Wikipedia rules. Adding to the expected confusion is that the new fork's name "Рувики" is pronounced "Ruviki", the same as a common name for the original Russian Wikipedia, RU.wiki.

In community discussions on the Russian Wikipedia and elsewhere, as well in a Russian Wikinews article, it was pointed out that concerns about AI and newbies might not be the main drivers of this project, and that it should rather be seen in the context of what the fork's announcement appears to allude to as the "pressure" ("давление") that it criticizes Wikipedia as not handling well. Namely, the list of articles banned by the Russian government has increased greatly since last year due to the addition of coverage of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, but they remain accessible in Russia as long as authorities are reluctant to block Wikipedia entirely.

Wikimedia Ukraine secretary Bohdan Melnychuk strongly criticized the fork in the Wikipedia Weekly Facebook group, saying that –

... at the moment Russian Wikipedia is on the brink of being banned in Russia [...] the concern here is not that there is a fork created per se. The concern here is that there are forks being created so that the most successful of them gets to be named the Wikipedia's replacement by the Russian government, while the Wikipedia proper gets banned in Russia.

Medeyko has since been replaced as director of Wikimedia Russia by Stas Kozlovsky and is now indefinitely blocked on Russian Wikipedia, alongside Dmitry Rozhkov, another longtime editor involved in the fork. Kozlovsky told RTVI on the day of the fork's announcement that (DeepL translation):

Vladimir Medeyko, the director of Wikimedia RU, happens to have been secretly involved in the preparation of such a project. There will be a general meeting today to strip him of his directorial powers. [...] Wikipedia is distributed under a free license; anyone can take the content of Wikipedia and use it – it is absolutely normal. It's not normal to use the authority of the director of Wikimedia RU to do this, and to do it in secret for several years. In my opinion, it's not very pretty.

For further discussion see the Wikimedia-l mailing list thread and the Wikipedia Weekly Facebook group. – AK, HaeB

U4C Building Committee

Seven African boys with white body painting on stilts
Not the U4C Building Committee, but the runner-up in the 2022 Picture of the Year contest, showing Ethiopian children with traditional body painting playing on wooden stilts

The U4C Building Committee has been set up. Its members are:

According to the page on Meta, the task of the U4C Building Committee will be "to draft a charter that outlines procedures and details for a global committee to be called the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C). The U4C Building Committee will convene to define and set up the U4C to coordinate the on-going work of the UCoC. This work includes the enforcement, annual review and possible revision of the Universal Code of Conduct and Enforcement Guidelines. The U4C development and implementation will happen over the next year. This crucial work is the next step in providing community structures for the Universal Code of Conduct." – AK

Indian map dispute

Map of India
One of the maps of India identified as requiring attention

A letter written by Jacob Rogers on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation's Legal Team to the English Wikipedia community at the NPOV noticeboard addresses concerns raised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) of the Indian government regarding maps on Wikimedia projects. It acknowledges that India, along with several other countries, has laws that deem maps not conforming to the Indian government's national border outline as illegal. In 2023, MeitY sent the Foundation direct complaints about specific maps and provided a list of 81 URLs on Wikimedia projects, primarily English Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. MeitY expressed its intention to block access to Wikipedia in India if the Foundation did not respond to their demands.

The Foundation, following its standard practice in responding to government demands, explained the community-governance processes of the Wikimedia projects. It emphasized that content and editorial decisions are made by volunteers, and the Foundation has no authority to make changes based on government requests. MeitY acknowledged and agreed with this stance, clarifying that their request did not involve deleting any content from the Wikimedia projects.

However, MeitY made two specific requests to the Foundation. Firstly, they requested that the Foundation inform users (editors) about MeitY's demands. The Foundation considered this request reasonable and aligned with its transparency principles, and therefore decided to make the information public by writing the letter. Secondly, MeitY asked for notices to be added to pages where maps did not comply with Indian law. They also requested a reference to the official Survey of India map, which they had recently released into the public domain and uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.

The Foundation's Legal Department reviewed the requests and opined that informing the community about MeitY's notices was a reasonable course of action, consistent with transparency principles. However, regarding the second request, the Foundation understood MeitY's concern to be the potential misinterpretation of maps' depiction of disputed borders. In response, they suggested the addition of language to image captions in an encyclopedic style to address some of MeitY's concerns while adhering to existing content policies.

After conducting a thorough manual review of the 81 URLs shared by MeitY, the Foundation meticulously identified twelve maps of India that required attention. These maps were spread across eight pages and notably lacked any indication of the border dispute in their visual representation or accompanying captions. The identified maps are as follows:

Recognizing the importance of providing a more balanced and contextual understanding, the Foundation acknowledged the potential benefit of addressing the border dispute in relation to these maps.

The letter emphasized the Wikimedia Foundation's support for the community's editorial decisions and processes. If the community collectively decided not to take any action in response to MeitY's requests, the Foundation would communicate this decision to MeitY and would also attempt to challenge any potential blockage of Wikipedia in India. In conclusion, the letter expressed gratitude to the readers for their time and consideration. – JSG

Brief notes



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2023-06-05

Section 230 stands tall, WP vs. UK bill, Miss Information dissed again

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By Jonatan Svensson Glad, Smallbones and Andreas Kolbe

Wikipedia's "credibility transformation"

In the midst of the ChatGPT era and growing concerns over fake news, the media's spotlight shines this week on Wikipedia's trustworthiness as the go-to source for separating fact from fiction. As attention intensifies, explore the platform's evolving credibility and its crucial role in the battle against misinformation.

Discover the captivating tale of English Wikipedia's credibility makeover in an intriguing APSR article by Sverrir Steinsson, summarized on Political Science Now. Wikipedia's shift from hosting pseudoscience and conspiracy theories to becoming a myth-busting powerhouse is unveiled. Through internal battles, changing policy interpretations, and editor exoduses, Wikipedia has emerged as a trusted source of factual information. It's a fascinating journey that proves even the wildest institutions can reinvent themselves for the better.

By conducting an extensive analysis of a diverse range of Wikipedia articles spanning topics such as climate, health, gender, and sexuality, Steinsson provides insights into the notable shifts in content and language that occurred over time. The transformation of English Wikipedia from hosting fringe beliefs to actively debunking myths was a gradual yet significant process. For instance, the evolution of our Homeopathy article gradually transitioned from describing the subject as a "controversial system of alternative medicine" to categorizing it unequivocally as a pseudoscience.

Steinsson examines Wikipedia's governance structure, saying that the underlying power struggles and editorial debates that shaped the platform's trajectory; as editors with anti-fringe perspectives gained influence and contributors holding pro-fringe viewpoints gradually departed, a new interpretation of Wikipedia's Neutral Point of View guideline emerged, emphasizing the importance of factual accuracy rather than a wide array of viewpoints, and ultimately enhancing the credibility of Wikipedia. For Steinsson, this change occurred gradually through internal processes, including the resolution of early disputes, the departure of certain editors, and the evolution of rule interpretations. Driven by a combination of compulsory power, where dissenters were sanctioned, and productive power, which delegitimized certain rule interpretations, this pattern of change may have broader implications, and can potentially explain similar transformations in other institutions and contexts (such as political movements and parties).

The article challenges the notion that external events or changes in external sources were the primary drivers of this transformation. Instead, it points to the internal reinterpretation of institutional norms as the driving force behind Wikipedia's evolution. In an era dominated by social media and online engagement, the case of Wikipedia serves as a testament to the potential for dynamic digital platforms to adapt and improve. The narrative unravels the interplay between internal conflicts, evolving policy interpretations, and the reshaping of editorial landscapes, providing a thought-provoking exploration of institutional malleability.

Have we already covered this enough?

Wikipedia's credibility has also been a topic of discussion in other outlets, such as an article by columnist Teri Sforza in The Orange County Register. The article highlights the concerns raised by two professors, Shira Klein from Chapman University and Jan Grabowski from the University of Ottawa (refer to the last edition of The Signpost), regarding alleged distortion and misinformation found in Wikipedia entries related to the Holocaust and Polish-Jewish wartime history. The professors argue that nationalist editors have manipulated the content to glorify Polish heroism, downplay anti-Semitism, and minimize Polish collaboration with the Nazis. They call for the Wikimedia Foundation to take decisive action to protect historical accuracy, as well as its reputation as a source of truth. The professors also say that the safeguards in place to combat disinformation on Wikipedia are ineffective, and call for the involvement of experts to address the issue. The article concludes by stating that Wikipedia's reliability is a matter of concern, given its widespread usage and influence as a major source of information.

In an article by the Jewish Telegraph Agency Klein is quoted saying "There is a systemic problem here that goes way beyond the distortion of Holocaust history": "This is the seventh-most viewed site in the world, yet the safeguards Wikipedia has in place for battling disinformation are scarily ineffective. If it’s true for the history of the Holocaust, it is probably true for other cases we have yet to discover. With ChatGPT amplifying Wikipedia on an unprecedented scale, this new failure is all the more worrying."

It must be said, however, that these press reports have their own problems with reliability. The OC Register claims that the arbitration committee banned User:Levivich. This is untrue. Moreover, both articles refer to a 2018 Polish criminal law as though it were still in force today. In fact, the relevant law was repealed later in 2018, after widespread international criticism.

In brief

This image of Sam Allardyce, sourced from our site, exemplifies the humorous and less flattering photos featured in the article on Planet Football.
  • Punting: Section 230 is the part of US law that protects website owners from legal responsibility for content posted by third parties. It is the legal bedrock that Wikipedia, as well as many tech companies, rely on to keep their websites open. Both main US parties have long agreed that this law needs to be changed, but unsurprisingly disagree on their proposed changes. And two big United States Supreme Court cases recently brought these questions to the forefront (see in-depth Signpost coverage in April). The SCOTUS ruling said that the companies could not be expected to have prevented terrorist acts merely based on their websites having been used to make posts, reaffirming precedent for the protections of Section 230. The Hill reported the story in ‘’Supreme Court punts Section 230 debate back to Congress’’ .
  • OpenAI's Approach: Inspired by Wikipedia: Reuters reports how OpenAI, the company behind the Generative Pre-trained Transformer family of large language models, is exploring the concept of collective decision-making similar to Wikipedia's model, where diverse views come together to agree on content. This comes as one of several proposals by the company to increase regulatory barriers to the development of neural networks, including licensure requirements.
  • Wikipedia's Wacky Footballer Fails: An article on Planet Football highlights the creation of a Twitter account dedicated to sharing side-splittingly awkward footballer photos sourced from Wikipedia articles.
  • Notable Notability Fail?: Billy Penn brings up the existence of a Wikipedia page for Philadelphia's "French Quarter," highlighting its lack of detailed information and potential failure to meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for geographic features. "The designation has been around 24 years, but nobody calls it that anymore — if they ever did." Sources in the article make it clear the designation was a late 90s publicity campaign by the city: Arguably notable as an attempt to advertise Philadelphia, but given it was "based on the establishment of three French restaurants and a creperie in the area in the 1990s", one can't help but feel that we're not the ones that should be mocked here.
  • Feud Continues – Wikipedia Page Update Pending: The Wikipedia page about the musical group Oasis may need another update as Noel and Liam Gallagher's ongoing feud takes a bitter turn. After a tabloid report fueled hopes of a reunion, Noel called Liam a "coward" for not reaching out to discuss it. In response, Liam fired back, referencing past controversies and accusing Noel of insensitivity. According to an article on 1057ThePoint.com, it seems the Oasis Wikipedia page is destined for further revisions – as it stands right now the article states 2025 as a year the band will be active. Whatever.
  • In Defense of Comprehensive Reading: Arts writer Dion Everett, in a thought-provoking piece for Varsity, sheds light on the pitfalls of clickbait-driven book criticism and the reliance on summaries and Wikipedia entries. Everett aptly emphasizes that these sources fall short in capturing the nuanced essence and depth of a book, although an image sourced from Wikimedia Commons accompanies the article.
  • Green is the New Black: Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and the host of the COP28 climate conference in the United Arab Emirates, is facing criticism as his team is accused of paid editing of Wikipedia pages. The edits were made to Al Jaber's own Wikipedia page and COP28. The Centre for Climate Reporting and The Guardian conducted an investigation that uncovered these edits. The appointment of an oil executive as the conference chair has raised concerns, with figures like Caroline Lucas from the Green Party criticizing the influence of oil companies and their CEOs on global climate conferences.
  • Wikipedia Rejects UK Age Verification Bill: In TechCity this week we can read that Wikimedia Foundation has announced its refusal to comply with the age verification requirements outlined in the UK's Online Safety Bill, citing incompatibility with its content moderation and user verification model. This decision raises concerns about the possible shutdown of Wikipedia in the UK, as the bill mandates robust age checks for sites featuring "pornography". It will not be the first country, nor the last.
  • Webcomic xkcd did it again: Please see Meryl Streep seagull incident (disambiguation).
  • Jimmy Wales Interview: In a podcast interview, Jimmy Wales and Stewart Baker discuss the sustainability of Wikipedia's model, address claims of bias, and explore the opportunities and risks presented by AI models like ChatGPT for the online encyclopedia.
  • Music Company Goes Off-Key: TorrentFreak writes that a small music company targets a Wikipedia article in its effort to combat YouTube ripping sites, by requesting Google to delist the Comparison of YouTube downloaders page. The delisting battle between music industry groups and YouTube downloaders continues, even raising questions about the presence of explanatory content on Wikipedia.
  • Wikipedia's Spanish Version Gets a Makeover: Despite not being the only version of Wikipedia to get a makeover, the Spanish edition has gained attention in an article by La Diaria, which highlights the recent aesthetic changes from Vector 2022 aimed at enhancing the user experience and streamlining navigation and search functionality. The redesign features a cleaner appearance, an improved search bar, and seamless switching between different language versions of articles. These updates were implemented based on extensive feedback and discussions. In case you missed the opportunity to provide feedback, do not fret — 2010 Vector is still an option for you.
  • Russian fork: ixbt.com and many others report on Рувики ("Ruwiki"), a new Russian Wikipedia fork. For more information on planned replacements for the Russian Wikipedia see previous coverage. For even more information see this issue's News and notes.



Do you want to contribute to "In the media" by writing a story or even just an "in brief" item? Edit our next edition in the Newsroom or leave a tip on the suggestions page.



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2023-06-05

Poetry under pressure

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By Adam Cuerden and QuicoleJR
This Signpost "Featured content" report covers material promoted from 1 to 15 May.

So, um, my birthday's in four days, I've been pretty busy, and.. um.... this is a bit rushed. Still, covered everything, new poems, just might be a bit weirder than normal.

This article will show you that the secret of my craft
Is I normally would cut out any poem that's too daft.
Dummm, Dummm Dummm! Dum-dum! (Dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum)

Twelve featured articles were promoted this period.

CBS Building, nominated by Epicgenius
This building's nicknamed "Black Rock", for when's all said and done,
It looks rather like the monolith from Kubrik's 2001. —AC
Battle of Bronkhorstspruit, nominated by Harrias
The battle that began it all, it really was a bore—
...Sorry, that was my mistake: it starts the First Boer War. —AC
Supermarine S.4, nominated by Amitchell125
A monoplane, built to race,
It set a record with its pace,
But crashed at sea 'ere it could place. —AC
al-Walid I, nominated by Al Ameer son
His reign was the peak of the Umayyad Caliphate's power,
It was after his reign that things started to sour:
He expanded the borders! He spared no expense!
Those who came after had to pay for it, hence,
His reign was the peak of the Umayyad Caliphate's power. —AC
Ludwig Ferdinand Huber, nominated by Kusma
A literary critic ought to foster his connections.
This critic to Georg Forster's wife gave his erections. —AC
Epsom riot, nominated by SchroCat
These Canadians wanted to go home at the end of the World War.
But after one too many delays, they couldn't take it any more.
Sorry, eh? —AC
1984–85 Gillingham F.C. season, nominated by ChrisTheDude
A stressful year for Gillingham fans: They did fantastic - then awful - then great!
Until a really terrible March again took promotion off their plate. —AC
Sonic the Hedgehog 2, nominated by TheJoebro64
In the game Sonic the Hedgehog 2,
You can play as Sonic, and as Tails too;
Because of the game, the Genesis soared,
And at the year's end, it won an award. —QJR
2007 World Cup of Pool, nominated by Lee Vilenski
Teams from various countries all competed, taking up their tool
But Li Hewen and Fu Jianbo won the twenty-oh-seven World Cup of Pool. —AC
Angeline Quinto, nominated by Pseud 14
Soulful singer from Manila... Wait a moment, though,
We saw her appear in featured lists just a mere two issues ago.
She's a Filipina actor/singer, who won herself great fame
With mostly Filipino things I'm still too unknowing of to name. —AC
Saving Private Ryan, nominated by Darkwarriorblake
Stephen Spielberg shows the horrors of World War Two,
Veterans praised the realism of its scenes.
'A critical success!' all shout with one accord,
But Shakespeare in Love took the Academy Award. —AC
Battle of Zama, nominated by Gog the Mild
The Punic Wars are covered in great detail on this site
And Gog the Mild is the man who makes sure things are right. —AC
Gordon Steege, nominated by Ian Rose
An Australian flying ace, a wing and squadron commander,
He got the Distinguished Service Order since his leadership was grander. —AC

Twenty-one featured pictures were promoted this period, including the ones at the top and bottom of this article.

Eleven featured lists were promoted this period.

...Well, now we know which. Probably.
List of macropodiformes, nominated by PresN
If you see a macropodiform, you know that you might view
A wallaby, a bettong, or perhaps a kangaroo. —AC
List of phalangeriformes, nominated by PresN
More marsupial mammals, a cuscus is quite cute.
And now I'm craving cous-cous. Well, dangit! Drat! Oh shoot! —AC
List of accolades received by Avatar: The Way of Water, nominated by Chompy Ace
Avatar: The Way of Woskers
Won "Best Visual Effects" at the Oscars. —If I don't sign this can I pretend I didn't write it?
List of accolades received by Turning Red, nominated by Chompy Ace
This movie released in 2022;
The nominations were many, but the wins were few. —QJR
List of commanders of the British 4th Division, nominated by EnigmaMcmxc
A quite well-researched article, so it's a pity I'll now talk
About how odd one phrase is: general officer commanding, or, the "GOC". —AC
List of English football championship-winning managers, nominated by NapHit
It really isn't that vital
To over-explain that title.
It is what it is. —AC
List of international goals scored by Olivier Giroud, nominated by Idiosincrático
The football player Olivier Giroud
Travelled the world, and scored all around. —QJR
List of Music Bank Chart winners (2017), nominated by EN-Jungwon and Jal11497
If you want this award, the first step to start,
Is go to South Korea and catch the populace's heart.
For if you wish to win it you must top the Korean chart. —AC
Snooker world rankings 1979/1980, nominated by BennyOnTheLoose
They tried to change the rules,
And, after that, they looked like fools.
When the BBC complained
All the old rules were regained. —AC
2022 Winter Olympics medal table, nominated by Birdienest81
The most medals of all Norway did keep,
But Germany got a podium sweep. —QJR
List of Top Selling R&B Singles number ones of 1966, nominated by ChrisTheDude
I feel good
I knew that I would now.
I feel good
Because I started the year on the top of the R&B Singles chart. —James Brown, probably



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2023-06-05

Celebs, controversies and a chatbot in the public eye

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By Igordebraga, SSSB, Max BuddyRoo, and a helpful IP
This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga, SSSB and Max BuddyRoo (May 14 to 20, 2023) and Igordebraga and a helpful IP (May 21 to 27, 2023).

Chatting with a persistent chatbot (May 14 to 20, 2023)

Some renewal, specially in the movies and sports areas, but just about everything from last week remains, including that persistent chatbot back to the top.

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 ChatGPT 1,575,194 The AI chatbot is gearing up to be the most viewed article of 2023, but if there's anything 2022 taught us, it could always be far worse. In terms of updates, Google showcased a feature where, using ChatGPT, could automatically generate responses to emails, which honestly sounds incredibly dystopian.
2 Fast X 1,568,016 Another movie part of the Fast & Furious franchise, as if we didn't have enough of those. Part 10 (!) was criticized for its poor writing, and a sequel is already in development. It's made $400 million already, making it the sixth highest grossing film in 2023.
3 The Kerala Story 1,142,471 The controversial movie is still in the top 3, with it leading to protests and bans in India. It has received universally negative reviews from critics, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke favorably of it.
4 Eurovision Song Contest 2023 1,033,744 With Eurovision, held in Liverpool and won by Sweden, finishing in the early hours of the 14th Wikipedia time, searches and Wikipedia views relating to the winner would have taken place this week.
5 Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz 973,028 Netflix's newest show Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (a fictional take on this royal romance) continues to perform well, if Wikipedia views are anything to go by.
6 George III 936,407
7 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 932,504 The fight of Marvel's cosmic team of a-holes against the High Evolutionary has had a warm reception, with box office income nearing $700 million worldwide. Next for the MCU is Secret Invasion on Disney+ in June, and in theaters there's The Marvels in November.
8 Deaths in 2023 928,656 Death is a natural part of life. Rejoice for those around you who transform into the Force.
9 Anna Nicole Smith 915,581 Netflix released Anna Nicole Smith: You Don't Know Me, a documentary on a sex symbol whose life was full of trials and tribulations: in the 90s, Vickie Lynn Smith changed her name to pose for Playboy, where she was Playmate of the Year, and as she turned into a model started a never-ending string of controversies by marrying an octogenarian billionaire, who died one year later and led Smith to a court battle trying to get some of his money; in the 2000s, she starred in a reality show showcasing how she was outrageous, saw her teenage son die of an overdose, had a daughter that turned out not to be from her husband, and ultimately died in 2007 of an overdose of prescription drugs.
10 2023 Turkish presidential election 893,867 It's the Turkish presidential election, with the two candidates being the conservative Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, going for a 3rd term, which may violate the constitution, and the social democrat Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

The best (May 21 to 27, 2023)

Artists dying brought the most attention in a week full of entertainment like sports, movies, TV shows and wrestling.

Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 Tina Turner 6,432,226 The "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll" died after years of illnesses, leading to a surge of tributes from musicians, film and television figures, and several US Presidents. Much has been said about her in the wake of her passing, but one thing's for sure: she was indeed, simply the best.
2 Ray Stevenson 1,568,016 Coming in second place to the late Queen of Rock 'n' Roll is another celebrity death. This Northern Irish actor had numerous film and television roles throughout his career.
3 ChatGPT 1,506,373 After one more of several weeks of being the most viewed article on this report, the passing of the above two celebrities led to this chatbot being kicked off the top spot.
4 Ike Turner 1,384,053 The late ex-husband of #1, whom he worked with in the 1960s and 1970s as the leader of Ike & Tina Turner, and also inflicted a lot of domestic abuse off stage (as told in her 1986 autobiography I, Tina and the 1993 film adaptation What's Love Got to Do with It).
5 Fast X 1,323,311 The tenth movie in this series about cars, unbelievable stunts and family, which is also the first part of the overall franchise conclusion (the filmmakers are certainly needing to finish things, given these movies have anywhere from Japan, Russia and Brazil to space and Antarctica!). Reviewers were unimpressed, while audiences have already brought its world box office to half a billion dollars.
6 Deaths in 2023 1,005,541 From #1's foray into acting:
You can't stop the pain of your children crying out in your head
They always said that the living would envy the dead
7 The Little Mermaid (2023 film) 967,345 Disney again decided to earn some cash remaking their beloved cartoons in live action, this time the 1989 fairy tale adaptation that started the Disney Renaissance, with Halle Bailey as Ariel (who thankfully is still a redhead). Like most of those remakes, The Little Mermaid delivers most of what audiences liked in the original but padding it to two hours with things that mostly don't improve the story and only serve to remind how tight and well-paced those animated features were. Hence reviews were average, but box office prospects are still big, probably on par with the Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast remakes.
8 Night of Champions (2023) 793,475 The tenth edition of this WWE event, which is also the ninth time wrestling held an event in Saudi Arabia. The two people in its poster, Bianca Belair (pictured) and Roman Reigns, both lost their matches, costing the first the Raw Women's Championship, and the latter a shot at the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship.
9 Josh Freese 717,947 A drummer who played with just about everyone, such a testament of skill that he will fill the enormous gap left by Taylor Hawkins' death in the Foo Fighters.
10 Nikola Jokić 697,020 After already being chosen twice as the NBA Most Valuable Player, this Serbian carried the oft-unlucky Denver Nuggets to the Finals by sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. Jokić will even arrive in the final with extra rest over his Eastern opponents, as the Miami Heat couldn't sweep the Boston Celtics, who managed to bring the series to the seventh game.

Exclusions

  • These lists exclude the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the Top 25 Report talk page if you wish.



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