Technology
Elon Musk blasts Wikipedia for suspending edits of 'recession' page
The ‘Recession’ page had been overwhelmed with dueling edits after the Biden administration announced on Thursday that the U.S. economy had experienced two consecutive quarters of falling GDP – the long-standing definition of a recession
August 1, 2022 2:36pm
Updated: August 1, 2022 5:48pm
Tech mogul Elon Musk slammed Wikipedia for “losing its objectivity” after its administrators locked down its “recession” page from edits following poor economic news from the White House.
The world’s wealthiest man tagged Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales in a Twitter reply to a post saying the popular online reference had become “weaponized.”
“Wikipedia is losing its objectivity,” wrote the Tesla and SpaceX CEO on Friday.
Wikipedia is losing its objectivity @jimmy_wales
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2022
The ‘Recession’ page had been overwhelmed with dueling edits after the Biden administration announced on Thursday that the U.S. economy had experienced two consecutive quarters of falling GDP – the long-standing definition of a recession.
^^ And HERE is what the historical revisionists at Wikipedia added to the Recession page, in order to fit the Biden White House's newest narrative. pic.twitter.com/oSIK0eOhmr
— Crab Man (@crabcrawler1) July 28, 2022
“That doesn’t sound like a recession to me,” said President Joe Biden on Thursday, pointing to gains in other areas of the economy.
The Wikipedia page was changed to “Semi-protection” status, which blocks edits from unregistered users to "prevent significant amounts of disruption or vandalism from new or unregistered users."
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also insisted that the economy was not in a recession and said experts “should avoid a semantic battle” around the term despite the second straight quarterly decline.
News outlets who went along with the White House by not using the term or questioning the previous rule-of-thumb have been accused of running interference for the administration.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a statement that: “While the Biden Administration and its legacy media cheerleaders are trying to gaslight people about the economic slowdown, we have seen Biden’s poor economic stewardship and the negative impact it has had on families. Now, Biden wants to tax and spend even more, which will only make things worse.”
Critics also pointed to a trend of the left redefining terms that are inconvenient to its agenda and narrative.
"Thank God for our vigilant journalists who saved us from a recession by redefining it," tweeted user @iowahawkblog.
“One sign of the incredible purchase that postmodernism now has in public life, on all sides of the political spectrum: the widespread conviction that you can stop people from caring about bad developments by redefining the terms that describe it,” tweeted Yascha Mounk, contributing editor at The Atlantic and author of “The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure.”
One sign of the incredible purchase that postmodernism now has in public life, on all sides of the political spectrum: the widespread conviction that you can stop people from caring about bad developments by redefining the terms that describe it.
— Yascha Mounk (@Yascha_Mounk) July 29, 2022
Economic issues are a key factor in Biden’s record-low approval ratings. A July 20 Quinnipiac poll found only 19% of Latinos approved of his job performance and 31% overall.
