Wikipedia considers deleting 'Mass killings under communist regimes' page, sparks outcry

Wikipedia alerted readers that its “Mass killings under communist regimes” page may be purged after complaints of bias from some editors.

The page dedicated to atrocities under one-party authoritarian states by dictators like Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot, is facing deletion because of site contributors who argue that those tragedies are not linked to the communist ideology itself.

One supporter of deletion argues the page contributes to “the view that the ideology of communism is somehow inherently violent,” reports the UK’s Telegraph. Another says anti-communist bias “is enabling a narrative that supports some fringe ideas about history.”  

Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger left the site in 2002 and has been an outspoken critic of co-founder Jimmy Wales and the site’s leftist bias ever since. He quickly tweeted a screenshot of the page’s warning, saying, “You can’t make this crap up.”

The decision has come under criticism from both academics and human rights groups.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Fund retweeted Sanger on Twitter and said, “Remember the victims – Communism has consequences.”

Remember the victims — Communism has consequenses. https://t.co/FpcEN8ezM0

— Victims of Communism (@VoCommunism) November 25, 2021

Cambridge historian and professor Robert Tombs argued that erasing the article would downplay the link between genocide and other ideologies too, like fascism and colonialism.

“This is morally indefensible, at least as bad as Holocaust denial, because ‘linking ideology and killing’ is the very core of why these things are important,” Tombs said.

Deleting the page of genocides under communist rule is also troublesome because Wikipedia’s main pages on “Socialism” and “Communism” gloss over events like mass starvation and killings.

For example, the “Socialism” entry implies linking genocide to communism is purely political, stating, “Many commentators on the political right point to the mass killings under communist regimes, claiming them as an indictment of socialism.”

"The omission of large-scale mass murder, slave labor, and man-made famines is negligent and deeply misleading," Bryan Caplan, an economics professor who studies the history of communism, told Fox News.

The decision on whether to delete the page will be made by a Wikipedia administrator based on the arguments made by users.