Elon Musk extends wishes on Wikipedia's 20th birthday, says 'So glad you exist'

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on January 15 wished a “Happy Birthday” to Wikipedia that marked 20 years of existence. “So Glad You Exist,” Musk tweeted. The SpaceX CEO lauded his long-running relationship with the website, adding that he was glad that the service existed. However, it remains unclear whether Musk sarcastically launched a remark at Wikipedia as he had been blocked off the website and has often directed comments at Wikipedia. 

Musk, the tech mogul ‘begged’ his 37.9 million followers to “trash him” on Wikipedia, as a result of which, the website locked his page from editing. “History is written by the victors, except on Wikipedia haha,” Musk had then tweeted. “Please trash me on Wikipedia, I’m begging you,” Musk further tweeted. In response to his appeal, a user-edited Musk’s bio on Wikipedia as “All major wars, diseases and financial disasters of the last century can be directly attributed to Mr. Musk or one of his companies.” However, Musk asked his fans to describe him as a “business magnet” instead of a “business magnate” on Wikipedia. 

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Virtual birthday party

The internet encyclopedia held an online birthday celebration on January 15, to commemorate its expansion with respect to accessible information ever since it was founded in 2001 by the American-British entrepreneur Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. World’s seventh-most popular website to date has over 55 million articles consulted online at least 15 billion every month, and are available in 309 languages. Wikipedia started in the English language but has also launched in German and Swedish. The free access information site exemplified the idea that people could collaborate together and build a robust knowledge portal with volunteers who share their knowledge, the community organizers who host convenings, new editors, donors, developers who make sure that Wikipedia is fast and accessible for the readers. 

Wikipedia organized a virtual birthday party with music, trivia, and special guests online for the readers in collaboration with NYC Media Lab. Furthermore, the site hosted a virtual chat at 1 pm ET with Wikimedia Foundation CEO Katherine Maher and host of NPR’s TED Radio Hour, Manoush Zomorodi, who spoke about Wikipedia’s role in the ongoing fight against disinformation, and “address some of the biggest misconceptions you hear about Wikipedia and discuss how research and knowledge sharing may change over the next 20 years.” 

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