Coming Soon:  Wikidpedia
Posted Apr 8, 2013

Coming Soon:  Wikidpedia

by Dr. Nafeez Ahmed


 

THE PROJECT

Wikidpedia will be a cutting edge online platform designed to document and expose hate speech by people of influence, whether it be in print, on the web, in video or in audio.

Our objective is to ensure that the irresponsible statements of public figures who indulge in hate speech of all kinds are never forgotten, so that they can be held to account.

CONFRONTING HATE SPEECH

Some hate speech is obvious - flagrantly targeting vulnerable people, often from minority groups, purely due to their ethnicity, gender, religion, age, disability or sexual orientation. But hate speech can also be insidious; passed off as a joke by comedians, or pronounced offhand by popular celebrities, and so often overlooked or quickly forgotten. But the impact on the targets of hate speech can be immeasurable - legitimising stereotypical demonisations of whole groups of people.

We stand for free speech, and that’s why we believe that hate speech in the public sphere should be confronted through civil society action. Those who hold positions of public influence should be held to account when they speak irresponsibly in a way that promotes hate, rather than doing so with impunity. That’s why we are exercising our right to free speech, and encouraging you to exercise yours, through the Wikidpedia project - a public platform for you to get involved in that will confront hate speech in the public sphere in all it forms.

WHAT IS WIKIDPEDIA?

Wikidpedia will provide a comprehensive, open source website by which past hate speech by public figures can be documented and categorised in all its ugly glory; by which new hate speech can be monitored and exposed; and about which public campaigns to demand an end to hate speech can be developed.

It will no longer be possible to indulge in hate speech on a public platform - and simply get away with it. 

Hatesayers will be named and shamed, whether they be well-known commentators, politicians, ‘lovable rogues’, TV presenters, comedians, members of the Royal Family, religious figures - whoever they are, if they’re on a public platform promoting hate, we’ll confront them on the Wikidpedia platform, to counter hate.

Wikidpedia will promote citizen journalism to track hate speech and ensure that entries on the website are rigorously sourced - and that public campaigns to counter hate speech are credible and powerful.

WHO IS WIKIDPEDIA?

Wikidpedia is being developed by Dr. Nafeez Ahmed and his crack team of researchers, activists and campaigners with the support of The Concordia Forum.

GET INVOLVED!

We need your help to get the Wikidpedia project off the ground and running over the next year. We are seeking to raise seed-funding of £18,000 to fund our core launch and operational costs, after which we won’t need to crowdfund for another penny ever again! Our costs include: 

• designing and creating a multimedia wiki website; 

• research to highlight objectionable hate speech by public figures across all the key sectors identified above;

• and ongoing media monitoring by a core team to build the database.

This seed-funding will allow us to give back to you a fully functioning state-of-the-art multimedia website within three months of the end of this crowdfunding campaign, and to thereafter work on creating the infrastructure for the project over the next year until it will be ready to open out for members of the public to engage in editing and creating content. And we will always make sure that the project can never be vandalised for partisan political interests.

With your help, Wikidpedia will soon be live, and yours! Follow us on Twitter @WikidProject