The English-language pages of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia are being regularly edited to present Estonian history in a light friendly to supporters of the Soviet Union, writes ERR News.
Journalist Roland Liive has found that hundreds of important Estonian entries have their birthplaces changed from Estonia to the Estonian SSR or the Soviet Union. The USSR occupied Estonia twice – in 1940-1941 and 1944-1991, and in 1991, when it regained independence, the republic founded in 1918 was restored. Estonia’s official position is that Estonia was illegally and de facto occupied, but never ceased to exist.
Robert Treufeldt, the chairman of the board of Wikimedia Estonia, explained the situation on the program Terevisioon, saying that the first open discussions on this issue began in Lithuania, and it was the vote held there that determined that the usual designation, for example, “Tallinn, Estonian SSR, USSR,” is used when talking about people born in Tallinn. He pointed out that when looking at the list of voters, there are no usernames that could be identified as belonging to Estonia. There are voters from Canada, Yemen and other places, which means that the decision was made by people who know nothing about the history of the Baltic States or the Soviet Union.
Treufeldt emphasized that, judging by the profiles of the editors of the articles, users who express Russian chauvinistic views and act in accordance with Russian interests are trying to rewrite history. In his opinion, such activities may be part of a broader influence campaign, and there are two important aspects. One is that it is impossible to verify all Wikipedia articles, and this is a voluntary effort. Second, and unbeknownst to many Estonians, the prevailing view of Russia in many parts of the world is very different from Estonia’s: “What was once called the Third World has actually been heavily influenced by the Soviet Union. So a pro-Russian information environment is still quite acceptable in much of Latin America, Africa, and Asia.”
That’s why
serious disagreements can arise over certain articles, leading to the fact that the article is no longer allowed to be edited.
It is difficult for Estonia to monitor Wikipedia, because the resources of Russian state-paid propagandists far exceed the capabilities of volunteers.
Liive has studied the phenomenon, and in a post on the social network LinkedIn, he called it “mass manipulation on an industrial scale.” He found that one person had systematically changed the information in the profiles of almost 600 prominent Estonians, from the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas and the racing driver Ott Tänak to the supermodel Carmen Kass. The place of birth in the profiles of all the individuals was changed, indicating that it was in the Estonian SSR, the Soviet Union. This was not a technical correction either, but a deliberate effort, and in one case the particular user corrected the history of Estonia for 21 hours and 40 minutes without stopping.
When Estonian volunteers tried to make corrections, they were denied, stating that they were promoting the spread of a nationalist narrative. For example, it is currently impossible to correct the Kallas’ profile, and the information in it remains in a distorted form.
Similarly, the section on the Estonian War of Independence is being worked on, where in some sections “defense” has been replaced with “offense,” and the creation of Estonia has been presented as separatism, which coincides with the Kremlin’s rhetoric. Liive pointed out that online encyclopedias have become a battlefield for hybrid warfare, and there is a risk of losing our history to those who want to rewrite it.
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