The World Health Organization (WHO) and Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization that handles Wikipedia, have announced a collaboration to provide the public with the latest and accurate information on the COVID-19 virus.
The World Health Organization and @Wikimedia Foundation expand access to trusted information about #COVID19 on @Wikipedia 👉 https://t.co/G6pxbDyYrp pic.twitter.com/MeHFimghvK
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) October 22, 2020
The collaboration will allow Wikipedia’s more than 0.25 million volunteer editors to provide accurate and updated information in more than 5,200 articles. People around the world can now also access WHO’s infographics, videos, and other media assets on Wikipedia’s digital library i.e. Wikimedia Commons.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, said
“Equitable access to trusted health information is critical to keeping people safe and informed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our new collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation will increase access to reliable health information from WHO across multiple countries, languages, and devices.”
The public’s access to accurate information is essential for a healthy society especially in terms of a pandemic like this one. Information shared through the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license will allow users on Wikipedia and other websites to share WHO’s information and media without the fear of copyright infringement.
This is an essential step to provide the public with real information especially as influential people like Donald Trump have repeatedly shared incorrect information trying to downplay the pandemic. Twitter has also been working to minimize the spread of all false information on its platform.
Image Source: Wikimedia
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