Wikipedia representatives have gotten in touch with Pakistan Today to clarify their role in Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s JIT ‘calibri’ debacle.
The representatives from Wikipedia talked to Pakistan Today about the strangeness of the situation, their quick actions to preserve the authenticity of the website and the allegations and harassment that some of their counter-vandalism team had to face, including concerning statements made by PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudry.
One of the many elements that arose from the entire controversy surrounding the calibri issue was the vandalism of the Calibri font’s Wikipedia page.
In the immediate aftermath of the Calibri controversy breaking out, the Wikipedia page of the font was thoroughly vandalised by what initially seemed like a PML-N supporters and in retaliation the PTI supporters who, in this particular case, would be sticklers for the truth. It is of course not a bad idea, ignoring the lies and misrepresentations, to change the dates on a Wikipedia page in such a situation. It is only logical damage control after all. As could be seen by the fact that 150,000 people visited the Calibri wikipedia page after the controversy erupted when the usual traffic it gets in a day is 500.
The vandalism was controlled however thanks to Wikipedia’s quick acting volunteer based help desk which picked up on the increased page interest and edits, and worked towards rectifying it to its original position a number of times.
One of Wikipedia’s counter-vandalism team’s members is Russia based Pakistani Saqib Qayum. Speaking to Pakistan Today, Saqib revealed that the editing had been tasking work and he had as a reward been ‘harassed’ by PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudry and had gotten a number of abusive emails from a number of unknown, presumably pro-PTI persons.
“Because of my name’s visibility in the edit history, many people suspected that I am affiliated with PML-N and was removing the real release dates. On the contrary I was just reverting unverified information for which I have no conflict of interest.”
PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudry for example, called out Saqib as one of those responsible for the edits, hinting at him possibly being a paid crony. Fawad Chaudry had said in a tweet, “User Saqib changed dates on ‘Calbiri’ font Article on wikipedia interestingly same guy edited page of Maryam Nawaz.” Saqib on the other hand cried foul, saying his name was prominent because he was repeatedly rectifying the attempts to alter the page’s facts. He also said he had been targeted by other people as well that thought he was trying to alter the page to favour the PML-N narrative.
“And since my email address is also public, I have received a few abusing emails by unknown people which has prompted me to write the blog post as a clarification,” he told Pakistan Today.
Saqib also went on to mention the strange nature of the occurrence and that although such things were the norm, he had not in his experience seen anything like it.
“There have been many occasions where I have seen unconstructive editing and vandalism occurred on topics related to Pakistan that have had a high level of media or public interest, but my guess is nothing of this sort ever happened. The worst I have seen is people used Wikipedia to character assassinate someone or to promote someone in undue manner. But this one is more sensitive due to its connection with Font gate scandal which as noted by the Guardian threatening the government.”
