TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's status as a country in Wikipedia was changed to "partially-recognised country" on Saturday (Oct. 1), China's National Day, before the page was repaired later that day.
On Saturday morning, Wikipedia user "Genabab" changed Taiwan's status from country to "partially-recognised country" claiming that "Other countries such as West Sahara or Kosovo have similar formal recognition to Taiwan yet are identified as partially recognised states in their articles." The anonymous editor then concluded that "I see no valid reason to not also include the status of a partially recognised country to Taiwan.
Nearly seven hours later, user "Helen Montecchio" undid Genabab's edits and wrote "F*** off wumao." The term "wumao" is used to describe China's legions of internet commentators recruited to spread disinformation on social media.
However, user "Slatersteven" restored Genab's edits within a few minutes, calling on Montecchio to make her case on the talk page, where editors can discuss changes to the article. Nearly two hours later, user "LVTW2" restored the original reference to Taiwan as a country and wrote that before a consensus can be reached through talk, "the previous longstanding version stands still, no change is permitted before any consensus is reached."
Over the years, the Wikipedia entry for Taiwan has frequently been a target of vandalism by Chinese nationalists seeking to demote Taiwan's status as a sovereign, independent country. In a request for comments (RFC) page created to debate the proper status of Taiwan in its Wikipedia entry, editors in May 2020 fiercely debated the merits of referring to Taiwan as a "state" or a "country."
After a month of heated back and forth, the RFC was closed for discussion on May 24, 2020 and a vote was cast. In a summary of the exchange posted on June 4, a numeric majority was reached with 33 editors voting in favor of "country," 10 opting for "state," and five others choosing a variant of "state."
Roflkopt3r on October 3rd, 2022 at 18:07 UTC »
Some trolls briefly changed the Wikipedia article and then other users or admins changed back. Like usual with ideological vandalism. Complete non-news.
IAmAlife on October 3rd, 2022 at 15:51 UTC »
What was it before?