Billionaire and X platform chief Elon Musk's offer to Wikipedia of $1 million dollars if it changes its name to D***ipedia resurfaces after an X user tagged the tech mongul top his previous post and a caption that reads "does the offer still stand?"
The offer was first made by Elon Musk to the platform, with the condition that the platform keep the name for a minimum of a year.
This idea of a name change emerged in light of Elon Musk's increased cynicism of the accuracy of Wikipedia. In a social media post published last year, Musk expressed how Wikipedia has seemingly lost its objectivity and has increasingly been used by the editors to promulgate left-wing ideologies.
Musk listed the reporting of the Israel-Palestinian war as an example of how the platform has showed a political bias in their reports.
Elon Musk's calling out Wikipedia for channeling its budget on DEI
Musk has also called into question why Wikipedia needed so much money to fund their website.
"Have you ever wondered why Wikimedia foundation wants so much money? It certainly isn't needed to operate Wikipedia. You can literally fit a copy of the entire text on your phone! So, what's the money for?
Musk's comments touch on a broader issue that has riled up many of his followers: Wikipedia's financial priorities. Musk has long been outspoken about his concern with how large institutions spend money, especially non-profits like the Wikimedia Foundation.
Thus Musk's taunt of changing the name of Wikipedia was more than just a playful banter, but built on his belief that the Foundation has been wasting resources on things other than the core purpose of running the encyclopedia.
In order to pressure Wikipedia, Elon Musk has also started a movement to defund Wikipedia. This statement comes after Arther MacWater, the Co-founder of Legion Health revealed that Wikipedia has spent over $50 million of thier total $177 million budget on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.
Musk took to X to call out the Foundation and called users to stop donating to Wikipedia until they promised to spend their money on what really matters, which is its editing authority.
Fans support this idea
Musk's move to change the name of Wikipedia has gained massive support from Musk fans, many of which have hailed and cheered him on.
One user wrote, "easy money@wikipedia...."
Other users expressed how this would be Musk's best move yet.
There are also others who have speculated the implication of this acquisition. One user wrote "Image the first edit on D***ipedia:"Elon Musk, the visionary who renamed the internet's encyclopedia to keep us laughing." The user also claimed that Elon Musk is making history in more ways than one.
Wikipedia's reponse
While Musk's action has generated buzz, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales had made it clear that Wikipedia is not for sale.
Responding to Musk's post, Wales wrote
"I think Elon is unhappy that Wikipedia is not for sale. I hope this campaign to defund us results in lots of donations from people who care about the truth. If Elon wanted to help, he'd be encouraging kind and thoughtful intellectual people he agrees with to engage."
Wikipedia also made a special dig at Elon Musk, after it posted a special section on Elon Musk making the Nazi Salute in its page regarding Nazi salutes.
To which Elon Musk has expressed outrage at the platform for calling his gesture a Nazi salute, a description that Musk strongly denies.