Larry Sanger, who co-founded Wikipedia and named the online encyclopedia, has been indefinitely banned from editing the site after attempting to organize a group focused on intellectual diversity. Sanger, who led Wikipedia's nonprofit company in its first year, stated that he believes the platform's editorial culture has become dominated by bias and anarchists, driving away valuable contributors.
Despite the ban, Sanger remains a vocal critic of Wikipedia, particularly concerned about its influence on public information and AI training. He argues that the site consistently favors what he terms a "GASP" framework – globalist, academic, secular, and progressive positions. Sanger pointed to specific article titles and content, such as "Gaza genocide" with a perceived anti-Israel bent, the framing of "Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory," and the differential treatment of scandals involving Donald Trump and Joe Biden regarding Ukraine, as evidence of this bias. He also highlighted the description of the COVID-19 lab leak theory as a "highly controversial hypothesis" and characteristic of conspiracy theories, even years after the pandemic.
Sanger acknowledged that Wikipedia's direct traffic has seen a decline, from over a billion monthly visitors in May 2024 to around 815 million since December 2025. He attributes this drop primarily to the rise of AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude, which answer questions directly, reducing the need to visit Wikipedia. However, he emphasized that hundreds of millions of monthly visitors still engage with the site, and its indirect influence is growing as AI platforms train their algorithms on Wikipedia data.
"It would be a massive error simply to ignore Wikipedia," Sanger stated, emphasizing that the entirety of AI's future depends on the information it processes. He outlined four strategies to address Wikipedia's perceived bias and restore its neutrality.
First, Sanger suggested that a few hundred individuals actively contribute to Wikipedia by creating accounts, learning its rules, and editing articles to introduce well-sourced alternative viewpoints and correct one-sided characterizations. This, he believes, would be sufficient to push Wikipedia towards genuine neutrality.
Second, he proposed redirecting financial support away from the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that runs Wikipedia, and towards volunteer efforts. Sanger argued that starving the foundation of donations, which exceeded $200 million last year, would force it to refocus on its core mission and signal public concern over declining neutrality.
Third, Sanger advocated for public discourse about Wikipedia's editorial practices. He believes that raising public awareness of the site's alleged one-sidedness could impact traffic and AI usage policies. He urged people to share their views on social media, blogs, and in conversations with those who still consider Wikipedia neutral.
Fourth, Sanger called for legislative reform, specifically suggesting a narrow statutory carve-out from Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for the Wikimedia Foundation. This change, he argued, would hold the foundation legally responsible for libelous content if it fails to act upon credible reports, similar to traditional publishers.
Sanger concluded by asserting that if Wikipedia fails to live up to its claim of being "the encyclopedia anybody can edit," then its users should "push back - hard."