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Annie Rauwerda compiles some of Wikipedia’s more bizarre pages on her Instagram @depthsofwikipedia.
One such page, started by an anonymous Wikipedia editor with the username “cgbuff” chronicles the increasing number of Russian oligarchs linked to large energy companies that keep dying in weird ways.
“Since July 9, the list of Russian oligarchs who have died in mysterious ways has come to 17,” Rauwerda tells Jim Mora.
In March and April, there were several deaths, she says.
According to the Wikipedia article, a number of the men died after allegedly falling off something like a cliff, yacht or a down flight of stairs. Others were found dead alongside the bodies of their wives and children.
Their deaths remain a mystery.
“The whole thing is fishy, the whole thing is weird,” Rauwerda says.
“The article was started in July by an anonymous Wikipedia editor and as the reports kept coming in, certain news sources started reporting on the phenomenon, saying hey a lot of Russian oligarchs have been dying and a lot of the reasons for death seem a little bit fishy."
Wikipedia doesn’t do its own reporting but is a tertiary source which cites media outlets, she says.
CNN, BBC and CBS News have all been cited as sources in this case.
“Wikipedia is only as good as the sources it can cite. For a lot of these stories, the best sources out there are the ones that are coming from Russian state-run news agencies.
“Are those very credible sources? Probably not. Those are sources that Wikipedia generally doesn’t cite but when it’s all that you have and is what most of the reputable Western news sources are citing then that’s kind of just what you have to use.”
At the beginning of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Rauwerda says the number of people downloading Wikipedia, in its entirety, skyrocketed.
In English alone, there are almost 6.6 million articles on Wikipedia.
"The media agency in Russia had threatened to block Wikipedia and so all of these people who clearly had use for this encyclopedia were really trying to download it.”
There are so many people sitting at their computers “and they spend hours of their one and precious life” defending free information on Wikipedia, Rauwerda says.
“I think that is so inspiring and I think that is the spirit of the early internet that has somehow survived.
“Just a bunch of people, a bunch of nerds, that are working together to build something for everyone.”
