Highlights

• Elon Musk has a history of conflicts with Wikipedia, expressing dissatisfaction with his entry and encouraging vandalism on his page.
• Musk claims that Wikipedia is biased and controlled by mainstream media, accusing them of suppressing stories and influencing narratives.
• Musk offered to donate $1 billion to Wikipedia if they changed their name to "D***ipedia," but also questioned the need for the organization to raise so much money.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk (who currrently holds the title of the world's richest man) often pokes fun at rival companies; Musk is not a traditional business person with a classical well-mannered and sophisticated approach.

After buying Twitter in 2022, Elon Musk engaged in verbal disputes with myriad opponents, demonstrating his penchant for getting under the skin of his perceived rivals (and his consistent desire to publicly humiliate those he feels have wronged him).

A recent example is his verbal clash with Mark Zuckerberg. Both tech titans appeared to agree to a cage fight – but at one point, Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a literal "[private body part] measuring contest."

Mark Zuckerberg immediately accepted the invitation to engage in a formal fight, responding simply: "send me location." In June 2023, tech news site TheVerge.com covered their verbal sparring, and hinted that Musk might ultimately shy away from the physical altercation:

Regardless of who would win, I think we can all agree that a Musk-versus-Zuckerberg match would be one of the most entertaining fights of all time. It needs to happen. Don’t back down now, Musk.

In August, Zuckerberg said it was "time to move on" from the discussion, but stopped short of explicitly stating Musk never intended to follow through:

Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead ... If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me. Otherwise, time to move on. I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously.

Now, Musk has directed his mercurial ire in the direction of Wikipedia.

Elon Musk's Early Disputes With Wikipedia

An initial conflict between Elon Musk and Wikipedia kicked off way back in 2019, when Musk took issue with his Wikipedia entry, and tweeted:

Musk was described as a "technology engineer, entrepreneur, and investor" in the entry, and bristled at that characterization. When one Twitter user implied that reading his Wikipedia page was reflective of his fictionalized image (created by the public), Musk fired back:

In 2020, Elon once more became agitated by information didn't appreciate appearing on his Wikipedia page. He implored his millions of followers to "trash" his page, also known as "vandalization" in the context of Wikipedia:

Twitter users obliged his request and started to edit his page; some described him as a rapper, while others credited him for all the major wars, diseases, and financial disasters of the last century. Musk appeared to enjoy the ensuing chaos, and even encouraged the activity via a laughing emoji.

In response, Wikipedia locked his page to edits, citing the ongoing public vandalism. From there, Musk began to watch his Wikipedia page closely, seeking even the slightest opportunity to criticize Wikipedia.

Musk Takes Aim At Wikipedia Again

In December 2021, he began stirring the Wikipedia pot once again, tweeting:

As is often the case, his first tweet evolved into a rant:

In these tweets, Musk appeared angry that Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard was (at the time) listed as one of the company's two co-founders on a Wikipedia page. According to Musk, Eberhard agreed to credit five co-founders in total, in a lawsuit settlement in 2009.

Musk's role in developing the Tesla brand has long been a point of contention, with Tesla's original founders (Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning) described as "often-overlooked" in a July 2023 Yahoo! Finance article:

Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, the often-overlooked original founders of Tesla Inc., provided some insights into the company’s inception and their pivotal role in shaping the electric vehicle revolution, during an interview with CNBC. While Elon Musk has rightly claimed the spotlight as the face of Tesla, he was not the sole founder. Eberhard and Tarpenning, as the driving forces behind Tesla’s establishment in 2003, laid the foundation for the transformative journey the company would undertake.

In short, Elon Musk seemed to take umbrage when he wasn't included on a Tesla co-founder list on Wikipedia, and more so as Eberhard suggested Musk was dishonest about the origins of the company. Musk parlayed this grudge into one against Wikipedia, presumably for "siding with Eberhard."

Elon Musk Says He Won’t Leave His Companies To Any Of His 10 Children

Elon Musk, Wikipedia, And The 'Thursday Night Massacre'

In 2022, Musk's ongoing acrimony toward Wikipedia escalated once again, after Twitter banned seven journalists (for doing their jobs), over then-recent reporting on his activities and management of Twitter.

Unsurprisingly, a Wikipedia user created a page about this notable incident, with the title "Thursday Night Massacre"; the page was later retitled "December 2022 Twitter suspensions."

While anyone can contribute to and edit the site, Musk blamed Wikipedia for the existence of the page, and tweeted:

Later in December 2022, right-wing blogger Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) tweeted about the proposed deletion of an entry for Musk's "Twitter Files," a series of internal Twitter communications he released in late 2022. Musk alleged Wikipedia collaborated with mainstream media to influence the narrative and suppress the story.

In response to Cheong, Musk again attacked the "mainstream media" as "biased," and accused Wikipedia of a similar bias. Musk tagged a Wikipedia founder to solicit his opinion on the matter.

Elon Musk To Spend $2 Billion On Starship After Last One Exploded

Wikipedia is a well-known online encyclopedia maintained by a community of volunteers who write the content and verify it through various sources. The website is free to access, but Wikipedia has long relied on donations to keep the biggest online encyclopedia alive.

Due to the commonly present donation plea, it wasn't too long until someone suggested Musk use cash to interfere with Wikipedia. A Twitter user tweeted a question about "how much Wikipedia would cost," and tagged Musk to draw his attention to the comment.

However, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales replied instead:

For their part, Wikipedia has taken shots at Musk as well. As Twitter became increasingly chaotic in late 2022, Wikipedia's fundraising appeal made a direct reference to Musk's acquisition of Twitter; Wales said in part:

When I set up the Wikimedia Foundation as a nonprofit to host Wikipedia and 12 other free knowledge projects, it meant that we could preserve our core values: neutral, high quality information, not outrage and clickbait.

Being a nonprofit means there is no danger that someone will buy Wikipedia and turn it into their personal playground.

Elon Musk's $1 Billion Offer To Wikipedia

On October 22nd, Musk came across a Wikipedia fundraising appeal, prompting him to tweet a $1 billion offer with one massive caveat:

In a separately threaded tweet, Musk criticized Wikipedia at length, and seeded doubt about the funds raised for its operation:

Have you ever wondered why the 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? Inquiring minds want to know …

Wikipedia didn't respond to Musk. However, a user suggested that Wikipedia should consider accepting the offer, taking the money, and later changing the name back to "Wikipedia."

To this, Elon Musk replied: