Metapedia

Metapedia is an online wiki-based encyclopedia which contains authoritarian far-right, white nationalist, white supremacist, anti-feminist, homophobic, Islamophobic, antisemitic, Holocaust-denying, and neo-Nazi points of view.[2][3][4][5][6] The site describes itself as being an alternative to Wikipedia that focuses on European culture, art, science, philosophy, and politics. It was founded in 2006, initially in a Swedish-language version, by Swedish neo-Nazi publisher Anders Lagerström, who currently heads the project together with Lennart Berg.

Not to be confused with Meta-Wiki, MetaWiki, or Matapédia.

Metapedia
English Metapedia logo
Type of site
Internet encyclopedia
Available inHungarian, German, English, Spanish, Swedish, Romanian, Estonian, French, Slovak, Czech, Portuguese, Norwegian, Croatian, Danish, Greek, Dutch
OwnerNFSE Media AB, Linköping, Sweden
URLen.metapedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (English Metapedia)
Alexa rank 45,215 (June 2019)[1]
CommercialNo
RegistrationOptional (required only for editing), via e-mail
Launched26 October 2006 (2006-10-26)
Current statusActive
Content license
GNU Free Documentation License 1.3
Part of a series on
Antisemitism
Category

History

The Swedish Metapedia was founded in 2006 by Anders Lagerström (born October 14, 1977), a neo-Nazi publisher from Linköping, Sweden.[7][8]

Anders Lagerström has long been involved in extreme right-wing organizations. In 2000, he was convicted of spraying tear gas in the face of a police officer. In 2002 he started the Nordic publishing house, which specializes in issuing and selling Nazi literature and white power music. Lagerström is also a prominent figure in the Nordic Federation. The Nazi organization seems to be creating a "Nordic nation state". The organization's website says the following about how this imaginary nation should look: "It means a society populated by a people, and a state power and mass media entirely under Nordic control."[9]

Swedish historian Rasmus Fleischer wrote that:

In 2007, another network began to crystallize within Europe's radical right but with a vastly different ideological character. Activists from the Swedish group Nordiska Förbundet made a coordinated effort to use the internet to propagate a more 'positive' image of neo fascist [sic], third position and national revolutionary politics. They created a blog portal (Motpol.nu), a web community (Nordisk.nu) and a wiki site (Metapedia). Today there exist a dozen editions of Metapedia, making it a vital medium for dissemination of the ideology labeled here as "multi-fascism". Metapedia tends to promote antisemitism in a cautious way, not stating too much in words but instead using the hyperlinked wiki format to make insinuations about a Jewish conspiracy.[10]

Content

The site has more than 7,000 articles in English; topics covered include European history, Norse mythology, and white nationalist music.[11] The Register states, "a good percentage of Metapedia's content seems to be dedicated to Woden, the White Order of Thule, runes, and other subject matter which would undoubtedly have found favour with Aryan hocus-pocus aficionado Heinrich Himmler."[4] Crítica de la Argentina says Metapedia has glowing descriptions of Adolf Hitler and other Nazi figures.[12] Daniel Goldhagen describes it as seeking "to create (currently in 18 languages) an anti-Semitic informational universe."[13]

The wiki covers a total of 18 languages, with the Hungarian Metapedia having the most articles ever with an estimated 146'470 articles.[8] However, it stopped being functional following the year 2015, clicking on any link to the Hungarian Metapedia gives you errors.

According to the North Rhine-Westphalian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Metapedia's articles are characterized by historical negationism and lauding Nazi Germany.[6][8] For this reason, the German Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons (Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien) started an indexing process, which would consider as to whether Metapedia is "harmful to young people".[14]

In early 2007, within half a year of the launching of the original Swedish edition, Metapedia received much Swedish media attention for its similarity to Wikipedia and some of its contents, in particular for its positive characterization of many Nazi German personalities, for cataloguing Jews in Swedish media, and for characterizing Swedish companies as either "Swedish-owned" or "Jewish-owned".[15][16] This led to an investigation by the Chancellor of Justice (Justitiekanslern) to decide whether the site should be prosecuted for inciting hatred or for violating the Swedish Privacy Law (Personuppgiftslagen).[17] After reviewing the site's contents, the Chancellor of Justice decided to terminate investigations, since nothing had been found that violated the Freedom of Speech Act (Yttrandefrihetsgrundlagen) or the Privacy Law.[18] In January 2009, in a response to further attention given to the site, the Swedish Chancellor of Justice opined that Metapedia presented a positive image of Adolf Hitler, but decided not to restart an investigation since this was not illegal.[19]

Operation

Metapedia runs on MediaWiki, a free and open-source wiki software platform written in PHP and built upon the MySQL database.[14][20][21]

Metapedia is headed by Lagerström and Lennart Berg, who also runs the supporting NFSE Media AB.[17]

gollark: I have my editor set up to automatically commit whenever I save.
gollark: Hmm. Well. You would hope so.
gollark: Wait, but you would still need to create new "trees" or whatever somehow, wouldn't you?
gollark: Oh, neat.
gollark: That API handles HTTP requests and sends data as HTTP responses.

See also

References
  1. "Metapedia.org Traffic, Demographics and Competitors - Alexa". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  2. Perrine Signoret (27 June 2017). "Infogalactic, Metapedia, Conservapedia: l'extrême droite aussi a ses "Wikipédia"". LExpansion.com (in French). Retrieved 13 November 2019.
  3. Adam G. Klein (June 2010). A Space for Hate: The White Power Movement's Adaptation Into Cyberspace. pp. 93, 104–105. ISBN 978-1-936117-07-9.
  4. Haines, Lester (23 July 2007). "Conservapedia too pinko? Try Metapedia - Aryans battle 'Cultural Marxism'". Theregister.co.uk. Situation Publishing. Archived from the original on 9 March 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  5. Schweyer, Cléo (15 July 2009). "L'extrême droite s'offre une seconde jeunesse sur le web". cafebabel.fr (in French). Babel International. Archived from the original on 9 March 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  6. "Metapedia" als nationales Pendant zu "Wikipedia" Archived 15 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine (i.e "Metapedia" as a nationalist counterpart to "Wikipedia") from: "Report by the NRW Office for the Protection of the Constitution for the year 2008" by the Ministry of Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia. pp. 59f. (in German)
  7. Popkonsertbloggen (8 February 2007). "Nazistsida blir fall för JK - Linköping - Corren.se - Nyheter Linköping Östergötland" (in Swedish). Corren.se. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  8. Arnstad, Henrik (23 November 2015). "Ikea Fascism: Metapedia and the Internationalization of Swedish Generic Fascism". Fascism. 4 (2): 194–208. doi:10.1163/22116257-00402002. ISSN 2211-6257.
  9. Popkonsertbloggen. "Nazist anhållen för grovt rån - Nyheter - Corren.se - Nyheter Linköping Östergötland" (in Swedish). Corren.se. Retrieved 1 September 2015.
  10. Fleischer, Rasmus (2014). "Two Fascism". In Deland, Mats; Minkenberg, Michael; Mays, Cristin (eds.). In the Tracks of Breivik: Far Right Networks in Northern and Eastern Europe. Lit Verlag. p. 63. ISBN 978-3643905420.
  11. "Aryan Encyclopedia Takes Off". Intelligence Report. Montgomery, Alabama: Southern Poverty Law Center. 2007. Archived from the original on 9 March 2011. Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  12. Llegó la Wikipedia de ultraderecha, Crítica de la Argentina (in Spanish)
  13. Goldhagen, Daniel (18 October 2013). "How the Web spreads anti-Semitism". CNN. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  14. Bulletin of the German Parliament 16/10215 from 12 September 2008, pp. 6f.: Answer of the German government to a parliamentary query by the Green Member of the German Parliament Monika Lazar (in German)
  15. Judeförföljelser på internet Dagens Nyheter, 8 February 2007 (in Swedish)
  16. Propagandapedia Archived 28 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine Kristianstadsbladet, 20 February 2007 (in Swedish)
  17. Nazistsida blir fall för JK Östgöta Correspondenten, 9 February 2007 (in Swedish)
  18. Ingen förundersökning kring Metapedia Archived 5 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Sveriges Radio Östergötland, 20 February 2007 (in Swedish)
  19. JK: Positiv text om Hitler inte hets mot folkgrupp Föreningen Grävande Journalister, 26 January 2009 (in Swedish)
  20. Judeförföljelser på internet, Dagens Nyheter, 8 February 2007 (in Swedish)
  21. Extremisternas "uppslagsverk" kan vara olagligt, Östgöta Correspondenten, 9 February 2007 (in Swedish)
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