India summons Wikipedia officials over edits to cricketer’s page

India has summoned executives of Wikipedia after a cricketer’s page on the online encyclopedia was edited with links to a separatist movement.

The country’s IT ministry made the order on Monday to seek clarification from Wikipedia executives over the incident.

A key IT minister publicly expressed his concern about the edits to the page of cricketer Arshdeep Singh, suggesting that some people from Pakistan were behind the act and were attempting to disrupt peace in the South Asian market.

The Wikipedia page of Singh, who had several lapses in a game between India and Pakistan on Sunday, was edited to incorrectly say that he had been selected to play for Khalistan, a fictitious independent homeland sought by some separatists groups.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s Junior IT Minister, said in a tweet that no intermediary, a service with over 5 million users, can permit deliberate misinformation campaign of this kind. Such acts “violates our govts expectation of safe & trusted internet,” he tweeted.

The edits have since been reversed.

India’s amended IT rules, which went into effect last year, impose greater scrutiny on intermediaries, requiring them to appoint and share details of representatives tasked with compliance and grievance redressals.

Even as Meta, Google, Telegram, LinkedIn and several other firms have fully or partially complied with the order, they are seeking some relaxation to the rules.

Monday’s incident is the first time in recent years that Wikipedia, which is compiled and edited by unpaid volunteers, has landed in hot water in the South Asian market.