Metapedia

{{Distinguish|Meta-Wiki|MetaWiki|Matapédia (disambiguation){{!}}Matapédia}}

{{Infobox website

| name = Metapedia

| logo = Metapedia English logo.png

| logo_size = frameless

| logo_alt = Official logo of the English Metapedia

| logo_caption = English logo

| url = {{URL|https://en.metapedia.org/wiki/Main_Page}} (English Metapedia)

| commercial = No

| type = Internet encyclopedia

| registration = Optional, via e-mail (required for editing)

| language = English, German, Spanish, Swedish, French, Norwegian, Greek, Romanian, Estonian, Slovak, Czech, Portuguese, Croatian, Danish, Dutch

| content_license = GNU Free Documentation License 1.3

| owner = NFSE Media AB, Linköping, Sweden

| launch_date = {{start date and age|df=yes|2006|10|26}}

| current_status = Active

}}

Metapedia is an online wiki-based encyclopedia which spreads neo-Nazi content.

History

The Swedish Metapedia was founded in 2006 by {{ill|Vidar Anders Ingemar Lagerström|lt=Anders Lagerström|sv|Anders Lagerström}}, a neo-Nazi publisher from Linköping, Sweden.{{cite web |author=Popkonsertbloggen |url=http://www.corren.se/nyheter/linkoping/nazistsida-blir-fall-for-jk-4185002.aspx |title=Nazistsida blir fall för JK - Linköping - Corren.se - Nyheter Linköping Östergötland |language=sv |publisher=Corren.se |date=2007-02-08 |access-date=2015-09-01 |archive-date=13 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150613165518/http://www.corren.se/nyheter/linkoping/nazistsida-blir-fall-for-jk-4185002.aspx |url-status=dead }}{{Cite journal|last=Arnstad|first=Henrik|date=2015-11-23|title=Ikea Fascism: Metapedia and the Internationalization of Swedish Generic Fascism|journal=Fascism|language=en|volume=4|issue=2|pages=194–208|doi=10.1163/22116257-00402002|issn=2211-6257|doi-access=free}} About Lagerström, the Swedish newspaper Östgöta Correspondenten wrote:

{{Quote|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 {{ill|Nordic Federation|sv|Nordiska förbundet}}. 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."{{cite web|author=Popkonsertbloggen |url=http://www.corren.se/nyheter/nazist-anhallen-for-grovt-ran-4146657.aspx |title=Nazist anhållen för grovt rån - Nyheter - Corren.se - Nyheter Linköping Östergötland |date=21 February 2008 |language=sv |publisher=Corren.se |access-date=2015-09-01}}}}

Swedish historian Rasmus Fleischer wrote:

{{Quote|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 {{sic|neo fascist}}, 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.{{cite book|first=Rasmus |last=Fleischer|author-link1=Rasmus Fleischer |chapter=Two Fascism|editor1-last=Deland|editor1-first=Mats|editor2-last=Minkenberg|editor2-first=Michael|editor3-last=Mays|editor3-first=Cristin|title=In the Tracks of Breivik: Far Right Networks in Northern and Eastern Europe|date=2014|publisher=Lit Verlag|isbn=978-3643905420|page=63}}}}

Content

Metapedia describes itself as being an alternative to Wikipedia that focuses on culture, art, science, history, politics and philosophy. The site has more than 4,500 articles in English; topics covered include European history and politics.{{cite news|title=Aryan Encyclopedia Takes Off |work=Intelligence Report |publisher=Southern Poverty Law Center |location=Montgomery, Alabama |access-date=1 April 2018 |year=2007 |url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2007/aryan-encyclopedia-takes |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110312231300/http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2007/winter/white-nationalism |archive-date=12 March 2011 |url-status=live}} According to Crítica de la Argentina, Metapedia has glowing descriptions of Adolf Hitler and other Nazi figures.{{cite web|url=http://es.scribd.com/doc/159125419/Diario-Critica-2008-06-07|title=Llegó la Wikipedia de ultraderecha|publisher=Crítica de la Argentina|lang=es}} The historian Daniel Goldhagen describes it as seeking "to create (currently in 18 languages) an anti-Semitic informational universe."{{cite news|last=Goldhagen|first=Daniel|title=How the Web spreads anti-Semitism|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/18/opinion/goldhagen-anti-semitism-internet/?hpt=hp_bn7|access-date=5 November 2013|newspaper=CNN|date=18 October 2013|author-link=Daniel Goldhagen}} Metapedia calls the Holocaust a genocide only according to "politically correct history" and refers to former U.S. President Barack Obama as a "mixed race former president".{{Cite magazine |last=Sobel Fitts |first=Alexis |date=2017-06-21 |title=Welcome to the Wikipedia of the Alt-Right |language=en-us |magazine=Wired |url=https://www.wired.com/story/welcome-to-the-wikipedia-of-the-alt-right/ |access-date=2021-04-08 |issn=1059-1028}} Its content has been noted for its fascist, far-right, white nationalist, white supremacist, anti-feminist, homophobic, Islamophobic, anti-semitic, Holocaust-denying, and neo-Nazi points of view.{{cite book |author=Adam G. Klein |title=A Space for Hate: The White Power Movement's Adaptation Into Cyberspace |date=June 2010 |isbn=978-1-936117-07-9 |pages=93, 104–105|publisher=Litwin Books }}{{cite web |author1=Perrine Signoret |date=27 June 2017 |title=Infogalactic, Metapedia, Conservapedia: l'extrême droite aussi a ses "Wikipédia" |url=https://lexpansion.lexpress.fr/high-tech/infogalactic-metapedia-conservapedia-l-extreme-droite-aussi-a-ses-wikipedia_1922139.html |access-date=13 November 2019 |website=LExpansion.com |language=fr}}{{cite web |last=Haines |first=Lester |date=2007-07-23 |title=Conservapedia too pinko? Try Metapedia - Aryans battle 'Cultural Marxism' |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/23/metapedia/print.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110628201919/http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/23/metapedia/print.html |archive-date=28 June 2011 |access-date=9 March 2011 |work=Theregister.co.uk |publisher=Situation Publishing}}{{cite web |last=Schweyer |first=Cléo |date=2009-07-15 |title=L'extrême droite s'offre une seconde jeunesse sur le web |url=http://www.cafebabel.fr/article/30692/extreme-droit-fn-politique-europe-parti.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720205941/http://www.cafebabel.fr/article/30692/extreme-droit-fn-politique-europe-parti.html |archive-date=20 July 2011 |access-date=9 March 2011 |work=cafebabel.fr |publisher=Babel International |language=fr}}[http://www.mik.nrw.de/uploads/media/Verfassungsschutzbericht_2008.pdf "Metapedia" als nationales Pendant zu "Wikipedia"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515045948/http://www.mik.nrw.de/uploads/media/Verfassungsschutzbericht_2008.pdf|date=15 May 2013}} (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 lang|de}}{{Cite magazine |last=Sobel Fitts |first=Alexis |date=2017-06-21 |title=Welcome to the Wikipedia of the Alt-Right {{!}} Backchannel |url=https://www.wired.com/story/welcome-to-the-wikipedia-of-the-alt-right/ |magazine=Wired |language=en-us |issn=1059-1028 |access-date=2021-04-08}}

The wiki covers a total of 17 languages, with German Metapedia being the most developed.

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. For this reason, the German Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons ({{lang|de|Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien}}) started an indexing process, which would consider as to whether Metapedia is "harmful to young people".[http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/16/102/1610215.pdf 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 lang|de}}{{Update inline|date=April 2019}}

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 (it uses MediaWiki, the same software as Wikipedia and so has a similar visual style) 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".{{cite web|url=http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/debatt-essa/judeforfoljelser-pa-internet|title=Judeförföljelser på internet|publisher=Dagens Nyheter|date=8 February 2007|lang=sv|access-date=11 August 2010|archive-date=18 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018221241/http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/debatt-essa/judeforfoljelser-pa-internet|url-status=dead}}[http://www.kristianstadsbladet.se/kultur/article1042977/Propagandapedia.html Propagandapedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928220040/http://www.kristianstadsbladet.se/kultur/article1042977/Propagandapedia.html |date=28 September 2011 }} Kristianstadsbladet, 20 February 2007 {{in lang|sv}} This led to an investigation by the Chancellor of Justice ({{lang|sv|Justitiekanslern}}) to decide whether the site should be prosecuted for inciting hatred or for violating the Swedish Privacy Law ({{lang|sv|{{ill|Personuppgiftslagen|sv}}}}).[http://www.corren.se/ostergotland/linkoping/?articleId=4185002 {{lang|sv|Nazistsida blir fall för JK}}] Östgöta Correspondenten, 9 February 2007 {{in lang|sv}}, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923222755/http://www.corren.se/ostergotland/linkoping/?articleId=4185002|date=23 September 2015}} 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 ({{lang|sv|{{ill|Yttrandefrihetsgrundlagen|sv}}}}) or the Privacy Law.[http://www.sr.se/ostergotland/nyheter/artikel.asp?artikel=1213676 {{lang|sv|Ingen förundersökning kring Metapedia}}] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205070731/http://www.sr.se/ostergotland/nyheter/artikel.asp?artikel=1213676 |date=5 February 2008}}, Sveriges Radio Östergötland, 20 February 2007 {{in lang|sv}} 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.[http://www.fgj.se/Filuppladdning.asp?did=202&OmrID=4&SubID=110&SubSubID=0 {{lang|sv|JK: Positiv text om Hitler inte hets mot folkgrupp}}]{{dead link|date=June 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}} Föreningen Grävande Journalister, 26 January 2009 {{in lang|sv}}

In a June 2017 article, Alexis Sobel Fitts from Wired noted that the Hungarian and German Metapedia are "especially popular". As of 2022, the Hungarian version is closed.

Operation

Metapedia runs on MediaWiki, a free and open-source wiki software platform written in PHP and built upon the MySQL database.[http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/debatt-essa/judeforfoljelser-pa-internet-1.646996 Judeförföljelser på internet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101009111331/http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/debatt-essa/judeforfoljelser-pa-internet-1.646996 |date=9 October 2010 }}, Dagens Nyheter, 8 February 2007 {{in lang|sv}}[https://archive.today/20110807100856/http://www.corren.se/archive/2007/2/9/j2hmaalwr3pyawb.xml?category1=1096984640-4&category2=1096984640-7& Extremisternas "uppslagsverk" kan vara olagligt], Östgöta Correspondenten, 9 February 2007 {{in lang|sv}}

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