It seems that Elon Musk isn't doing the argument that some people have more money than sense any favors. The world's richest man has reaffirmed his offer to pay the owners of Wikipedia a cool $1 billion if they change its name to 'D**kipedia'. Just think what we could do with $1 billion or what could be done if it was given to charity. In fact, Musk could give everyone on Earth $1 billion and still be far and away the richest man in the world.
Musk has something of a vendetta against Wikipedia, which recently reared its head again when the online encyclopedia updated the tech mogul's page and referred to accusations that he performed a 'Nazi gesture' at President Trump’s inauguration.
Wasting no time in putting Wikipedia in his sights, Musk branded it 'Wokepedia' over DEI initiatives and urged people not to donate. Twisting the knife further, Musk has once again offered up $1 billion if Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales will rename it D**kipedia.
When user @Johnmc42069 asked Musk if the offer still stood on February 17, 2025, Musk was quick to confirm it.
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Musk first suggested the idea in an October 2023 post where he said the offensive name was "in the interests of accuracy." He took aim at the Wikimedia Foundation's financial dealings and went on to question its funding.
The original post read: "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…"
If you're keeping up with it all, Wales has never personally responded to Musk's claims, although the official Wikipedia account posted saying: "Wikipedia is the only website in the top-ten most-visited global websites to be run by a nonprofit – and at a fraction of the budget and staffing.
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"We are not funded by advertising, we don’t charge a subscription fee, and we don’t sell your data."
Under Musk's stipulations, Wikipedia would have to remain as D**kipedia for at least a year, but as Wales recently reminded the billionaire, Wikipedia is 'not for sale'.
The jibes continue to be shared, with Musk's latest reminder coming after Wikipedia came under fire for listing him on its 'libertarian authoritarianism' page alongside contemporary proponents Peter Thiel and Javier Milei.
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The whole sordid saga was seemingly started from a single post that goes back to October 17, 2023. Back then, Wales criticized Musk for removing verified features from X as part of his Twitter rebrand and wrote: "Fast moving claims and counter claims, and @elonmusk has removed all the core features that made it even remotely possible to tell real journalists from fakes."
Studies suggest that Wikipedia has a left-leaning bias, with critics also arguing that content can be relatively edited to reflect political agendas. There's a sense of irony that Wikipedia and X are currently battling it out to be some of the most-visited sites on the internet. As of February 2025, X is the sixth most-visited website, while Wikipedia is in seventh.
Who knows, maybe renaming it D**kipedia for a year would shoot Musk in the foot and see Wikipedia overtake X.