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'Embarrassment': Wikipedia founder slams Australia's social media ban
04 May 2026

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has slammed Australia's recent ban on social media, calling it an "unmitigated disaster" and an "embarrassment."

He said the move is teaching children to accept surveillance from tech companies when they go online.

Wales, who founded the online encyclopedia in 2001, emphasized that many of today's internet issues existed even before social media came into being.

Wales on Usenet, an early internet discussion platform
Internet history

Wales recalled a time before social media and Wikipedia, when Usenet served as an unmoderated message board.

He described it as "unbelievably toxic," with flame wars and personal attacks being common.

"Humans don't need algorithms to be mean to each other," he said, adding that we shouldn't be too optimistic about the past either.

Wikipedia's community-driven approach
Social media critique

Wales criticized the current social media environment, calling users "just serfs on the master's estate."

He said rules are made from above and enforced by "anonymous, faceless moderators" working for these platforms.

In contrast, he emphasized that at Wikipedia, it's all in the hands of the community on the online encyclopedia.

Wales on Australia's social media ban
Privacy concerns

Wales is against government policies like Australia's that keep teens off social media.

He called it "an unmitigated disaster, and it's an embarrassment," adding that demanding adults to prove their age with personally identifying information is "this is madness, and it's really unsafe."

He warned against teaching children to accept surveillance from tech companies by turning on their cameras when prompted.

AI chatbots impact on Wikipedia
AI influence

Wales revealed that since the advent of AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude, Wikipedia has seen an 8% drop in human traffic.

He said this loss is mainly due to low-engagement traffic looking for quick answers rather than a more immersive experience.

However, he noted that AI crawlers scouring pages for information are "really hammering" Wikipedia.