Craigslist founder donates $500K to curb Wikipedia trolls

SCI-TECH

Craigslist founder donates $500K to curb Wikipedia trolls

The Canadian Press Published Friday, January 27, 2017 10:12AM EST

In this Jan. 18, 2012, file photo, Mallory Whitt works at her desk at the offices of the Wikipedia Foundation in San Francisco. The foundation announced on Jan. 26, 2017, that Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is donating $500,000 to help curb harassment on Wikipedia. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Craigslist founder Craig Newmark is donating $500,000 to help curb harassment on Wikipedia.

The Wikimedia Foundation announced Thursday that money from the Craig Newmark Foundation and Craigslist's Charitable Fund will go toward tools for Wikipedia's staff and volunteer editors to reduce harassment on the user-generated encyclopedia site.

The Wikimedia Foundation says online harassment faced by Wikipedia contributors impedes their ability to write and edit the site's entries.

Newmark says in a statement that preventing "trolling, harassment and cyber-bullying" is essential to ensuring Wikipedia's vitality.

Wikimedia says the money will be used to launch a program to help editors "more quickly identify potentially harassing behaviour." One of the tools being considered under the program is to make it more difficult for blocked users to return to the site.