(Newser)
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Wikipedia's founders are battling against contributor objections to ax images they believe are pornographic from Wiki sites. Wikimedia Commons, a media file used by Wikipedia, last week deleted hundreds of images after co-founder Jimmy Wales said many of them appealed "solely to prurient interests." The action followed estranged Wiki co-founder Larry Spanger's complaints to the FBI that Wikimedia was "knowingly distributing child pornography," reports the BBC. But Wales reinstated some images following contributor complaints that the decision was made too quickly and without consultation.
The battle over explicit Wiki content is coming to "a head," said Michael Peel, head of Wikimedia UK. The central issue is "whether the content is educational," he added. "Anyone can come to Wikimedia Commons and upload media." Fox News recently exposed the existence of explicit content on Wiki sites and questioned corporate donors to the Wikipedia Foundation, which owns Wikimedia Commons and other sites.
