37 Country Report: Wikipedia

The Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia has a total of 174, 034 registered users, yet only 7 administrators. The most visited language Wikipedia is Arabic Wikipedia, followed by English Wikipedia and Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia. There over 63 million Wikipedia page views total between these three language Wikipedia’s, which is comparatively small to a nation such as the United States. The Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia has had its credibility often questioned due to translation errors from the dialect to written format, as well as cultural and historical inaccuracies.

Although Wikipedia’s mission is to “freely share the sum of all human knowledge,” there is a critical lack of information regarding certain geographical regions, and specific nations. Egypt is a nation that falls under this category. With 84% of Wikipedia articles being about North America or Europe, Egypt is in a region that is largely neglected by the site. The digital divide is glaringly clear when examining the presence of Wikipedia in Egypt, where Arabic is the primary language, but most Wikipedia articles are written in English, making it inaccessible to a significant portion of the population.

The Administrators of Wikipedia edit the information about Egypt. Information for Egypt is taken primarily from WorldCat and Virtual International Authority File. There is a substantive amount of information about Egypt on Wikipedia, including culture, economy, history, government, geography, demographics, and history. The latter of the list is overrepresented in English Wikipedia, with a great deal of information on Ancient Egypt, but a lack of information about specific regions and cultures.

Sources

https://www.vox.com/2014/9/14/6140145/wikipedia-geography

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Arabic_Wikipedia#Opposition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt