Conservapedia
Conservapedia is an English-language, wiki-based, online encyclopedia written from a self-described American conservative and fundamentalist Christian point of view. The website was established in 2006 by American attorney and activist Andrew Schlafly, son of Phyllis Schlafly, to counter what he perceived as a liberal bias on Wikipedia. It uses editorials and a wiki-based system for content generation.
Examples of Conservapedia's ideology include its accusations against and strong criticism of former US president Barack Obama—including advocacy of Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories—along with criticisms of atheism, feminism, homosexuality, the Democratic Party, and evolution. Conservapedia views Albert Einstein's theory of relativity as promoting moral relativism, claims that abortion increases risk of breast cancer, praises Republican politicians, supports celebrities and artistic works it believes represent moral standards in line with Christian family values, and espouses fundamentalist Christian doctrines such as Young Earth creationism. Conservapedia's "Conservative Bible Project" is a crowd-sourced retranslation of the English-language Bible which the site says to be "free of corruption by liberal untruths."
Conservapedia has received negative reactions from the mainstream media and political figures, and has been criticized by liberal and conservative critics alike for bias and inaccuracies.
, Conservapedia has more than 58,000 articles and 24 active users.
Background
Conservapedia was created in November 2006 by Andrew Schlafly, a Harvard and Princeton-educated attorney. He established the project after reading a student's assignment written using the Common Era notation rather than Anno Domini. Interviewed by Shawn Zeller of Congressional Quarterly, Schlafly said he was "an early Wikipedia enthusiast", but became concerned about bias after other Wikipedia editors repeatedly reverted his edits to an article about the 2005 Kansas evolution hearings. Schlafly expressed the hope Conservapedia would become a general resource for American educators and a counterpoint to the liberal bias that he perceived in Wikipedia.The "Eagle Forum University" online education program, which is associated with Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum organization, uses material for online courses, including U.S. history, stored on Conservapedia. Editing of Conservapedia articles related to a particular course topic is also a certain assignment for Eagle Forum University students.
Running on MediaWiki software, the site was founded in 2006, with its earliest articles dating from November 22. By January 2012, Conservapedia contained over 38,000 pages, not counting pages intended for internal discussion and collaboration, minimal "stub" articles, and other miscellany. Regular features on the front page of Conservapedia include links to news articles and blogs that the site's editors consider relevant to conservatism. Editors of Conservapedia also maintain a page titled "Examples of Bias in Wikipedia" that compiles alleged instances of bias or errors on Wikipedia pages. It was, at one point, the most-viewed page on the site.
Editorial viewpoints and policies
Conservapedia has editorial policies designed to prevent vandalism and what Schlafly sees as liberal bias. However, although the site's operators claim that the site "strives to keep its articles concise, informative, family-friendly, and true to the facts, which often back up conservative ideas more than liberal ones", according to The Australian, "arguments are often circular", and "contradictions, self-serving rationalizations and hypocrisies abound."Comparison to Wikipedia
Shortly after its launch in 2006, Schlafly described the site as being competition for Wikipedia, saying "Wikipedia has gone the way of CBS News. It's long overdue to have competition like Fox News." Many editorial practices of Conservapedia differ from those of Wikipedia. Articles and other content on the site frequently include criticism of Wikipedia as well as criticism of its alleged liberal ideology and moderation policies.The site's "Conservapedia Commandments" differ from Wikipedia's editorial policies, which include following a neutral point of view and avoiding original research. In response to Wikipedia's core policy of neutrality, Schlafly has stated: "It's impossible for an encyclopedia to be neutral. I mean let's take a point of view, let's disclose that point of view to the reader", and "Wikipedia does not poll the views of its editors and administrators. They make no effort to retain balance. It ends up having all the neutrality of a lynch mob."
In a March 2007 interview with The Guardian, Schlafly stated: "I've tried editing Wikipedia, and found it and the biased editors who dominate it censor or change facts to suit their views. In one case my factual edits were removed within 60 seconds—so editing Wikipedia is no longer a viable approach." On March 7, 2007, Schlafly was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's morning show, Today, opposite Wikipedia administrator Jim Redmond. Schlafly argued that the article on the Renaissance does not give sufficient credit to Christianity, that Wikipedia articles apparently prefer to use non-American spellings even though most users are American, that the article on American activities in the Philippines has a distinctly anti-American bias, and that attempts to include pro-Christian or pro-American views are removed very quickly. Schlafly also claimed that Wikipedia's allowance of both Common Era and Anno Domini notation was anti-Christian bias.
Licensing of content
Conservapedia allows users to "use any of the content on this site with or without attribution." The copyright policy also states: "This license is revocable only in very rare instances of self-defense, such as protecting continued use by Conservapedia editors or other licensees." It also does not permit "unauthorized mirroring." Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has raised concerns about the fact that the project is not licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License or a similar copyleft license, stating that "eople who contribute are giving them full control of the content, which may lead to unpleasant results."Vandalism
The site has stated that it prohibits unregistered users from editing entries due to concerns over vandalism, disruption or defamation. Brian Macdonald, a Conservapedia editor, commented that vandalism was intended to "cause people to say, 'That Conservapedia is just wacko. According to Stephanie Simon of the Los Angeles Times, Macdonald spent many hours every day reverting "malicious editing." Vandals had inserted "errors, pornographic photos and satire." For example, U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales was said to be "a strong supporter of torture as a law enforcement tool for use against Democrats and third world inhabitants."Other editorial policies
Conservapedia states on its "Manual of Style" page that "American English spellings are preferred but Commonwealth spellings, for de novo or otherwise well-maintained articles are welcome." It prefers that articles about the United Kingdom use British English, while articles about the United States use American English, to resolve editorial disputes. Initially, Schlafly and other Conservapedia editors considered Wikipedia's policy allowing British English spelling to be anti-American bias.The "Conservapedia Commandments" require edits to be "family-friendly, clean, concise, and without gossip or foul language" and that users make mostly quality edits to articles. Accounts that engage in what the site considers "unproductive activity, such as 90% talk and only 10% quality edits" may be blocked. The commandments also cite United States Code 18 USC § 1470 as justification for legal action against obscene, vandalism or spam edits. Because of Schlafly's claim that Wikipedia's allowance of both Common Era and Anno Domini notation is anti-Christian bias, the commandments disallow use of the former.
Conspiracy theories
Conservapedia promotes various conspiracy theories, such as the claim that the January 6 United States Capitol attack was staged by Antifa, that the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump, and that Michelle Obama is secretly transgender. In addition, it supports the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama's published birth certificate was a forgery and that he was born in Kenya, not Hawaii.It also describes Albert Einstein's theory of relativity as part of an ideological plot by liberals. Andy Schlafly claims that "virtually no one who is taught and believes relativity continues to read the Bible." and "cites passages in the Christian Bible in an effort to disprove Einstein's theories." Arizona Jewish Post described this argument as "conflat relativity, a theory in physics about time, space and gravity, with relativism, a philosophical argument about morality and human experience having nothing to do with physics."