Elon Musk’s latest quirk is Wikipedia. To the South African billionaire’s proposal this weekend to change the name of the popular online encyclopedia, the owner of Wikipedia said no.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said the site is “not for sale” after Elon Musk offered $1 billion if they changed the name to “Dickipedia” (a play on words where ‘dick’ translates to ‘penis’ in Spanish) .

The billionaire, who accused founder Jimmy Wales of showing his “non-trivial left-wing bias” in the past, voiced his criticism following Wikipedia’s donation appeal for that year. “I’ll give you a billion dollars if you change your name to Dickipedia,” Musk posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday.

On Tuesday, two funding messages appearing to refute Musk appeared at the top of many of the site’s pages, titled “Wikipedia: You’re Beholden to No One But You” or “Wikipedia is not for sale.” “We’re sorry to interrupt you, but today’s fundraiser won’t last long. “Our nonprofit organization is asking for your support,” it said. “Wikipedia was one of the first online spaces where you could learn for free, without ads.”

Elon Musk has continually hinted that Wikipedia is a left biascompared to media such as The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN, among others.

They then claimed that only two percent of readers actually donated and advocated that people using the site donate to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Musk and Wales have clashed in the past, with Musk joking that Wikipedia should add that he made the offer on his biography page, which he said includes the cow and poop emojis, after criticizing the Wikipedia Foundation.

Earlier this week, Wales criticized Musk’s management of the social media giant in a post on his X account while commenting on the fallout from Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel. “Claims and counterclaims move quickly, and @elonmusk has removed all the key features that made it possible, even remotely, to distinguish real journalists from fake journalists.”

Invitation to donate

In an additional message signed by Wales himself, he wrote to Wikipedia users that “these days it’s hard to know what to trust online” to encourage people to donate. ‘Disinformation and scammers are everywhere. Wikipedia is different: it’s not perfect, but it’s also not there to make a profit or emphasize a particular perspective. It was written by everyone together.’ “Wikipedia is something we all share, like a library or a public park,” Wales added.

“We are passionate about our model because we want everyone to have the same access to high-quality information, something that is increasingly difficult to find online,” reports the Daily Mail.

Musk paired his offer with a message questioning why Wikipedia needed to continually raise money. (JO)