There’s a revolt brewing among the people behind Wikipedia.
Over 200 Wikipedia editors have signed a vote of no confidence against Arnnon Geshuri, a new member of the board of the Wikimedia Foundation. Fewer than 20 community members have registered opposition to the vote.
Members are calling for his termination after discovering that Geshuri had been involved in the collusion between Apple, Google, and other tech companies that resulted in a $415 million class action lawsuit. According to a Department of Justice investigation, the companies had illegally agreed to not poach each others’ employees, depressing workers’ salaries and career mobility. Released e-mails from the case show Geshuri playing a key role in the collusion, at one point e-mailing Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt that a Google recruiter who had contacted an Apple employee would be “terminated within the hour.”
Members of the Wikipedia community, including at least one former board member, questioned Geshuri’s integrity, according to Wikipedia’s insider newspaper The Signpost. The vote of no confidence is not binding for the board.
The Wikimedia board—which governs Wikipedia and other projects—unanimously voted to approve Geshuri’s appointment on Jan. 6, citing his decades of human resources experience at Tesla and Google.
Coins2Day has reached out to the Wikimedia Foundation and will update this post with any comment.