Deletion discussions on Hebrew Wikipedia: Negotiating global and local ideologies

Abstract

Much research has documented how global technologies and platforms are part of specific cultures and reflect local values. In this study, I examine the case of Hebrew Wikipedia as representative of localization that is neither top-down (producer-driven) nor bottom-up (user-driven); but rather, it is implemented by mid-level, self-selecting bureaucratic administrators in an ongoing process that is driven by their own perceptions of Wikipedia’s mission. Through an analysis of Hebrew Wikipedia’s deletion discussion pages—in which editors decide what information should be excluded from Wikipedia—I demonstrate how national ideology customarily triumphs over the global, communitarian ethos of the Wikipedia project. Even when decisions are aligned with a more “global” agenda, editors still portray their choices as congruent with the national cause through strategic use of depersonalized discourses about Wikipedia’s policies. I thus argue that global, seemingly “neutral” policies can provide a discursive framework that conceals questions about the power of local ideologies.