Social media giants Twitter and Facebook mishandled Donald Trump repeatedly as he
pushed baseless claims and misinformation, including his assertion that the US presidential
election he lost was rigged, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told AFP.

The platforms indefinitely
suspended Trump after his supporters stormed the US Capitol in Washington on
January 6, an attack that led to his second impeachment.

In an interview to
mark Wikipedia‘s 20th anniversary, Wales told AFP that that responsibility for
the unprecedented events in Washington rested “100% at the feet of
Donald Trump.”

But he said the social
media giants had consistently “struggled with misinformation,
disinformation” peddled by Trump.

“With Donald
Trump, they did a poor job of dealing with him for a very, very long time. He
was clearly spreading disinformation, he was clearly being abusive to people,” Wales said.

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His decision in 2003
to make the site non-profit is one reason he believes Wikipedia has not faced
the same backlash and difficult decisions as Twitter or Facebook.

“They (social
media platforms) have a business model that says, ‘We need as many eyeballs as
possible, we need as many page views as possible’. Now it’s also damaging for
their brand. So they have to deal with that. But I think they’re going to
struggle,” he said.