---
layout: default
title: "Some Indian Laws Could Be Challenging"
description: "A Bangalore Mirror interview with Wikimedia Foundation co-founder Erik Möller on India's role in Wikipedia's growth, given during his visit to the Centre for Internet and Society."
categories: [Centre for Internet and Society, Centre for Internet and Society in the media, CIS-A2K]
date: 2012-11-15
source: "Bangalore Mirror"
permalink: /media/some-indian-laws-could-be-challenging-bangalore-mirror/
created: 2026-07-28
---

**"Some Indian Laws Could Be Challenging"** is an interview published in Bangalore Mirror on 15 November 2012, featuring Erik Möller, Vice President of Engineering and Product Development at the Wikimedia Foundation and one of Wikipedia's founder members alongside Jimmy Wales. Möller spoke to the newspaper during a weekend visit to Bangalore, where he addressed a technical seminar at the [Centre for Internet and Society](/) (CIS). The interview covers India's growing weight in the global Wikipedia movement, its place in the Foundation's 2010–15 strategic plan, and Möller's views on how certain Indian laws, particularly around geographic mapping, intersect with Wikipedia's editorial approach.

## Contents

1. [Article Details](#article-details)
2. [Full Text](#full-text)
3. [Context and Background](#context-and-background)

## Article Details

<dl class="media-details">
  <dt>📰 Published on:</dt>
  <dd><em>Bangalore Mirror</em></dd>

  <dt>📅 Date:</dt>
  <dd>15 November 2012</dd>

  <dt>📄 Type:</dt>
  <dd>Interview</dd>

  <dt>📰 Article Link:</dt>
  <dd>
    Not available online
  </dd>
</dl>

## Full Text

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<p><em>Wikipedia's founder member Erik Möller says their principle is not to decide the map of India, but to explain that there is a controversy.</em></p>

<hr class="article-separator">

<p>Erik Möller, vice-president engineering and product development, Wikimedia Foundation, is one of the founder members of Wikipedia, along with Jimmy Wales, since it started in 2001. Möller was in Bangalore over the weekend to speak at a technical seminar at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), a local chapter of Wikimedia. He spoke about India's role in the growth of Wikipedia not just in the sub-continent, but globally.</p>

<p><strong>BM: How significant is India in the Wikipedia movement?</strong></p>

<p><strong>EM:</strong> Very significant and growing. I don't have the data on exact number of editors based in India. However currently, 2.4 per cent of all Wikipedia edits globally are made from India. As a comparison, the UK's is 6.5 per cent. India has overtaken Australia and (narrowly) Brazil since last year. In the 2011 fundraiser, India reached the top 10 of countries giving to the Wikimedia Foundation, with 39,000 donors from India giving the equivalent of $360,468. The 2012 fundraiser will be launched in a few days. (Interestingly, India is the only developing nation in the Top 10 contributing nations).</p>

<p><strong>Does the financial support from India surprise you?</strong></p>

<p>Of course not. You are a country of a billion people (laughs). I think Wikipedia appeals to a lot of cultural sensibilities, sharing of knowledge and culture. I think people here want to share.</p>

<p><strong>Where does India stand in the future of Wikipedia's roadmap?</strong></p>

<p>India was identified as one of three global priority areas in our 2010-15 strategic plan (alongside Brazil and Arabic language countries). While there are active Wikipedia communities in many Asian countries, India continues to be the Foundation's main focus area in (non-Arabic) Asia through the "Access To Knowledge (A2K)" programme conducted by CIS as our local partner, funded via a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation.</p>

<p><strong>From the standpoint of freedom to internet access, what do you think of Indian laws?</strong></p>

<p>Depending on your interpretation, specific laws in India could be challenging, particularly in areas of mapping (geographically). We are concerned about those things, but have to run with it. We consider ourselves specifically (governed by) US laws from where we are legally published. But then, Wiki is not an advocacy organisation that goes around telling people which politician to vote for. As Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales said, it's very important all people become educated on the issues. It's not up to us to decide what's the correct map of India, of course, but it is up to us to explain there is a controversy.</p>

<p><strong>Are you constantly bombarded with litigation world over?</strong></p>

<p>Surprisingly not.</p>

<p><strong>What are the big developments happening in Wikipedia?</strong></p>

<p>We are currently running two pilot projects – Wikidata and Wikivoyage. For example, today you can find out the GDP of each country on Wikipedia but cannot query and arrange countries by GDP size. Wikidata will allow you to do that. Similarly, Wikivoyage will provide matter-of-fact information on local sites that are of interest to travellers.</p>

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## Context and Background

This interview is notable for putting a senior Wikimedia Foundation leader on record about India's standing within Wikipedia's global priorities, rather than treating the country as a peripheral market. The exchange gives concrete figures on Indian participation, from editing share to fundraising totals, that are rarely spelled out so directly in mainstream press coverage of the period.

The piece also touches on a sensitive point of friction, how Wikipedia's editorial neutrality intersects with contested Indian mapping laws, and shows the Foundation's leadership addressing it candidly rather than avoiding the subject. Möller's visit itself, built around a seminar at CIS, reflects the working relationship between the Foundation and CIS that was already underway at the time.

The interview also catches Wikidata at a very early stage, described here by Möller as one of two pilot projects, years before it grew into one of the most widely used structured knowledge bases on the web. Wikidata only launched publicly in October 2012 and took a few more years to gain the scale and adoption it has today, so this 2012 mention captures it while it was still an experiment rather than the established infrastructure it later became.

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