Namuwiki
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Namuwiki (, ) is a Korean-language
wiki A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...
based in
Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...
. The website was launched on 17 April 2015 and is powered by the proprietary
wiki software Wiki software (also known as a wiki engine or a wiki application) is collaborative software that runs a wiki, which allows the users to create and collaboratively edit pages or entries via a web browser. A wiki system is usually a web application ...
The Seed. As of 5 October 2024, Namuwiki has a total of 6,679,813 normal articles (, ), including redirects, compared to 3,290,720 (including redirects) on the
Korean Wikipedia The Korean Wikipedia () is the Korean language edition of Wikipedia. It was founded on 11 October 2002. As of , it is the 2nd largest Korean language Wiki site and the largest Wikipedia, with articles and active users. History The Korean ...
, thus has 1.98 times more articles than the Korean Wikipedia. According to ''
The Hankyoreh ''The Hankyoreh'' () is a centre-left liberal daily newspaper in South Korea. It was established in 1988 after widespread purges forced out dissident journalists, and was envisioned as an alternative to existing newspapers, which were regarde ...
'''s October 30, 2024 (KST) article, Namuwiki has 2.2 times more articles and 7.2 times more traffic than the Korean Wikipedia. Similarweb ranks Namuwiki as the fifth most visited website in South Korea. According to ''
The Korea Economic Daily ''The Korea Economic Daily'' (), nicknamed ''Hankyung'' (), is a conservative and business daily newspaper in South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half o ...
'', Namuwiki had a max daily user count of 2 million, and a max daily pageview count of 45 million in 2021, making it the seventh most visited website in Korea that year.


History

In April 2015, Rigveda Wiki suffered a massive community dispute when the site owner, Cheongdong, was discovered to have secretly changed the user agreement to privatize the wiki for his personal profit. Users vandalized articles in protest, forcing the closure of the servers. In response, Namuwiki was created as a
fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tines with which one can spear foods either to h ...
by a user named ''Namu'' on 17 April. The article count of Namuwiki surpassed that of Rigveda Wiki by 25 April, and surpassed Rigveda Wiki's original article count before its vandalism on 12 May. Namuwiki emerged as one of the biggest wikis forked from the Rigveda Wiki, and soon became its de facto replacement. In May 2016, ''Namu'' transferred Namuwiki's server management rights to a new owner, ''UmanLe S.R.L.'', a company based in
Asunción Asunción (, ) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay of Asunción in the north ...
,
Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...
. In August 2016, a Namuwiki user created an article about "equalism". The article falsely claimed that a supposed new ideology, "equalism", had appeared in the West, and made multiple remarks against
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
ideologies. As
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
was seeing heated online debates about
radical feminist Radical feminism is a perspective within feminism that calls for a radical re-ordering of society in which male supremacy is eliminated in all social and economic contexts, while recognizing that women's experiences are also affected by other ...
website Megalia during this time, the article quickly gained a lot of attraction and contributions. Although most of the assertions and references included in the article were false or fabricated, contents of it were widely spread over Korean society, resulting in false articles about the concept of equalism. The false article existed for longer than six months, until a feminist wiki named ''Femiwiki'' brought forward specific and definite arguments on 24 January 2017. Soon, it was proved that most of the claims were false and the original idea of equalism was mostly a fabrication. In September 2018, the site began displaying advertisements on the top banner of its pages, ostensibly to help fund its server rental fees. On 9 January 2019, Korean politician Cho Hae-joo formally announced that he had deleted material written on his Namuwiki page, as it contained "false elements," which resulted in political backlash. In 2022, before the
presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The p ...
, a public servant under Yangyang County, Gangwon province, was caught after the individual used Namuwiki to smear a certain candidate in his work time using his work PC and cellphone during June to December 2021. The incident was revealed by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety in a press release. In November 2023, the Democratic Party accused then president
Yoon Suk Yeol Yoon Suk Yeol (; born 18 December 1960) is a South Korean politician and former prosecutor who served as the 13th president of South Korea from 2022 until Impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol, he was removed from office in 2025. The shortest-serving ...
of 'preparing for martial law' on the basis of 130 officers deleting their Namuwiki pages. In a press conference, Democratic Party MP Yang Mun-suk () said: "130 officers of the
Republic of Korea Armed Forces The Republic of Korea Armed Forces (), also known as the ROK Armed Forces, are the armed forces of South Korea. The ROK Armed Forces is one of the largest and most powerful standing armed forces in the world with a reported personnel strength o ...
have deleted or have taken the preemptive actions for the removal of their Namuwiki pages since last April. I have strong suspicions that these actions are not just flying rumors but preparations for emergencies such as martial law." During the
2024 South Korean legislative election Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 10 April 2024. All 300 members of the National Assembly (South Korea), National Assembly were elected, 254 from first-past-the-post South Korean Legislature Constituencies, constituencies and 46 ...
, Jang Ye-Chan (), a former member of the People Power Party (PPP) supreme council (), was dropped from nomination by the PPP due to his controversies regarding rough speech which started from a part from his Namuwiki article.


Scrutiny by the Korea Communications Standards Commission, 2024

On August 14, 2024, the ''Communications Review Subcommittee'' (), one of the smaller committees of the
Korea Communications Standards Commission The Korea Communications Standards Commission () is an institution of the South Korean government that regulates communications including Cinema of South Korea, film, Television in South Korea, television, radio, and Internet in South Korea, inte ...
(KCSC), postponed a resolution regarding a previous incident where two civilians who had small followings on social media requested the deletion of their personal information, pictures with their ex-lovers, and other inappropriate content from Namuwiki, while issuing consultancy from one of their subsidiaries, ''special committee for telecommunication consultations'' (). This was a change from their previous stance regarding Namuwiki articles, where they had stated that requests of similar matter regarding Namuwiki were not applicable (). According to a MBN's article, members newly decided that the former standards were "Not in line with the trend of the times... It would be reasonable to accept the request for the deletion of information on sites such as Namuwiki if the person themselves requested it", and held the decision on hold. On October 15, PPP legislator Kim Jang-Kyum () said that "Namuwiki is becoming a distributing channel for illegal content such as deepfake porn, and fake news. It is in the structure of a 'voluntary encyclopedia by the collective intellect', but is subject to malicious edits, stigmatization, and false accusations", and that "The government should come up with powerful solutions to deal with Namuwiki's dangerous and illegal elements." On October 16, the KCSC delivered a resolution of the 'blocking' () of personal information of
influencer A social media influencer, or simply influencer (also known as an online influencer), is a person who builds a grassroots online presence through engaging content such as photos, videos, and updates. This is done by using direct audience intera ...
s on Namuwiki. The ''Special Committee for Telecommunication Consultations'' (), accepting the pleas from two influencers, one saying that photos of the individual with his/her previous lover alongside photos of physical affection, or "", have been on Namuwiki for a long time, and the other saying that Namuwiki had the individual's "life contents from 2013 to 2023 in its articles, alongside the individual's photos, real name, birthplace/time, nationality, body measures, education, prizes and awards, and even family information", resolved that rectification was needed. The ''Special Committee for Telecommunication Consultations'' further stated that this was a "decision made in consideration of the rapid spread of Internet media and its increasing influence day by day", and that they were "applying the relevant regulations more strictly than before, reflecting the recent reality that can cause enormous damage to individuals by spreading unwanted portraits or privacy information." To the above, on the same day (October 16), Umanle S.R.L., the mother company of Namuwiki, said that "In order to prevent infringement of rights caused by Namuwiki documents, we have internally established a system and faithfully responded to the demands of rights holders", and that "We express great concern and regret over the decision to block access and the (blockage) announcement of the media." Later, Namuwiki officially verified that they had made the statement through ''
Media Today ''Media Today'' () is a weekly Korean-language newspaper published in South Korea. It was launched on January 17, 1989, and is associated with the National Union of Media Workers (). Its original name was . It changed its name to its present form ...
'' on their ''question board'' (). Umanle S.R.L. further stated on another request on Namuwiki's ''question board'' that they did not know which articles the KCSC was taking action against and that it was only guessing which ones they were by the press and previous letters sent by the pleading individuals, and that it was more confusing to specify which part (of the article) the problem was due to the pleading individual's website still displaying the same information the individual was claiming as "an invasion of privacy." On October 21, 2024, during a national
audit An audit is an "independent examination of financial information of any entity, whether profit oriented or not, irrespective of its size or legal form when such an examination is conducted with a view to express an opinion thereon." Auditing al ...
regarding the , a
standing committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...
of the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...
, Kim Jang-kyom further stated that the website was "being used as a tool for all kinds of illegal activities such as digital sex crimes, copyright infringement, personal information infringement, etc." PPP legislator Choi Hyung-du () said "If you search (about something), Namuwiki comes out first. It is said to be a citizen participation type (), but if (the operating body) is unidentifiable and unable to be rectified, I wonder if it isn't necessary to exercise (Korea's) sovereignty like (in the examples of) France or other South-American countries and control it clearly or to block it outright." Ryu Hee-lim (), the current chairman of the
Korea Communications Standards Commission The Korea Communications Standards Commission () is an institution of the South Korean government that regulates communications including Cinema of South Korea, film, Television in South Korea, television, radio, and Internet in South Korea, inte ...
, said "We have recently changed our reviewing standards and are now strongly requesting for deletion in the case of any privacy, portrait violation cases.", "if our rectification requests are not met in the future, we are considering a temporary complete-blockage." According to the KCSC on October 23, when one of the influencers mentioned above requested the deletion of a Namuwiki article with a photo of the individual with his/her ex, the publisher () removed it voluntarily. According to
Yonhap Yonhap News Agency (; ) is a major news agency in South Korea. It is based in Seoul, South Korea. Yonhap provides news articles, pictures, and other information to newspapers, TV networks and other media in South Korea. History Yonhap was esta ...
(same article) the other (between the two aforementioned above) influencer's family information was also taken down by Namuwiki. In an
Hankyoreh ''The Hankyoreh'' () is a centre-left liberal daily newspaper in South Korea. It was established in 1988 after widespread purges forced out dissident journalists, and was envisioned as an alternative to existing newspapers, which were regarde ...
article, it is said that on October 29, a KCSC figure said "if (Namuwiki) keeps idly ignoring our corrections, we can further resolute a 'Recommendation for Strengthening Self-Regulation' () and a 'Warning' (), and if Namuwiki continues to not improve after our 'Warning', we can undergo a 'temporary complete-blockage' (). We are currently trying to increase the effectiveness of our correction demands by increasing co-operation with Namuwiki, and will continue to respond appropriately as the situation develops. On October 30th, aforementioned legislator Kim Jang-kyom (), belonging to the PPP and also a member of the PPP's ''Special Media Committee'' (), posted on Facebook stating that "(Namuwiki's) real owners and administrators are not identifiable and are not subject to Korean law, and that he is planning to sue them in Paraguay's court if any legal troubles should occur." The post connected it to ties with the left leaning media and further criticized Namuwiki, claiming that there are further problems such as Namuwiki distributing illegal deep-fake content, the owning and operation of Korean website Arcalive (by Namuwiki's owners and operators Umanle S.R.L., located in Paraguay) and that Umanle S.R.L.'s profits were estimated to be over USD 10 million () per year. In the same post, he further added that On November 1st, 2024, the PPP's ''Special Media Committee'' (), stated that The post also quoted MBC's 3rd labor union (), saying that 'As MBC's third labor union (non- KCTU-affiliated labor union) pointed out in a statement yesterday (10.31), left-leaning media are advocating Namuwiki as an "online encyclopedia jointly compiled by users" in terms of freedom of expression, but this is an abuse of freedom of expression.MBC's third labor union pointed out, "There are frequent acts of indiscriminately publishing other people's personal information as well as fake news, and the problem is serious because it is a structure that does not allow filing complaints or protesting.'https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20241101046500001 Coincidentally, that afternoon (November 1st), Namuwiki was temporarily unusable, with pages displaying this error message: "" (The server might be undergoing management, or could be a temporary error. Try pressing the refresh button below). This succession of events led to the arousing suspicions of users regarding the reason why Namuwiki was unusable, with Kim Jang-Kyum's Namuwiki article itself later trending on November 1st. The temporary issue was fixed a few hours later. On November 3rd, PPP legislator Kim Jang-Kyum () launched the process for a law Korean news outlets dubbed the "''Namuwiki transparency law''" (). The new law legislator Kim is pushing for is a revised bill for the ''Act on promotion of information and communications network utilization and information protection'' (). According to Kim, the revisal's key elements are the reinforcing of Namuwiki's proxy body in Korea, and the introduction of a confiscation system for profits based on the distribution of illegal information. Furthermore, Kim says that they are pushing for a system where the domestic proxy requirements are expanded from current user count and revenue to encompassing other elements such as visits and traffic, with an addition of similar expansions for minor protection.


Content


Articles

Like its predecessor Rigveda Wiki, Namuwiki's articles are lightly worded and humorous, often containing jokes or references to subculture knowledge from various areas, including movies, games, and online memes. It has a unique form of narrative through the use of strikethroughs, which are primarily applied to sentences that are written as part of a
tongue-in-cheek Tongue-in-cheek is an idiom that describes a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner. History The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walte ...
joke. Bolding is used liberally, often to highlight an important phrase. Although the primary focus of articles is placed on popular
subcultures A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...
(the original targeted material of Rigveda Wiki) like
video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
,
anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...
, and
movies A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...
, there are also many articles written on the fields of
science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
,
history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
, scholarship, and current events. However, less emphasis is placed on creating verifiable information; Namuwiki acknowledges on its behalf that its comparatively lax editing policies can cause material to be incorrect, biased, or defamatory, especially given its smaller number of contributors. As a result, the articles on Namuwiki are considered to be less scholarly than the likes of the
Korean Wikipedia The Korean Wikipedia () is the Korean language edition of Wikipedia. It was founded on 11 October 2002. As of , it is the 2nd largest Korean language Wiki site and the largest Wikipedia, with articles and active users. History The Korean ...
. The tone of Namuwiki is also much lighter, as it allows jokes and puns. Content of Namuwiki is licensed under the
Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Korea (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license). Namuwiki has explained that their license is incompatible with
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...
(CC BY-SA 4.0) and Fandom wiki (CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported) on the FAQ page.


Accuracy and neutrality

Namuwiki does not necessarily require sources, nor does it have strict restrictions on contributions containing inaccurate information or subjective perspectives; it is only "recommended" to leave citations in cases of direct quotes. Due to no requirements for
fact-checking Fact-checking is the process of verifying the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements. Fact-checking can be conducted before or after the text or content is published or otherwise disseminated. Internal fact-checking is such che ...
, Namuwiki has been criticized for lack of accuracy and reliability. The phrase "turn off Namuwiki" () has become a running joke in many Korean Internet communities, targeting its users who act knowledgeable about certain topics without doing in-depth and credible research outside of Namuwiki. The material found on it is written in a personal/subjective style that was characteristic of the wiki from which it was forked, the Rigveda Wiki. It has much more lax guidelines than
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...
, does not necessarily require references or sources, and has been criticized as being inaccurate and biased.


Administration

Umanle S.R.L.'s base of operation in
Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...
has led to concerns over the legal venues available for Korean citizens to seek correction of information they consider harmful, given the bureaucratic difficulties in handling legal matters with a foreign entity under foreign law. Various hypotheses have arisen to speculate the motivation behind the wiki's transfer, the most prominent of which characterizes the move as an attempt to avoid sensitive South Korean internet laws. Not much information has been revealed about Umanle S.R.L., its employees, or its owner(s). Data from Paraguay's Ministry of Finance confirms its existence. Some users raised concerns that Namuwiki may be operating under a ghost company. Kim Nak-Ho (), a professor of journalism, opined that relying on opaque administration may be problematic for online communities. He further added that collaborative encyclopedia projects should be owned by a formal non-profit with transparent funding.


Reception, influence, and comparison to similar services

Namuwiki, according to SimilarWeb, is the 5th most visited website on the South Korean internet as of October 5, 2024, behind only the likes of
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
,
Naver Naver (; stylized as NAVER) is a South Korean online platform operated by the Naver Corporation. The company's products include a search engine, email hosting, blogs, maps, and mobile payment. History Naver was the first Korean web provide ...
,
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
, and Daum. In addition, it is the wiki website most widely used by the Korean population. (Wikipedia.org is ''33rd'', compared to Namuwiki's ''5th'' place.) It was the second most searched entity in 2015 Korea, according to Google Korea. Even though it has been criticized for lack of citations, inaccuracy, and bias, it is easy to read and editing policies have established its status as the go-to wiki website among the Korean population, which has boosted the website's status and influence into a staple of everyday Koreans' lives and pop culture. As of 5 October 2024, Namuwiki has a total of 6,525,085 normal articles, or ''ilban munseo'' (), including redirects, compared to 3,290,720 (including redirects) on the
Korean Wikipedia The Korean Wikipedia () is the Korean language edition of Wikipedia. It was founded on 11 October 2002. As of , it is the 2nd largest Korean language Wiki site and the largest Wikipedia, with articles and active users. History The Korean ...
, making it a wiki with almost double (1.98 times) articles compared to the Korean Wikipedia. According to The
Hankyoreh ''The Hankyoreh'' () is a centre-left liberal daily newspaper in South Korea. It was established in 1988 after widespread purges forced out dissident journalists, and was envisioned as an alternative to existing newspapers, which were regarde ...
's October 30, 2024 (KST) article of Namuwiki, it has 7.2 times more traffic compared to the Korean Wikipedia. In entertainment and politics, Namuwiki makes sporadic appearances in the scene, where sometimes you can see Korean public figures, entertainers, and politicians reading Namuwiki's ''criticism'' section of their own articles, which is like a politician spinoff of "reading mean comments". According to the ''E-daily'', public figures reading, reviewing, and editing their own NamuWiki articles have been an increasing trend on Korean YouTube. Examples. In 2019, some NamuWiki users showed concern on Namuwiki's ''questions board'' () over the fact that articles collectively edited by the viewers of the videos above might count as ''Outside interference'' and as a violation of NamuWiki's rules, but the act was given the greenlight by one of NamuWiki's administrators, stating that unless vandalism happens they should be treated as simple edits. NamuWiki has also come under pressure from various politicians and political organizations for many reasons, and various efforts were either made or theorized against NamuWiki. Critics of these acts argue that the blocking or taking-down of NamuWiki would be unnecessary censorship and the hindrance of freedom of speech. Due to NamuWiki's growing influence, more politicians are increasingly paying attention to their NamuWiki pages; According to the JoongAng's call with the aids of the PPP's ''first-term MP's office,'' (), it is said that the PPP has separate designated assistants just for Namuwiki management. In March 2017, an article published by the Korean news outlet MK News detailed Namuwiki and the "humorous" writing style of its articles. The article attributed Namuwiki's growth to its accessibility and humor. However, this and its ease of editing also leads to articles with biased and unfounded opinions. In November 2018, Namuwiki was mentioned by Korean news outlet representative Junghwan Lee as a positive example for news outlets to follow in the context of fake news, explaining that information contributed online from repeated discussion, deletion, and adjustments ultimately creates truthful information. Media institutions, even legacy media with high awareness to the Korean public, can sometimes be seen uploading images from Namuwiki, in their own articles. Examples.


See also

*
List of wikis This article contains a list of notable wikis, which are websites that use wiki software, allowing users to collaboratively edit content and view old versions of the content. These websites use several different wiki software packages. Table ...
*
Korean Wikipedia The Korean Wikipedia () is the Korean language edition of Wikipedia. It was founded on 11 October 2002. As of , it is the 2nd largest Korean language Wiki site and the largest Wikipedia, with articles and active users. History The Korean ...
* Rigveda Wiki *
Subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...
* Lurkmore *
Encyclopedia Dramatica Encyclopedia Dramatica (ED or æ; stylized as Encyclopædia Dramatica) is an online community website, centered around a wiki, that acts as a " troll archive" and its community members frequently participate in harassment campaigns. The site hos ...


References


External links

* {{Official website *
English translated site
*
Japanese translated site
Wikis 2015 establishments in South Korea Internet properties established in 2015 Korean-language websites Paraguayan websites