"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing," co-founder Jimmy Wales said in 2004, when asked by a user what Wikipedia's mission was.
It seemed a long shot at the time. Little did he know that Wikipedia would become precisely that: the world's largest repository of human knowledge, offering more than 55 million articles in 309 languages.
How Wikipedia was born
It all started in January 2001, when internet entrepreneurs Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger registered Wikipedia's domain as an offshoot of an earlier web-based encyclopedia project, Nupedia.
As the site became established, it soon grew beyond the scope of the earlier project.
According to co-founder Mr Wales, "the project passed 1,000 articles around February 12, 2001, and 10,000 articles around September 7. In the first year of its existence, over 20,000 encyclopedia entries were created – a rate of over 1,500 articles per month".
The same year, the free, open content encyclopedia began to expand internationally and attract contributors from around the world.
The first domain reserved for a non-English Wikipedia was deutsche.wikipedia.com, followed by a wave of new language sites, including the Arabic one that appeared in September 2001.
The wiki website continued to grow at an explosive rate. As of January 2020, Wikipedia ranks as the 13th most-visited and the most linked-to website on the planet, an extraordinary result for a project that was long deemed unreliable and lacking authority.
Its open nature makes it a prime target for fake news and misinformation. Because articles do not necessarily include bylines and authors are not publicly accountable for what they write, the site's entries are vulnerable to unscrupulous edits.
However, what was once considered the site's most significant vulnerability has proved to be its greatest strength.
How Wikipedia fact-checks information
Unlike other tech giants
, Wikipedia started tackling misinformation on its website as early as 2003.
Two years after the project was born, Mr Wales launched the Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee – or ArbCom – as an extension of the decision-making power he formerly held as owner of the site.
The committee, made up of 15 jurists, acts as Wikipedia's high court, restricting, blocking or banning contributors and trying to prevent the spread of fake news and conspiracy theories.
Wikipedia's community of contributors, too, has proved an essential tool in tackling the spread of disinformation on the website.
About 200,000 editors contribute to Wikipedia projects every month, updating and correcting information at a rate of 350 times a minute.
Finally, Wikipedia has an army of 2,470 bots, automated software that carry out the "repetitive and mundane tasks to maintain the 52,341,763 pages of the English Wikipedia".
Bots can detect and clean up vandalism almost as soon as it occurs, making them indispensable to the success of Wikipedia's project.
Its ability to attract diverse contributors, maintain high standards of accuracy, and evolve as fast as the internet makes Wikipedia one of the most successful crowdsourcing experiments of all time.
While other tech platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube struggle to contain the spread of
hate and disinformation
across their platforms, Wikipedia shows that a different model is possible.
Top 10 most polluted cities
- Bhiwadi, India
- Ghaziabad, India
- Hotan, China
- Delhi, India
- Jaunpur, India
- Faisalabad, Pakistan
- Noida, India
- Bahawalpur, Pakistan
- Peshawar, Pakistan
- Bagpat, India
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
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