The Indian Government summoned Wikipedia representatives over vandalism on Arshdeep Singh's page

Arshdeep Singh (Image source- Twitter)

India lost their opening Super-Four 2022 Asia Cup clash against Pakistan by five wickets with just a ball remaining on Sunday (September 4). Star batter Virat Kohli smashed his second consecutive fifty to help India put a 182-run target while batting first. But bowlers failed to defend the target as Pakistan registered a crucial win at Dubai International Stadium. Arshdeep Singh took a wicket while conceding only 27 runs but Hardik Pandya and Bhubneshwar Kumar proved costly against Pakistan.

Despite his impressive spell, Arshdeep is now facing a lot of criticism and is getting trolled unfairly by some fans. He was given the responsibility to bowl the last over with only seven runs to defend but fans were more furious at the player for dropping an easy catch in the 18th over. Pakistan needed 34 four runs in the last three overs with Asif Ali and Khushdil Shah at the crease. Arshdeep dropped a dolly at a short third and later it cost India a heartbreaking defeat.

Fans took to social media to troll the youngster and some even went on to change some details on his Wikipedia page. Wikipedia is an open-source platform and anyone with little editing knowledge can change the content for a time being. An unknown user changed Arshdeep's name to "Major Arshdeep Singh Bajwa" and changed his nationality to "Khalistan".

Indian Government officials summoned Wikimedia, which operates content on Wikipedia, representatives to object to the vandalism. Minister of State for IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, also posted a Tweet regarding the matter. "No intermediary operating in India can permit this type of misinformation (a)n(d) deliberate efforts to incitement (a)n(d) user harm - violates our govt's expectations of safe and trusted internet," he said.

The wrongful edits were removed within minutes: Wikimedia officials on vandalism to Arshdeep Singh's page

Wikimedia editors, a group of volunteers who observe content, were quick to remove the wrongful editions and the officials also put on an official statement regarding vandalism on Arshdeep Singh's page.

"The Wikimedia Foundation has been made aware by the Indian Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology of the vandalism that took place on the Wikipedia page of Indian cricketer, Arshdeep Singh,” Wikimedia Foundation said in their statement.

"The Wikipedia page of the cricketer was vandalized with false claims on September 4, however, the wrongful edits were removed within minutes by Wikipedia's volunteer community. Right now, the article on English Wikipedia is semi-protected (which allows edits by only trusted users) to restrict further vandalism on the page," it added.