Uncyclopedia - Criticism and Controversy

Criticism and Controversy

In May 2006, The New Zealand Herald reported that school officials, including the headmaster of King's College, stated that Uncyclopedia and Bebo were "cyber bullying menace". This was prompted by one Epsom Girls' Grammar School student's name and mobile phone number, along with an offensive message, being posted to Uncyclopedia without her knowledge. The individual in question stated that students commonly added full names and photographs to their own pages, drawing concern from several schooling establishments. The report contributed to the imposition and reworking of the website's vanity and cyberbullying policies, which were only loosely enforced beforehand. Uncyclopedia has also been criticised for racist humour and general hatefulness, but Huang said that racist articles are pulled.

The article on The Lake District was criticised in June 2007 as being offensive by councillors and tourism bosses, who called for stricter regulations on the site. The story was reported in British local newspaper the North-West Evening Mail, but no policy changes were made as a result of this. In fact, the publicity generated by the issue prompted the Lake District article to be featured on Uncyclopedia's main page. In a similar incident in November 2007, Uncyclopedia's article on Northern Ireland was criticised by Northern Irish politician James McCarry who branded the site "disgraceful" and vowed to, along with help from Moyle Council, "get it removed". The article is still on the site. Ardoyne councillor Conor Maskey and Portadown News creator Newton Emerson opposed McCarry, saying people should be more relaxed about the website. This story was reported in The Belfast Telegraph.

A similar incident occurred in April 2008, when civic leaders of Telford, Shropshire, UK lashed out at an article calling the town "a world leader in the production and reproduction and re-reproduction of Chavs". Another article, this time about the Shropshire county town of Shrewsbury, says the town is only famous for being the birthplace of Charles Darwin, and includes insults towards the residents describing them as monkeys who have evolved into sheep. Uncyclopedia has also been mentioned in the Sioux City Journal for its article on Sioux City, Iowa, Hawke's Bay Today for its article on Flaxmere, and Lochaber News for its article on Fort William, Scotland.

In January 2008, the Malaysian Internal Security Ministry issued a directive alerting newspaper editors not to trust Uncyclopedia. It said the article concerning Malaysia contained "untruths, insults and ridicule" and was demeaning to the country. Uncyclopedia's users found this statement more humorous than serious, and subsequently parodied the directive in an UnNews article. As of February 2010, Uncyclopedia is blocked from the People's Republic of China.

In December 2008, Video Professor made claims of defamation and trademark abuse against Uncyclopedia, demanding that all content relating to the Video Professor be removed within 48 hours. Uncyclopedia has not, as of August 2012, removed said content.

The site uses a layout not unlike that of Wikipedia, which may cause confusion to inexperienced users who misinterpret the content as factual.