The Signpost

Traffic report

The pandemic, alleged murder, a massacre, and other deaths

This traffic report is adapted from the Top 25 Report, prepared with commentary by Igordebraga and Rebestalic

If living in a world being dragged down by a pandemic wasn't depressing enough, the deaths of African-American people allegedly at the hands of law enforcement led to protests, think pieces, a whole mess, regarding race relations and police brutality, and the most viewed Wikipedia articles followed the trends accordingly.

(data provided by the provisional Top 1000)

I see no changes, all I see is racist faces (May 24 to 30, 2020)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (May 24 to 30, 2020)
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 Death of George Floyd 3,328,657 On May 25th, a 46-year-old African-American man, George Floyd, died while in the process of being arrested by officers of the local Minneapolis Police Department. His death was alledgedly caused by Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chauvin, who, according to the article linked to the left, held his knee on Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. In the aftermath of his death, protests sprang up across the globe, some of them violent. Chauvin was later arrested and is charged with third-degree murder – aka depraved-heart murder, where someone does an act of "depraved indifference" to human life that ends up killing someone else.
2 Third-degree murder 1,887,890
3 Elon Musk 1,654,330 On another note – Elon Musk is most probably doing well because of a) his recently born child, X AE A-Xii Musk (of whom Grimes (#16) is the mother) and b) the recent Demo 2 rocket flight (made possible by his company SpaceX, ranked here at #13), which sent Americans into space for the first time in just shy of nine years.
4 Jeffrey Epstein 1,340,068 Jeffrey Epstein was, by profession, a 'financier' – defined in the Oxford Dictionary as 'a person concerned in the management of large amounts of money on behalf of governments or other large organizations'. Unfortunately, he was also known for being rather sexually unrestrained. Up to 130 people have said that they're Epstein's biological children. That's rather unsettling, if you ask me. Anyway, the fellows at Netflix have come out with a series on him, titled Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich.
5 Dominic Cummings 1,299,284 This individual is currently the chief adviser to British prime minister Boris Johnson. The UK is currently in the process of loosening up lockdowns instigated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
6 COVID-19 pandemic 1,014,054 Oh dear.
7 Michael Jordan 962,894 The Last Dance ended last week, but people still seek the basketball legend covered by the ESPN\Netflix show. The only thing missing for basketball fans is for the NBA's return in late July – finishing the regular season, unlike skipping to a bigger postseason like the NHL will do.
8 Jacob Frey 840,724 The mayor of Minneapolis, who after seeing his law enforcement cause #1, called for the dismissal of the responsible policemen and for Derek Chauvin to be charged for his alleged crimes.
9 Deaths in 2020 811,941 A lot of people die; unfortunately, 2020 is no exception.
10 Murder (United States law) 617,442 It's most probable that the article for murder in the US came up as a result of the alleged murder of aforementioned George Floyd via police mistreatment.

Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races (May 31 to June 6)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (May 31 to June 6, 2020)
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 Killing of George Floyd 6,589,437[a] According to the Wikipedia article for the death of African-American man George Floyd, he said 'I can't breathe' in some way at least sixteen times while being pinned to the ground by the neck by the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
2 Antifa (United States) 5,682,388 I'm not sure for certain, but I'm pretty sure that Antifa is a truncation of 'Anti-Fascism' or 'Anti-Fascist Action'. No surprises there then, because Antifa is an anti-fascist activist movement, which aims to cause change through things like protesting and sit- or die-ins. The red flag on the bottom you see in the Antifa logo supplied represents Communism (used in the former Soviet Union and most if not all countries that sided with it (of which, along with the Soviet Union, can be referred to as the Eastern Bloc, as well as China, Cuba etc.), and the big black flag represents Anarchism (a system used in various small states such as the now-defunct Makhnovia).
3 Jeffrey Epstein 2,262,029 Money-handler Jeffrey Epstein could have in excess of a hundred biological children. You see, he was quite sexually relaxed. He has now been showcased in Netflix's Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich.
4 Shooting of Breonna Taylor 1,756,388 Another police brutality issue, this time involving police officers serving Louisville, Kentucky. After the mentioned police officers came into Ms. Taylor's home with permission of a search warrant, Taylor's boyfriend fired some shots at the officers, believing they were intruders. The police officers (who might've assumed that Taylor and boyfriend were actively trying to fight them off, not knowing they were the police) returned fire with over twenty shots. Taylor died from the incident.
5 Anonymous (group) 1,620,398 Enigma, right?

Anonymous has been around since 2003, and are a predominantly Internet-based movement that has no definite leader. Indeed – it is reasonably safe to say that the hierarchical makeup of Anonymous is indeed an anarchy. The death of George Floyd (#1) has evidently angered at least a few Anons, and it seems that Anonymous is set to reveal the Minneapolis Police Department's alleged "crimes to the world".
6 Elon Musk 1,309,293 Good to see English Wikipedia readers still reeling from Demo 2, a rocket mission by Musk's company SpaceX that ultimately sent American astronauts to space for the first time in nine years. The (I believe) two astronauts that Demo 2 sent up are now housed in the International Space Station (#25).
7 George Floyd protests 1,093,714 The death of George Floyd has sparked protests against racism and police brutality. Protests have swept the world, everywhere from my home New Zealand to the United Kingdom, on the other side of the world. The picture attached is of people protesting outside the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee.
8 Black Lives Matter 1,087,667 Black lives matter! They do, you know. Unfortunately, it seems that some non-Black people don't realise that. In my opinion, the most noticeable difference between Black Americans and White Americans is that Black Americans have a darker skin tone than White Americans. Such a change is almost exclusively due to a higher concentration of melanin, a colouring chemical that's found in your skin and hair. Come on people, don't now be making fun of how much melanin people have.
9 Ghislaine Maxwell 1,072,716 An acquaintance of #3-ranked Jeffrey Epstein.
10 Candace Owens 1,042,033 Raking in some controversy for being a vocal criticiser of the George Floyd protests.
  1. ^ combination of page views for "Death of George Floyd" with "Killing of George Floyd" due to a page move.

It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes (June 7 to 13)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (June 7 to 13, 2020)
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 Edward Colston 2,159,287 Edward Colston was "an English merchant, philanthropist, and Tory Member of Parliament who was involved in the Atlantic slave trade". Born in the city of Bristol, Colston eventually had a statue of him built in said city. This statue was recently toppled into the Bristol Harbour by people taking part in the George Floyd protests. And hey, guess what – the article for Edward Colston soon became so affected by edit warring that it earned full protection for itself! Now, that's technically a bad thing but I personally celebrate when it does happen, because it's so damn rare.
2 Chiranjeevi Sarja 1,755,877 A recently deceased Indian actor from the Sandalwood, who suffered a cardiac arrest at just 39, leaving behind a filmography of over 20 movies.
3 George Floyd 1,649,886 African-American guard, bouncer and rapper among other things, and indirect cause of a huge wave of protests.
4 Juneteenth 1,380,192 The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.

This was part of a letter read out on June the 19th, 1865, by Union Army general Gordon Granger off the balcony of the house pictured (Ashton Villa) that declared all slaves in Texas free. In doing so, Granger had freed the last slaves in the United States. Good day, don't you think?
5 Killing of George Floyd 1,074,790 On May the 25th this year, 46-year old African American man George Floyd was apprehended by police of Minneapolis, Minnesota. After that, police officer Derek Chauvin allegedly knelt on Floyd's neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. By the end of this time, Floyd had died.
6 Tulsa race massacre 1,060,691 Just over 99 years ago, mobs of White Americans stormed a region in the city of Tulsa; Greenwood. Greenwood happened to have lots of rich African-Americans, and it's evident that the aforementioned White Americans in question didn't like that. Now, no major violence was really happening at this moment. However, things boiled over when African-American Dick Rowland was accused of being mean to White American Sarah Page. He was sent to a courthouse. Some White Americans came over to spectate. By now, some members of the African-American community of Greenwood had apparently heard rumours that Rowland had been lynched (for those of you who don't know, let's just say that's one of the more brutal ways to die). As a consequence, some African-Americans came over too, armed. And yeah, things just got worse from there. I'd say that the Tulsa race massacre's notoriety has jumped due to George Floyd's recent death.
7 Shooting of Breonna Taylor 1,020,507 Another incident involving the death of an African-American by police. Relatable again to George Floyd's death.
8 Meghana Raj 1,000,428 With just past a million views, Meghana Raj is an Indian actress who is now sadly the widow of #2 (Chiranjeevi Sarja).
9 Candace Owens 997,809 An American conservative commentator and political activist, known for her pro-Trump activism, and who is somehow against the two topics plaguing the week, the pandemic (said the deaths were overcounted, and that she'll refuse a vaccine) and the racial affairs (already a Black Lives Matters opposer, she claimed that George Soros paid people to protest the killing of George Floyd)
10 Jeffrey Epstein 988,149 A dead ("suicided"?) rich sex offender who was one of the most viewed articles of last year, and has his dirty stories chronicled on Netflix's Filthy Rich.

That's just the way it is, ah, but don't you believe them (June 14 to 20)

Most Popular Wikipedia Articles of the Week (June 14 to 20, 2020)
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes/about
1 Sushant Singh Rajput 11,538,094 Wow. The 10 million mark had only been broken five times before, and only Trump post-election wasn't a deceased celebrity. Except Prince, David Bowie, Kobe Bryant and Stephen Hawking certainly had an international appeal and legacy. Bollywood star Rajput earned his views for both the fact he comes from a nation of a billion people and the shock factor, given he hanged himself at just 34.
2 Juneteenth 4,655,883 "On Friday, it was Juneteenth, which a large portion of White America celebrated and learned about for the very first time." – John Oliver
For details, on June nineteenth, 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation abolishing slavery began to be enforced in one of the last states, Texas. 46 states celebrate this as a holiday, also known as Emancipation Day. And on these days where race matters are generating protests and think pieces everywhere, it's certainly a big deal!
3 Ankita Lokhande 1,819,981 Our article on #1 only lists one known relationship, former co-star Ankita Lokhande. Yet another actress, Rhea Chakraborty, has been assumed to have dated him, and some parts of the internet decided to put the blame of Rajput's suicide on her.
4 Rhea Chakraborty 1,573,943
5 Aunt Jemima 1,409,005 Aunt Jemima is "a brand of pancake mix, syrup, and other breakfast foods", according to its respective Wikipedia article. It is a brand of the Quaker Oats Company, which is in itself currently a property of PepsiCo (which I guess you'd know most from Pepsi and Doritos). Now, a central part of the Aunt Jemima logo is a graphical representation of a 'Mammy', an African-American woman who works in a white household (think Aibileen Clark from The Help). In light of the racial relations revelations following the death of George Floyd, Quaker Oats Company announced a rework of the Aunt Jemima brand for reasons stated above.
6 365 Days (2020 film) 1,055,835 As if The Witcher didn't bring Polish works into the forefront, Netflix has now showcased this erotic movie described as "50 Shades of Grey in Warsaw", featuring raunchier sex and an even unhealthier relationship – as put by Variety, in one of the many scathing reviews the film received, "vacuous idiot is kidnapped by a hot, rich mafioso" who bets she'll fall in love with him after a year. Said review also summed up why the streaming crowd was drawn to 365 Days: "No one ever went broke overestimating the horniness of a global population slowly emerging from pandemic-mandated isolation."
7 Nancy Green 1,048,856 And the dirty Polish movie stands between Aunt Jemima and the first spokesperson for the brand, with the incoming rebranding leading to efforts to keep Green's legacy alive.
8 The Last of Us Part II 975,742 Seven years later (six counting the expansion pack), the post-apocalyptic misadventures of Joel and Ellie are back in this PlayStation 4 exclusive, no matter if empty landscapes because of a deadly disease might be too real lately.
9 Dil Bechara 887,738 Due to being postponed over and over again because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian remake of The Fault in Our Stars directed by Mukesh Chhabra (pictured) is now set to be a posthumous release for #1.
10 Deaths in 2020 766,776 That cold black cloud is coming down
Feels like I'm Knockin' on Heaven's Door...

Exclusions

  • These lists exclude the Wikipedia main page, non-article pages (such as redlinks), and anomalous entries (such as DDoS attacks or likely automated views). Since mobile view data became available to the Report in October 2014, we exclude articles that have almost no mobile views (5–6% or less) or almost all mobile views (94–95% or more) because they are very likely to be automated views based on our experience and research of the issue. Please feel free to discuss any removal on the Top 25 Report talk page if you wish.
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Where is the raw data? All the best: Rich Farmbrough 22:08, 28 June 2020 (UTC).[reply]

There's a link to it atop the page. Although it compiles from this tool, given the one used before has been down since January. igordebraga 00:37, 29 June 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Just want to add, that Dominic Cummings page has many views might be due to the fact that he allegedly broke curfew after he was tested positive for covid-19, enraging UK citizens. Lulusword (talk) 04:52, 1 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]

















Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2020-06-28/Traffic_report