Jimmy Wales gives up Wikipedia admin rights

Jimmy Wales co-founded Wikipedia but has been accused of heavy-handed tactics

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has relinquished control over much of the online encyclopaedia's content after angering many in the community for his heavy handed tactics in taking down possible pornographic images, according to a report on Fox News.

The right wing US news network reported that Wales now has the admin rights of a mere "low-level administrator", unable to delete files, remove administrators, assign projects or edit content.

"He had the highest level of control. He was our leader," a source told FoxNews.com. When asked who was in charge now, the source said: "No one. It's chaos."

The unrest at the community-managed site began when Wales responded to a Fox News story last month by personally deleting, and ordering others to purge, thousands of images that could be construed as pornographic.

"If this is an emergency requiring a justified, immediate, unilateral, king-like action, I regret Mr Wales didn't take the time to explain the emergency to us," wrote one angry administrator, according to Fox.

V3.co.uk has contacted the Wikimedia Foundation for extra clarification and is waiting for a response.