Why did Wikipedia go to a dark background (January 2025)?

Looking something up on Wikipedia, the articles have a dark background instead of white. Anyone know why? If it’s a protest, what’s it about?

It has the same light background for me.

Did you try a different browser or check settings (though I don’t know what settings would be involved)?

The Appearance settings on the right side of the webpage?

Huh. I must have accidentally touched it. Thank you.

Specifically, if you’re on a desktop version, in the upper right hand corner, there is an icon that looks like eyeglasses. That’s the Appearance menu. The bottom set of options is “Color,” and clicking the “Dark” button gives a black background with white text, whereas “Light” gives the usual white background with black text.

The Elders of the Internet have proclaimed that hierarchy of LIGHT/DARK mode first be obtained from System Settings - and if not specified then defer to the browser settings and lastly the site’s own settings where in certain countries you should be alerted that localStorage (or cookies saved upon thy device) is being used.

ETA: on my websites I check localStorage first, and if not set check the browser and if that’s not set you get LIGHT by default and a nice little area with a Sun and Moon to select.

Some sites look much cooler in DARK and some look absolutely awful.

On my iPhone it’s:

Hamburger icon (menu) at upper left
Settings
Color, set to Light, Dark, or Automatic

I was just there today (Chrome, Windows 11) and it looked normal to me. I’d check settings on both the site and the browser.