WikiScanner
Encyclopedia
WikiScanner was a tool which consisted of a publicly searchable database that linked millions of anonymous edits on the free
online encyclopedia
Wikipedia
to the organizations where those edits apparently originated, by cross-referencing the edits with data on the owners of the associated block of IP addresses. (WikiScanner does not work on edits made under a username
.) It was created by Virgil Griffith
and released on August 14, 2007. In his "WikiScanner FAQ" Griffith stated his belief that WikiScanner could help make Wikipedia more reliable
for controversial topics. Griffith also indicated that he had never been employed by the Wikimedia Foundation
and said his work on WikiScanner was "100% noncommercial."
attempts to run "WikiScanner Classic" from http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/ returned to the WikiScanner home page, which identifies itself as "WIKIWATCHER.COM"; invoking "WikiScanner2 PreviewNew!" at http://katrina.cs.caltech.edu/erenrich_rnd345/scanner_final/ leads to failure to load the page due to timeout.
contains 34,417,493 entries on anonymous edits (those by users who were not logged in to Wikipedia) between 7 February 2002 and 4 August 2007. Griffith stated that the database was constructed by compiling the anonymous edits included amongst the monthly public database dumps of Wikipedia. Griffith said he connects the organizations to the IP numbers with the assistance of the IP2Location
, through which comparison he had found "187,529 different organizations with at least one anonymous Wikipedia edit."
WikiScanner does not work on edits made by an editor who is logged-in under a username. In that case, the data shows only the username and not the IP address. WikiScanner also cannot of course distinguish edits made by authorized users of an organization's computers from edits made by unauthorized intruders, or by users of public-access computers that may be part of an organization's network. In discussing edits apparently made from computers in the Vatican
, computer expert Kevin Curran was quoted by the BBC
as saying that it was "difficult to determine if the person was an employee or if they had maliciously hacked into the Vatican system and were 'spoofing' the IP address."
Griffith's WikiScanner FAQ notes that edits cannot be positively connected with representatives of the company, though they can be positively connected to the network. The FAQ goes on to say that "we can reasonably assume" that any such edit was from an employee or authorized guest, there is no guarantee that the edit was made by an authorized user rather than an intruder. The likelihood of such intrusions varies with the security in organizations' networks. Some organizations, such as the Vatican Library
, have public access terminals or networks.
, which first broke the story, most edits are "fairly innocuous". "Wake up and live." Wired asked users to submit "The most shameful Wikipedia spin jobs", which has generated many news stories about organizations, such as the Al-Jazeera network, Fox News Channel
, staffers of Democratic Senator Robert Byrd
and the CIA, that have edited Wikipedia articles.
Satirist Stephen Colbert
(who has long featured stories about Wikipedia and its "truthiness
" on his program) mocked Griffith's ambivalent stance on anonymity on Wikipedia, declaring it the "right" of corporations and governments to participate in the democratic process
of deciding what is and is not true on Wikipedia.
According to the BBC
, WikiScanner found that some editorial contributions to Wikipedia had originated from computers operated by the Diebold
company, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
and the Vatican
. The Times
reported that an Internet address of the BBC itself had made edits to Wikipedia. The BBC's Head of Interactive News, Pete Clifton
subsequently published a blog acknowledging the omission. Clifton characterized the BBC's edits of Wikipedia in this manner: "Some of the examples are pretty unedifying, but for every dodgy one there are many, many more uncontroversial edits where people at the BBC have added information or changed a detail in good faith."
The Associated Press also reported that computers owned by the Church of Scientology
have been used to remove criticism from articles about Scientology
on Wikipedia, including edits to the article Cult Awareness Network
. The Associated Press admitted that edits to Wikipedia had been made anonymously from its own computers, though the news organization did not describe the content of the edits. In its story on WikiScanner, the New York Times admitted that edits had been made from its own computers, as well. Wired.com
reported that the office of former Republican Senator Conrad Burns
also edited critical passages.
According to Maltastar.com, WikiScanner has shown edits by other large organizations, including Amnesty International
, Apple Inc., ChevronTexaco, Coca Cola
, the British Conservative Party
, Dell Computers, EA Games, Exxon Mobil, the FBI, The Guardian
, Microsoft
, MySpace
, the National Rifle Association
, Nestlé
, News of the World
, the New York Times, the Government of Portugal
, the US Republican Party
, Reuters
, Sony
, the United Nations
, Walmart, and a dog breeding association. The Canadian television network CTV
reported edits by other organizations including Disney and the Canadian government
.
On August 24, 2007, headline
reports in the Australia
n print
and electronic media
were made of anonymous edits to Wikipedia by staff in the Australian Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
in order to remove potentially damaging details from articles related to the Government
. Information found using WikiScanner showed 126 anonymous edits from the Department to articles on sometimes controversial issues and on government ministers. The Department responded by saying that Prime Minister
John Howard
did not direct his staff to modify the articles, and later that day the head of the Department said that the changes were not made by anyone in his department or the Prime Minister's office, but by another user with the same Internet Service Provider (ISP)
. Wikiscanner also identified Australian Department of Defence
(DoD) employees as having made over 5,000 edits, prompting an unprecedented announcement from the DoD to block Defence staff from editing Wikipedia in case edits were interpreted as official comment.
On 26 August 2007, The Boston Globe
in “a Globe Editorial
” published an article about Wikipedia, described as a “democratic fountain of facts” and related “WikiScanner” technology, reporting as among those companies found to have edited Wikipedia were Pepsi
, Wal-Mart
, ExxonMobil
and Royal Dutch Shell
, in which specific case "In 2005, someone using a computer inside Royal Dutch Shell, the oil company, rewrote a benign
description of the company, claiming it is 'run by a group of geriatrics who find it impossible to make timely decisions and have an aversion to highly-profitable ventures.'” The WikiScanner story was also covered by The Independent
, which stated that many "censorial interventions" by editors with vested interests on a variety of articles in Wikipedia had been discovered.
On 18 December 2007, Fortune magazine
mentioned the use of WikiScanner in the 96th of its list of the "101 Dumbest Moments in Business" in 2007 saying, "A Washington Post employee is found to have changed a reference to the owner of a rival paper from Philip Anschutz
to Charles Manson
, while someone at The New York Times added the word "jerk" 12 times to the entry on George W. Bush."
During the period of May 27 to June 4, 2008, edits originating from an IP address
belonging to Industry Canada
were made to the Jim Prentice
(Federal Minister of Industry
) article on Wikipedia. The edits included the removal of references to new copyright legislation and the addition of two passages about Prentice's recent accomplishments as Minister of Industry.
spoke enthusiastically about WikiScanner, noting in one source that "It brings an additional level of transparency to what's going on at Wikipedia" and stating in another that it was "fabulous and I strongly support it." The BBC quoted an unnamed Wikipedia spokesperson's praise for the tool in taking transparency "to another level" and preventing "an organisation or individuals from editing articles that they're really not supposed to." In responding to the edits from the Canadian Ministry of Industry, spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation
Jay Walsh noted that neutrality of language and guarding against conflicts of interest are two of the central pillars of Wikipedia, adding that "The edits which should be trusted would come from people who don't possess a conflict of interest, in this case, it would be worthwhile saying that if someone is making edits from a computer within the government of Canada … if it was someone within that ministry, that would theoretically constitute a conflict of interest."
Wales has speculated on a possible warning to anonymous editors: "When someone clicks on 'edit,' it would be interesting if we could say, 'Hi, thank you for editing. We see you’re logged in from The New York Times. Keep in mind that we know that, and it’s public information' … That might make them stop and think."
Gratis versus Libre
Gratis versus libre is the distinction between two meanings of the English adjective "free"; namely, "for zero price" and "with little or no restriction"...
online encyclopedia
Encyclopedia
An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....
Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
to the organizations where those edits apparently originated, by cross-referencing the edits with data on the owners of the associated block of IP addresses. (WikiScanner does not work on edits made under a username
User (computing)
A user is an agent, either a human agent or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username , screen name , nickname , or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.Users are...
.) It was created by Virgil Griffith
Virgil Griffith
Virgil Griffith , also known as Romanpoet, is an American hacker, known for his involvement in a 2003 lawsuit with Blackboard Inc. and his creation of WikiScanner. He has published papers on artificial life and is currently a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology...
and released on August 14, 2007. In his "WikiScanner FAQ" Griffith stated his belief that WikiScanner could help make Wikipedia more reliable
Reliability of Wikipedia
The reliability of Wikipedia , compared to other encyclopedias and more specialized sources, is assessed in many ways, including statistically, through comparative review, analysis of the historical patterns, and strengths and weaknesses inherent in the editing process unique to Wikipedia.Several...
for controversial topics. Griffith also indicated that he had never been employed by the Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is an American non-profit charitable organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida, where it was initially based...
and said his work on WikiScanner was "100% noncommercial."
attempts to run "WikiScanner Classic" from http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/ returned to the WikiScanner home page, which identifies itself as "WIKIWATCHER.COM"; invoking "WikiScanner2 PreviewNew!" at http://katrina.cs.caltech.edu/erenrich_rnd345/scanner_final/ leads to failure to load the page due to timeout.
Design
The tool's databaseDatabase
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
contains 34,417,493 entries on anonymous edits (those by users who were not logged in to Wikipedia) between 7 February 2002 and 4 August 2007. Griffith stated that the database was constructed by compiling the anonymous edits included amongst the monthly public database dumps of Wikipedia. Griffith said he connects the organizations to the IP numbers with the assistance of the IP2Location
IP2Location
IP2Location is a Malaysian company offering IP geolocation software applications, i.e. tools that attempt to derive geographical data , and also connection speed, ISP and domain name, about an Internet user using their IP addresses. IP2Location.com is a subsidiary of Hexasoft Development Sdn. Bhd...
, through which comparison he had found "187,529 different organizations with at least one anonymous Wikipedia edit."
WikiScanner does not work on edits made by an editor who is logged-in under a username. In that case, the data shows only the username and not the IP address. WikiScanner also cannot of course distinguish edits made by authorized users of an organization's computers from edits made by unauthorized intruders, or by users of public-access computers that may be part of an organization's network. In discussing edits apparently made from computers in the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
, computer expert Kevin Curran was quoted by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
as saying that it was "difficult to determine if the person was an employee or if they had maliciously hacked into the Vatican system and were 'spoofing' the IP address."
Griffith's WikiScanner FAQ notes that edits cannot be positively connected with representatives of the company, though they can be positively connected to the network. The FAQ goes on to say that "we can reasonably assume" that any such edit was from an employee or authorized guest, there is no guarantee that the edit was made by an authorized user rather than an intruder. The likelihood of such intrusions varies with the security in organizations' networks. Some organizations, such as the Vatican Library
Vatican Library
The Vatican Library is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from...
, have public access terminals or networks.
Media coverage and reaction
According to WiredWired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
, which first broke the story, most edits are "fairly innocuous". "Wake up and live." Wired asked users to submit "The most shameful Wikipedia spin jobs", which has generated many news stories about organizations, such as the Al-Jazeera network, Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...
, staffers of Democratic Senator Robert Byrd
Robert Byrd
Robert Carlyle Byrd was a United States Senator from West Virginia. A member of the Democratic Party, Byrd served as a U.S. Representative from 1953 until 1959 and as a U.S. Senator from 1959 to 2010...
and the CIA, that have edited Wikipedia articles.
Satirist Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits.Colbert originally studied to be an...
(who has long featured stories about Wikipedia and its "truthiness
Truthiness
Truthiness is a "truth" that a person claims to know intuitively "from the gut" or that it "feels right" without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts....
" on his program) mocked Griffith's ambivalent stance on anonymity on Wikipedia, declaring it the "right" of corporations and governments to participate in the democratic process
Consensus reality
Consensus reality is an approach to answering the philosophical question "What is real?" It gives a practical answer: reality is either what exists, or what we can agree seems to exist....
of deciding what is and is not true on Wikipedia.
According to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, WikiScanner found that some editorial contributions to Wikipedia had originated from computers operated by the Diebold
Diebold
Diebold, Inc. is a United States-based security systems corporation that is engaged primarily in the sale, manufacture, installation and service of self-service transaction systems , electronic and physical security products , and software and integrated systems for global financial and...
company, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is the Democratic Hill committee for the United States House of Representatives, working to elect Democrats to that body. They play a critical role in recruiting candidates, raising funds, and organizing races in districts that are expected to yield...
and the Vatican
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
. The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
reported that an Internet address of the BBC itself had made edits to Wikipedia. The BBC's Head of Interactive News, Pete Clifton
Pete Clifton
Pete Clifton is a British media executive with MSN UK and the former head of BBC News Interactive.-Career:Clifton was previously the editor of Ceefax, and before joining the BBC was a news and sports reporter at the Chronicle and Echo in Northampton, a sports journalist at the Exchange Telegraph...
subsequently published a blog acknowledging the omission. Clifton characterized the BBC's edits of Wikipedia in this manner: "Some of the examples are pretty unedifying, but for every dodgy one there are many, many more uncontroversial edits where people at the BBC have added information or changed a detail in good faith."
The Associated Press also reported that computers owned by the Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
have been used to remove criticism from articles about Scientology
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
on Wikipedia, including edits to the article Cult Awareness Network
Cult Awareness Network
The Cult Awareness Network was founded in the wake of the November 18, 1978 deaths of members of the group Peoples Temple and assassination of Congressman Leo J. Ryan in Jonestown, Guyana. CAN is now owned and operated by associates of the Church of Scientology, an organization that the original...
. The Associated Press admitted that edits to Wikipedia had been made anonymously from its own computers, though the news organization did not describe the content of the edits. In its story on WikiScanner, the New York Times admitted that edits had been made from its own computers, as well. Wired.com
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
reported that the office of former Republican Senator Conrad Burns
Conrad Burns
Conrad Ray Burns is a former United States Senator from Montana. He is only the second Republican to represent Montana in the Senate since the passage in 1913 of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and is the longest-serving Republican senator in Montana history.While in...
also edited critical passages.
According to Maltastar.com, WikiScanner has shown edits by other large organizations, including Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, Apple Inc., ChevronTexaco, Coca Cola
The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation and manufacturer, retailer and marketer of non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups. The company is best known for its flagship product Coca-Cola, invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton in Columbus, Georgia...
, the British Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
, Dell Computers, EA Games, Exxon Mobil, the FBI, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
, the National Rifle Association
National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America is an American non-profit 501 civil rights organization which advocates for the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection...
, Nestlé
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...
, News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
, the New York Times, the Government of Portugal
Government of Portugal
The Government is one of the four sovereignty organs of the Portuguese Republic. It is also the organ that conducts politics in general in the country and is also the superior body in public administration...
, the US Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
, Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
, the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, Walmart, and a dog breeding association. The Canadian television network CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
reported edits by other organizations including Disney and the Canadian government
Government of Canada
The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...
.
On August 24, 2007, headline
Headline
The headline is the text at the top of a newspaper article, indicating the nature of the article below it.It is sometimes termed a news hed, a deliberate misspelling that dates from production flow during hot type days, to notify the composing room that a written note from an editor concerned a...
reports in the Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n print
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
and electronic media
Electronic media
Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical energy for the end-user to access the content. This is in contrast to static media , which today are most often created electronically, but don't require electronics to be accessed by the end-user in the printed form...
were made of anonymous edits to Wikipedia by staff in the Australian Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia)
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is an Australian Government department. The Department was first established in 1911...
in order to remove potentially damaging details from articles related to the Government
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
. Information found using WikiScanner showed 126 anonymous edits from the Department to articles on sometimes controversial issues and on government ministers. The Department responded by saying that Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Australia
The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...
John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
did not direct his staff to modify the articles, and later that day the head of the Department said that the changes were not made by anyone in his department or the Prime Minister's office, but by another user with the same Internet Service Provider (ISP)
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
. Wikiscanner also identified Australian Department of Defence
Department of Defence (Australia)
The Australian Department of Defence is a Federal Government Department. It forms part of the Australian Defence Organisation along with the Australian Defence Force . The Defence mission is to defend Australia and its national interests...
(DoD) employees as having made over 5,000 edits, prompting an unprecedented announcement from the DoD to block Defence staff from editing Wikipedia in case edits were interpreted as official comment.
On 26 August 2007, The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
in “a Globe Editorial
Editorial
An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
” published an article about Wikipedia, described as a “democratic fountain of facts” and related “WikiScanner” technology, reporting as among those companies found to have edited Wikipedia were Pepsi
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...
, Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
, ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
and Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
, in which specific case "In 2005, someone using a computer inside Royal Dutch Shell, the oil company, rewrote a benign
Benign
A benign tumor is a tumor that lacks the ability to metastasize. Common examples of benign tumors include moles and uterine fibroids.The term "benign" implies a mild and nonprogressive disease. Indeed, many kinds of benign tumors are harmless to human health...
description of the company, claiming it is 'run by a group of geriatrics who find it impossible to make timely decisions and have an aversion to highly-profitable ventures.'” The WikiScanner story was also covered by The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, which stated that many "censorial interventions" by editors with vested interests on a variety of articles in Wikipedia had been discovered.
On 18 December 2007, Fortune magazine
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
mentioned the use of WikiScanner in the 96th of its list of the "101 Dumbest Moments in Business" in 2007 saying, "A Washington Post employee is found to have changed a reference to the owner of a rival paper from Philip Anschutz
Philip Anschutz
Philip Frederick Anschutz is an American entrepreneur. Anschutz bought out his father's drilling company in 1961 and earned large returns in Wyoming. He has invested in stocks, real estate and railroads...
to Charles Manson
Charles Manson
Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...
, while someone at The New York Times added the word "jerk" 12 times to the entry on George W. Bush."
During the period of May 27 to June 4, 2008, edits originating from an IP address
IP address
An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...
belonging to Industry Canada
Industry Canada
Industry Canada is the department of the Government of Canada with responsibility for regional economic development, investment, and innovation/research and development. The department employs 6104 FTEs across Canada....
were made to the Jim Prentice
Jim Prentice
James "Jim" Prentice, PC, QC is a Canadian lawyer, and politician. In the 2004 federal election he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as a candidate of the Conservative Party of Canada...
(Federal Minister of Industry
Minister of Industry (Canada)
The Minister of Industry is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's economic development and corporate affairs department, Industry Canada. The Minister of Industry is also the minister responsible for Statistics Canada...
) article on Wikipedia. The edits included the removal of references to new copyright legislation and the addition of two passages about Prentice's recent accomplishments as Minister of Industry.
Wikipedia reaction
Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy WalesJimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
spoke enthusiastically about WikiScanner, noting in one source that "It brings an additional level of transparency to what's going on at Wikipedia" and stating in another that it was "fabulous and I strongly support it." The BBC quoted an unnamed Wikipedia spokesperson's praise for the tool in taking transparency "to another level" and preventing "an organisation or individuals from editing articles that they're really not supposed to." In responding to the edits from the Canadian Ministry of Industry, spokesman for the Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is an American non-profit charitable organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida, where it was initially based...
Jay Walsh noted that neutrality of language and guarding against conflicts of interest are two of the central pillars of Wikipedia, adding that "The edits which should be trusted would come from people who don't possess a conflict of interest, in this case, it would be worthwhile saying that if someone is making edits from a computer within the government of Canada … if it was someone within that ministry, that would theoretically constitute a conflict of interest."
Wales has speculated on a possible warning to anonymous editors: "When someone clicks on 'edit,' it would be interesting if we could say, 'Hi, thank you for editing. We see you’re logged in from The New York Times. Keep in mind that we know that, and it’s public information' … That might make them stop and think."
See also
- USA Congressional staff edits to Wikipedia, a similar inquisition predating WikiScanner
- Reliability of WikipediaReliability of WikipediaThe reliability of Wikipedia , compared to other encyclopedias and more specialized sources, is assessed in many ways, including statistically, through comparative review, analysis of the historical patterns, and strengths and weaknesses inherent in the editing process unique to Wikipedia.Several...
- WHOISWHOISWHOIS is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block, or an autonomous system, but is also used for a wider range of other information. The protocol stores...
- Seigenthaler incident, the most famous of several scandals involving anonymous hoaxes on Wikipedia
External links
- WikiScanner, a tool to list anonymous Wikipedia edits from organizations.
- Listen to an RTÉ news piece on WikiScanner (Realplayer required).
- A new website unmasks Wikipedia's vandals - by Michael Agger, Slate.com
- How the Wikipedia Scanner Works on howstuffworks.com