Post by Big Six on Nov 29, 2008 10:47:37 GMT -5
Folks,
I found this article today on casahistoria
Wikipedialogo If you need any proof to show how wary you need to be when using the web fro research, read on:
An online tool that claims to reveal the identity of organisations that edit Wikipedia pages has revealed that many entries are being amended or removed by organisations for their own ends.The tool, developed by US researchers, trawls a list of 5.3m edits and matches them to the net address of the editor. Most of the edits detected by the scanner correct spelling mistakes or factual inaccuracies in profiles. However, others have been used to remove potentially damaging material or to deface sites.
So who is doing the cutting?
* The Vatican: It purportedly shows that the Vatican has edited entries.Vatican computers were allegedly used to remove content from a page about the leader of the Irish republican party Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams. The edit removed links to newspaper stories written in 2006 that alleged that Mr Adams' fingerprints and handprints were found on a car used during a double murder in 1971. The section, titled "Fresh murder question raised" is no longer part of the main online encyclopaedia entries.
* The CIA: More significant edits appear to be being made by CIA operatives: On the profile of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the tool indicates that a worker on the CIA network reportedly added the exclamation "Wahhhhhh!" before a section on the leader's plans for his presidency. Other changes that have been made are more innocuous, and include tweaks to the profile of former CIA chief Porter Goss and celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey. When asked whether it could confirm whether the changes had been made by a person using a CIA computer, an agency spokesperson responded: "I cannot confirm that the traffic you cite came from agency computers. "I'd like in any case to underscore a far larger and more significant point that no one should doubt or forget: The CIA has a vital mission in protecting the United States, and the focus of this agency is there, on that decisive work."
* Political Parties: The site also indicates that a computer owned by the US Democratic Party was used to make changes to the site of right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh. The changes brand Mr Limbaugh as "idiotic," a "racist", and a "bigot". An entry about his audience now reads: "Most of them are legally retarded."
* Commercial organisations: Several companies have modified entries. One in particular is Diebold, a company which supplies electronic voting machines in the US. In October 2005, a person using a Diebold computer removed paragraphs about Walden O'Dell, chief executive of the company, which revealed that he had been "a top fund-raiser" for George Bush. A month later, other paragraphs and links to stories about the alleged rigging of the 2000 election were also removed. The paragraphs and links have since been reinstated.
And so it goes on. Even the BBC who produced the source article had to point out that the tool also revealed that people inside the BBC had made edits to Wikipedia pages......
Using Wikipedia? You have been warned!!
Remember to take all that read with a grain of salt and always try to find other corroborating sources! Wikipedia is a great starting point for research, but it, like most any other source, isn't the "be all end all"!
Regards,
J.
I found this article today on casahistoria
The Black Arts That Are Corrupting Wikipedia
Wikipedialogo If you need any proof to show how wary you need to be when using the web fro research, read on:
An online tool that claims to reveal the identity of organisations that edit Wikipedia pages has revealed that many entries are being amended or removed by organisations for their own ends.The tool, developed by US researchers, trawls a list of 5.3m edits and matches them to the net address of the editor. Most of the edits detected by the scanner correct spelling mistakes or factual inaccuracies in profiles. However, others have been used to remove potentially damaging material or to deface sites.
So who is doing the cutting?
* The Vatican: It purportedly shows that the Vatican has edited entries.Vatican computers were allegedly used to remove content from a page about the leader of the Irish republican party Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams. The edit removed links to newspaper stories written in 2006 that alleged that Mr Adams' fingerprints and handprints were found on a car used during a double murder in 1971. The section, titled "Fresh murder question raised" is no longer part of the main online encyclopaedia entries.
* The CIA: More significant edits appear to be being made by CIA operatives: On the profile of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the tool indicates that a worker on the CIA network reportedly added the exclamation "Wahhhhhh!" before a section on the leader's plans for his presidency. Other changes that have been made are more innocuous, and include tweaks to the profile of former CIA chief Porter Goss and celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey. When asked whether it could confirm whether the changes had been made by a person using a CIA computer, an agency spokesperson responded: "I cannot confirm that the traffic you cite came from agency computers. "I'd like in any case to underscore a far larger and more significant point that no one should doubt or forget: The CIA has a vital mission in protecting the United States, and the focus of this agency is there, on that decisive work."
* Political Parties: The site also indicates that a computer owned by the US Democratic Party was used to make changes to the site of right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh. The changes brand Mr Limbaugh as "idiotic," a "racist", and a "bigot". An entry about his audience now reads: "Most of them are legally retarded."
* Commercial organisations: Several companies have modified entries. One in particular is Diebold, a company which supplies electronic voting machines in the US. In October 2005, a person using a Diebold computer removed paragraphs about Walden O'Dell, chief executive of the company, which revealed that he had been "a top fund-raiser" for George Bush. A month later, other paragraphs and links to stories about the alleged rigging of the 2000 election were also removed. The paragraphs and links have since been reinstated.
And so it goes on. Even the BBC who produced the source article had to point out that the tool also revealed that people inside the BBC had made edits to Wikipedia pages......
Using Wikipedia? You have been warned!!
Remember to take all that read with a grain of salt and always try to find other corroborating sources! Wikipedia is a great starting point for research, but it, like most any other source, isn't the "be all end all"!
Regards,
J.