Wal-Mart, CIA, ExxonMobil Changed Wikipedia Entries

[Ferran]

Wal-Mart, CIA, ExxonMobil Changed Wikipedia Entries

Thursday, August 16, 2007
By Rhys Blakely


A new Web site built by an American technology student has uncovered the lengths that companies apparently go to improve their public image by tweaking their entries on Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that — famously — "anyone can edit."

The WikiScanner site, developed by Virgil Griffith, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, reveals changes to the online encyclopedia by linking edits back to the computers from which they emanate using each computer\'s unique IP address.

Griffith, 24, says he created the site "to create minor public relations disasters for companies and organizations I dislike" — a mission he may well have succeeded in.

• Click here to view WikiScanner. Due to heavy traffic, page may not load at first try.

Among those he alleges have been updating their entries are Wal-Mart, the world's largest grocer, AstraZeneca, the drugs giant, Britain's Labour Party, the CIA and the Vatican.

In one example he gives, a computer linked to an IP address registered to the Dow Chemical company is seen to have deleted a passage on the Bhopal chemical disaster of 1984, which occurred at a plant operated by Union Carbide, now a wholly-owned Dow subsidiary.

• Click here for FOXNews.com\'s Personal Technology Center.

WikiScanner cannot identify the individuals altering Wikipedia articles. It can show only that an edit was made by a person with access to an organization's network.

"Technically, we don't know whether it came from an agent of that company — however, we do know that edit came from someone with access to their network," Griffith says on his site.

A slew of other companies' computers are also shown to have been used to polish Wikipedia entries.

ExxonMobil, the U.S. oil giant, made sweeping changes to an entry on the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989.

A claim that the company "has not yet paid the $5 billion in spill damages it owes to the 32,000 Alaskan fishermen" is deleted and replaced with references to the funds the company has paid out.

A Web surfer using a machine on Wal-Mart's network has amended a passage on the wages that the retailer pays its employees — to the benefit of the world's largest retailer.

A computer registered to Disney, the media giant, was used to delete a reference to criticism of the use of digital-rights-management software, used by the group to safeguard digital media from piracy.

According to other Wikipedia pages laid bare by the WikiScanner site, references to claims that Seroquel, a drug developed by AstraZeneca, which allegedly made teenagers "more likely to think about harming or killing themselves" were deleted by a user of a computer registered to the drug company.

In May the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed that makers of all antidepressant medications — including Seroquel — update labeling to include warnings over increased risks of suicidal thinking and behavior in young adults during early treatment.

The proposed warnings would emphasize that other serious psychiatric disorders are themselves the most important causes of suicide.

Griffin told Times Online in an interview Monday afternoon that he is likely to next turn his attention to the "treasure trove of information that people give away" on social-networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

"I think you could do some very interesting things there — you have huge amounts of information openly available; it's not like you have to do anything naughty," he said.

Meanwhile, his efforts so far have also uncovered amendments made from computers linked to the CIA, which were used to edit entries including the biographies of the former U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon.

Individuals using computers registered to the Vatican have amended entries on Roman Catholic saints and Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein.

A computer linked to the Church of Scientology's network was used to delete references to links between it and a group dubbed the "Cult Awareness Network."

In the political arena, a computer based at Labour's offices in the Millbank neighborhood of central London was used to edit out an unflattering reference to "careerist MPs," while a computer linked to the Democrats' headquarters was used to brand listeners of Rush Limbaugh, the conservative American radio host, "legally retarded."

A user of a BBC computer, meanwhile, edited George W. Bush's middle name from "Walker" to "Wanker."

Massaging Wikipedia entries has become a well-established phenomenon as the reach of the world's most popular online reference work has become apparent.

Last year the site was transformed into a political battleground in the U.S., with politicians' aides accused of "vandalizing" entries on rival figures.

The site, launched in 2001, started an inquiry after staffers for Marty Meehan, a Democratic representative from Massachusetts, admitted having "polished" his biography.

The partisan editors were traced through their computers' unique IP addresses — which were tracked back to Senate machines.

On several occasions Wikipedia had been used as a platform for negative propaganda, the site admitted at the time.

According to a report on Wikipedia's own news service, staffers in the offices of Sen. Joe Biden of Maryland removed a paragraph concerning the plagiarism scandal that forced him out of the 1988 White House race. They also changed the section regarding Biden's then-speculative 2008 presidential campaign "to read very positively."

However, in a signal of how tempting it can be for interested parties to amend articles, Jimmy Wales, the Wikipedia founder, himself ran into controversy in 2005 when he admitted editing his own Wikipedia entry.

He said that such behavior, though tempting, "was in bad taste."



Source: FOXNews.com - Wal-Mart, CIA, ExxonMobil Changed Wikipedia Entries - Technology News | News On Technology


And searching a little, you can see that FOXNews itself was involved in similar actions as well...

Wikipedia is only as anonymous as your IP

[Ferran]

Wikipedia 'shows CIA page edits'

By Jonathan Fildes
Science and technology reporter, BBC News

The tool detected changes to a page about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

An online tool that claims to reveal the identity of organisations that edit Wikipedia pages has revealed that the CIA was involved in editing entries.

Wikipedia Scanner allegedly shows that workers on the agency's computers made edits to the page of Iran's president.

It also purportedly shows that the Vatican has edited entries about Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

The tool, developed by US researchers, trawls a list of 5.3m edits and matches them to the net address of the editor.

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopaedia that can be created and edited by anyone.

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.

Mistaken identity

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.

A warning on the profile of the anonymous editor reads: "You have recently vandalised a Wikipedia article, and you are now being asked to stop this type of behaviour."

It is claimed the entry was changed by a CIA computer user

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."

Radio change

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."

We really value transparency and the scanner really takes this to another level
Wikipedia spokesperson

The IP address is registered in the name of the Democratic National Headquarters.

A spokesperson for the Democratic Party said that the changes had not been made on its computers. Instead, they said that the "IP address is the same as the DCCC".

The DCCC, or Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is the "official campaign arm of the Democrats" in the House of Representatives and shares a building with the party.

"We don't condone these sorts of activities and we take every precaution to ensure that our network is used in a responsible manner," Doug Thornell of the DCCC told the BBC News website.

Mr Thornell pointed out that the edit had been made "close to two years ago" and it was "impossible to know" who had done it.

Voting issue

The site also indicates that Vatican computers were used to remove content from a page about the leader of the Irish republican party Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams.

Wikipedia already collects the IP address or username of editors

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.

Wikipedia Scanner also points the finger at commercial organisations that have modified entries about the pages.

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.

Diebold officials have not responded to requests by the BBC for information about the changes.

Web history

The Wikipedia Scanner results are not the first time that people have been uncovered editing their own Wikipedia entries.

Wikipedia Scanner may prevent an organisation or individuals from editing articles that they're really not supposed to
Wikipedia spokesperson

Earlier this year, Microsoft was revealed to have offered money to trawl through entries about document standards it and other companies employ.

Staff at the US Congress have also previously been exposed for editing and removing sensitive information about politicians.

An inquiry was launched after staff for Democratic representative Marty Meehan admitted polishing his biography

The new tool was built by Virgil Griffith of the California Institute of Technology.

It exploits the open nature of Wikipedia, which already collects the net address or username of editors and tracks all changes to a page. The information can be accessed in the "history" tab at the top of a Wikipedia page.

By merging this information with a database of IP address owners, Wikipedia Scanner is able to put a name to the organisation and firms from which edits are made.

THE EDITORS' BLOG

When BBC staff edit Wikipedia, they should not bring the BBC into disrepute
Pete Clifton,
BBC head of interactive news
Read Pete\'s comments in full

The scanner cannot identify the individuals editing articles, admits Mr Griffith.

"Technically, we don't know whether it came from an agent of that company, however, we do know that edit came from someone with access to their network," he wrote on the Wikipedia Scanner site.

A spokesperson for Wikipedia said the tool helped prevent conflicts of interest.

"We really value transparency and the scanner really takes this to another level," they said.

"Wikipedia Scanner may prevent an organisation or individuals from editing articles that they're really not supposed to."

BBC News website users contacted the corporation to point out that the tool also revealed that people inside the BBC had made edits to Wikipedia pages.



Source: BBC NEWS | Technology | Wikipedia \'shows CIA page edits\'