Can this really be a surprise? People using CIA and FBI computers as well as the Vatican, voting machine supplier Diebold have been editing entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia according to a new tracing program. The recently posted Wikipedia Scanner, is an application recently invented by graduate student Virgil Griffiths, outed the editors. The program lets users track the source of computers used to make changes to the popular Internet encyclopedia where anyone can submit and edit entries. For example, WikiScanner revealed that CIA computers were used to edit an entry on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A graphic on casualties was edited to add that many figures were estimated and were not broken down by class. Another entry on former CIA chief William Colby was edited by CIA computers to expand his career history and discuss the merits of a Vietnam War rural pacification program that he headed. Aerial and satellite images of the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were removed using a computer traced to the FBI, WikiScanner showed, Reuters reported today.
Other examples of curious editing according to a Newsday.com article and other publications include:
· Vatican computers removed links to newspaper stories written in 2006 about Gerry Adams, leader of Ireland’s Sinn Fein party. The articles alleged Adams’ fingerprints were found on a car used in a double murder in 1971. A section that was titled “Fresh murder question raised” is no longer accessible.
· Computers registered to the Church of Scientology were used to remove criticism of the church from the page about it.
· Diebold, which supplied machines used in some controversial votes, removed 15 paragraphs from the entry about it. One had named its chief executive as a top fundraiser for George W. Bush. Others contained information about and links to charges that the 2000 presidential election was rigged. The paragraphs have since been reinstated.
· Someone on Wal-Mart Stores network altered a line about the wages it pays employees. The original entry stated that “Wages at Wal-Mart are about 20% less than at other retail stores,” citing the author Greg Palast as the source. The revised entry reads: “The average wage at Wal-Mart is almost double the federal minimum wage,” and changes the attribution to Wal-Mart.
· A user of a computer at the British Broadcasting Corp. changed Bush’s middle name from “Walker” to “Wanker.”
It violates Wikipedia’s neutrality guidelines for a person with close ties to an issue to contribute to an entry about it, said spokeswoman Sandy Ordonez of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia’s parent organization told Newsday. According to an IDG New Service article Griffith said he created the tool to “create minor public relations disasters for companies and organizations I dislike,” he wrote on his Web site. He admitted that it’s impossible to be sure if the edits were made by someone working at one of the organizations, although the IP address reveals that they were made by someone with access to their network, he says. “If the edit occurred during working hours, then we can reasonably assume that the person is either an agent of that company or a guest that was allowed access to their network,” he wrote. Griffith came up with the idea when he “heard about Congressmen being caught for white-washing their Wikipedia pages,” he said. He said he believes that anonymous speech is important for open projects like Wikipedia. The online encyclopedia works fine today for “noncontroversial topics,” he said, but tools like Wikipedia Scanner can help make the site more reliable for controversial topics, he said. Wikipedia has been battling fires like this one all year. The company’s cofounder folks has resulted in one of the company’s founders’ calling for renewed requirements for trust on the ever-popular site. While the online company has moved to bolster its reliability and reduce its tolerance of nefarious activity, it seems like it has a way to go yet.
