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. Read on...
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Wikipedia opens book on Scanner
A friend sent me this article today, figured it was worth a read.
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3 comments:
I must confess I'm not surprised. Wikipedia's greatest advantage is at the same time it's weak spot.
There is more dirt
BTW, great tool! here is wikiscanner, but a bit slow today :D.
The problem with this thing is that you can't see who did the editing. If some stupid clerk at the BBC changes something on wikipedia it comes up as the BBC edited this and that.
It's a fun tool and I've already seen some interesting edits from FOX, BBC, CIA, etc, etc... but it can always be a stupid clerk acting on his own from a work IP.
more dirt!
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