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Apple, Microsoft, Dell Caught Revising Wikipedia

by , 4:10 PM EDT, August 21st, 2007

Apple, Microsoft, and Dell amongst many others have been identified by a new program, Wikipedia Scanner, as having edited or revised sections of Wikipedia to their own advantage, according to Wired Magazine.

Wikipedia Scanner was devised by a California Institute of Technology graduate student, Virgil Griffith, to track Wikipedia changes back to the originating IP address. He used public lookup services like ARIN and private domain-name data from IP2Location.com.

Mr. Griffith created the tool to "create minor public relations disasters for companies and organizations I dislike," he said on his Web site. However, the results have been much more far ranging than that.

As a result, he was able to compile a list of of 34.4 million edits performed by 2.6 million organizations or individuals which included Apple, Dell, Microsoft, the CIA, Congressional Offices, and Diebold.

Some examples, compiled by Maltastar.com, include:

  • Apple edit[s] Microsoft entries, adding more negative comments about its rival.
  • Microsoft edits Apple entries, adding more negative comments about its rival.
  • Dell Computers deletes negative comments on customer services and removes a passage how the company outsources work to third world countries.
  • Sony removes harmful paragraphs against Blu-ray systems.
  • EA Games deletes whole paragraphs of criticism about employment practices and business methods.

The Wikipedia experiment, co-founded by Larry Sanger, has had its share of credibility issues lately. To that end, Mr. Sanger has formed a new venture, Citizendium, which is much more rigorously managed. It's aim is credibility and quality, not just quantity, according to Mr. Sanger.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:Guest
Subject: DUH

And one should be surprised by this?

Close Name:gslusher Posts: 2088 Joined: 13 Nov 2002
Subject: Re: DUH

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
And one should be surprised by this?


No kidding. Politicians, non-profits, advocacy groups, and individuals have been doing it for some time. Some controversial topics are moderated--any changes have to be reviewed before being posted. However, if I recall correctly, there was a minor scandal about one of the volunteer staff who was doing this. One needs to read anything in Wikipedia with a careful eye for bias. I've found it most useful for an assemblage of facts--some of which I check with other sources, just to be sure.

I've made a few edits, myself, mostly in a couple of articles about mystery writers to add characters or other details.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Assumptions

Mr Griffiths makes two rather big assumptions:

(1) That because a company changes information in its favour that the new information is somehow less accurate than the old. Sometimes, this so-called information is merely "opinion" or reflects the bias of the writer. The edit from "US-led occupation" to "US-led liberation" is a classic example: whether it's an "occupation" or a "liberation" depends strongly on your viewpoint and the spin you want to put on it; that someone from the US government prefers a positive rather than negative interpretation is not surprising, nor does it inherently mean that spin is incorrect.

(2) That because the information is changed from a company IP address during work hours that it is somehow an "official" or "sanctioned" act. Does Mr Griffiths *seriously* believe that all internent use during work hours by MS or Apple employees represents official policy?

Finally, according to the article, Mr Griffiths has created the tool specifically to generate bad press for companies he dislikes. It's not about objective facts-checking, but rather an attempt to embarrass companies who might - surprisingly - object to (possibly false) negative reviews of themselves in a public database that purports to be objective and factual.

Close Name:Lavode Posts: 147 Joined: 03 Dec 2001
Subject: SCANDAL!!!

OMFG! I can't believe these companies have engaged in such scandalous behavior! How could anyone allow this to happen? I am shocked that Apple would stoop to this level! This completely undermines the validity of Wikipe...

Oh, wait, this is Wikipedia we're talking about?

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Yeah, I've seen this before

A while ago, some people posted some (truthful) comments about an mmorpg. The owners didn't like it, so they edited it, over and over again.
Finally, the page was deleted.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: That's just the half of it

Oh, but this is only the half of it. If only we knew the number of pedophiles editing Wikipedia articles related to children (and pedophilia, too), sexual addicts editing human sexuality articles, right (or left) win wackos editing the biographies of subjects contrary to their views), staunch atheists editing religious articles...the list goes on. Then there are the hoards of pages patrolled by tribes of ardent adherents of the article subject who will not let anything but glowing information enter. Wikipedia is a nightmare and the globe and Web will be the far better for it when it finally meets its already overdue demise.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: and...

just because an employee adds negative comments on the competition doesn't mean the “company” did it. Apple and Microsoft are huge and any employee behind their network will show as microsoft or apple. As for removing user or employee negative comments… Thats something else…

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

A bit more via this blog entry on Apple and Wikipedia entries:

http://www.graphicstart.com/viewarticle.php?articleid=18

Close Name:davidmwe Posts: 4 Joined: 22 Aug 2007
Subject:

It is not just US companies, it is human nature. For instance, you can see here that HSBC (UK) has been busy with some edits:

http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/f.php?ip2=193.108.72.0-76.255

And Nokia (Finland) too:
http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/f.php?ip1=192.100.122.0-125.255

So what?

That is what Wikipedia offers. If I was Apple and I saw Macbookpro written so instead of MacBook Pro, then I would likely make the change too.

It is when people (people are behind companies) use slander, lies and the likes is when it is un-acceptable. Thus, this is a great tool to monitor Wikipedia. Ethics are ethics. Heck, anyone company with half a brain would do this down at the library or local internet cafe anyway...

Anyone got one for Digg.com? (I swear Apple is digging all things Apple there!)

- http://www.graphicstart.com

Close Name:Guest
Subject: No examples given

This is actually not correct. maltastar.com does _not_ give any examples that "Apple edit[s] Microsoft entries, adding more negative comments about its rival". He makes claims in his article that Apple does that, but doesn't give any actual examples. So all we have is his interpretation of an edit that we haven't actually seen.

However, if you look at edits made from IP addresses owned by Apple, you will find that the vast, vast majority is absolutely unrelated to Apple, or to computers in general. And I would say that there is a huge difference between "Apple edits" and "someone with an IP address owned by Apple edits".

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