Wikipedia Editors Who Fight Conspiracy Theories

There’s a project Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia. These Wikipedia editors have dedicated themselves to fighting conspiracy theories online. As companies like YouTube, Google, and Facebook have turned to Wikipedia to fight fake news, sites like Wikipedia and Snopes need to contain verified and truthful information.

Their subjects provide a window into the various ways people end up on Wikipedia, and how they find information on the internet more generally. Take Stan Romanek, a UFO enthusiast who says he’s been contacted by aliens. GSoW editors wrote his page years ago and included information casting doubt on his claims, such as an interview Romanek gave in which he admitted to faking some of his evidence. But the page became newly relevant last July when Netflix added a 2013 documentary called Extraordinary: The Stan Romanek Story to its streaming service. Traffic to Romanek’s Wikipedia page spiked that month, reaching nearly 45,000 visitors one day.

Check It Out: Wikipedia Editors Who Fight Conspiracy Theories

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