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.
Don’t miss the best of The Mac Observer
Set us as a preferred source and our Apple reporting ranks higher in your Google Search results and Discover feed — one tap, no account changes.
Discussion