On Wikipedia, vandalism is the act of editing the project in a malicious manner that is intentionally disruptive. Vandalism includes the addition, removal, or other modification of the text or other material that is either humorous, nonsensical, a hoax, spam or promotion of a subject, or that is of an offensive, humiliating, or otherwise degrading in nature.
Throughout its history, Wikipedia has struggled to maintain a balance between allowing the freedom of open editing and protecting the truth and accuracy of its information when false information can be potentially damaging to its subjects.[1] Vandalism is easy to commit on Wikipedia because anyone can edit the site.[2] Founder Jimmy Wales is very much aware of the fact that the open editing policy allows the addition of false information.[3]
Most vandalism is committed on impulse, often by the bored and malicious.[3] Frequent targets of vandalism include articles on hot and controversial topics and current events.[4][5] In some cases, people have been falsely reported as having died. This has notably occurred to U.S. Senators Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd (now both deceased), and U.S. rapper Kanye West.[6]
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Fighting vandalism
There are various measures taken by Wikipedia to prevent or reduce the amount of vandalism. These include:
- Using Wikipedia's history functionality, which retains all prior versions of an article, to restore the article to the last version before the vandalism occurred; this is called reverting vandalism.[4] The majority of vandalism on Wikipedia is reverted quickly. There are various ways in which the vandalism gets detected so it can be reverted:
- Incidental discovery: A reader who comes across the vandalism by chance can revert it. This is often the case.[7]
- Recent change patrol: Wikipedia has a special page that lists all the most recent changes. Some editors will monitor these changes for possible vandalism.[7]
- Watchlists: Any user can watch a page that they have created or edited or that they otherwise have interest in knowing if it has been edited. This enables other users to know if a page has been vandalized.[7]
- Bots: In some cases, the vandalism is automatically reverted by a bot that can automatically detect the act and will revert it and warn the vandal with no human intervention.[7]
- Locking articles so only established users, or in some cases, only administrators can edit them.[4] Semi-protected articles are those that can only be edited by those with an account that is considered to be auto-confirmed; an account that is at least 4 days old with at least 10 edits, for most accounts. Fully protected articles are those that can only be edited by administrators. Protection is generally instituted after one or more editors makes a request on a special page for that purpose, and an administrator familiar with the protection guidelines chooses whether or not to fulfill this request based on the guidelines.
- Blocking and banning those who have repeatedly committed acts of vandalism from editing for a period of time or in some cases, indefinitely.[4] Blocking is not considered to be a punitive action. The purpose of the block is simply to prevent further damage.[8] Editors are generally warned prior to being blocked. Wikipedia employs a 4-stage warning process up to a block. This includes:[9]
-
- The first warning assumes good faith and takes a relaxed approach on the user.
- The second warning does not assume any faith and is an actual warning.
- The third warning assumes bad faith and is the first to warn the user that continued vandalism may result in a block.
- The fourth warning is a final warning, stating that any future acts of vandalism will result in a block.
- After this, other users may place additional warnings, though only administrators can actually carry out the block.
In 2005, Wikipedia started to require those who create new articles to have a registered account in an effort to fight some vandalism. This occurred after inaccurate information was added to Wikipedia in which a journalist was accused of taking part in Kennedy's assassination.[2]
Wikipedia has experimented with systems in which edits to some articles, especially those of living people, are delayed until it can be reviewed and determined that they are not vandalism, and in some cases, that a source to verify accuracy is provided. This is in an effort to prevent inaccurate and potentially damaging information about living people from appearing on the site.[10][11]
Notable acts of vandalism
- In 2006, comedian Stephen Colbert vandalized the article Elephant publicly on the air. This resulted in Colbert being blocked from editing, as well as many elephant-related articles being protected.[12]
- In 2006, Rolling Stone printed a story about Halle Berry based on false information from an act of Wikipedia vandalism.[13]
- A person from Łódź was attacking Polish Wikipedia throughout 2006 and early 2007, inserting obscene pictures and profanity into random pages, without any reaction from his internet provider, Neostrada. The vandal's activity finished when he was deprived of his internet connection, but not before the entire city of Łódź had to be banned from editing Wikipedia for three days.[14]
- The article on Hindi was vandalised with the addition of the phrase, "the language of the pimps" in 2007.[15][16]
- Professional golfer Fuzzy Zoeller sued a Miami company whose IP-based edits to the Wikipedia site included negative information about him.[17]
- Soon after the death of Steve Irwin in 2006, the stingray article was vandalized, stating that stingrays "hate Australian people".[4]
- On the June 6, 2011 episode of The Colbert Report, comedian Stephen Colbert suggested that all of his viewers vandalize the Wikipedia page for Bell (instrument) and add the fragment "Used by Paul Revere to warn the British that hey, you're not going to succeed in taking our guns. USA!! USA!!". This was humorously treated as factual in a response by Sarah Palin on June 2, 2011 about what she took away from her visit to Boston.[18]
See also
References
- ^ Wikipedia testing new method to curb false info - CSMonitor.com
- ^ a b Wikipedia tightens editorial rules after complaint - 06 December 2005 - New Scientist
- ^ a b "Wikipedia tightens online rules". BBC News. 6 December 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4502846.stm.
- ^ a b c d e Kleeman, Jenny (2 April 2007). "Wikipedia fights vandalism". New Zealand Herald. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10432042.
- ^ Martin, Lorna (18 June 2006). "Wikipedia fights off cyber vandals". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/jun/18/wikipedia.news.
- ^ "Vandals prompt Wikipedia to ponder editing changes". ABC News. 28 January 2009. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-01-28/vandals-prompt-wikipedia-to-ponder-editing-changes/275942?section=world. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
- ^ a b c d Broughton, John (2008). Wikipedia: the missing manual. p. 122. ISBN 10:0-596-51616-2. http://books.google.com/?id=h37N0BvkVSUC&pg=PA182&dq=%22edit+war%22wikipedia#v=onepage&q=%22edit%20war%22wikipedia&f=false.
- ^ Broughton, John (2008). Wikipedia: the missing manual. p. 134. ISBN 10:0-596-51616-2. http://books.google.com/?id=h37N0BvkVSUC&pg=PA182&dq=%22edit+war%22wikipedia#v=onepage&q=%22edit%20war%22wikipedia&f=false.
- ^ Broughton, John (2008). Wikipedia: the missing manual. pp. 130–31. ISBN 10:0-596-51616-2. http://books.google.com/?id=h37N0BvkVSUC&pg=PA182&dq=%22edit+war%22wikipedia#v=onepage&q=%22edit%20war%22wikipedia&f=false.
- ^ Maximum PC | Wikipedia Tests Approval System to Reduce Page Vandalism
- ^ Wikipedia plans to enforce new editing policy to thwart vandals - eBrandz Search Marketing & Technology News
- ^ Did Colbert hack Wikipedia? - VIDEO
- ^ Rolling Stone prints story based on Wikipedia vandalism - Wikinews, the free news source
- ^ http://pl.wikinews.org/wiki/Wikipedia_blokuje_anonimowe_edycje_z_%C5%82%C3%B3dzkiej_Neostrady
- ^ Chaturvedi, Shashwat (February 01, 2007). "Hindi page vandalized on Wikipedia". CIOL. Cyber Media. Archived from the original on February 04, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070204054626/http://www.ciol.com/content/news/2007/107020105.asp. Retrieved January 30, 2012. "Some hacker has defaced the page on "Hindi" language on the popular website Wikipedia.org. The hacker has added the phrase, "the language of the pimps" [...]"
- ^ IP 82.12.213.184 (January 30, 2007). "Diff for Hindi". Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hindi&diff=prev&oldid=104394954. Retrieved January 30, 2012.
- ^ Cheung, Humphrey (26 February 2007). "Pro golfer sues over Wikipedia vandalism". Tom's Hardware. http://www.tomshardware.com/news/golfer-sues-wikipedia-vandalism,4377.html.
- ^ The Colbert Report (Television). 2011-10-19. http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/mon-june-6-2011-werner-herzog.
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