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Thursday 16 August 2007

Rewriting History?

Times Online:
Firms accused of rewriting their entry on Wikipedia

A host of blue-chip companies have altered their entries on Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, in an attempt to cover up embarrassing episodes in their history.

The discovery was made by WikiScanner, a site that traces the source of changes to the world’s largest online reference work by matching edits - which, famously, can be made by anyone - to a database of the unique “IP addresses” of the computers that were used to make them.

Machines belonging to organisations including Wal-Mart, Disney, Sony, the Labour Party, the CIA and the Vatican, have been used to rewrite entries, it alleges. WikiScanner was developed by Virgil Griffith, 24, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology.

Bagelblogger: Its hardly surprising to see corporations editing entries about themselves. It seems that as information becomes more and more accessible to the individual, the actual creation of its content is being manipulated further and further.

Much like in George Orwell's novel
1984, it would appear he who controls the media control's history. It would seem that this has been taken one step further, to whoever controls the creation of content can rewrite history.

I'm a big fan of Wikipedia, but I must admit I have seen some appalling examples of biased editing and even worse cyber attacks on individuals, companies and even countries.

Full article Here: Firms accused of rewriting their entry on Wikipedia

Picture Credit: Exploding wiki globe: Bagelblogger

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