List of Wikipedia controversies

John Seigenthaler, an American journalist, was the subject of a defamatory Wikipedia hoax article in May 2005. The hoax raised questions about the reliability of Wikipedia and other websites with user-generated content.[1]

Since the launch of Wikipedia in 2001, the site has faced several controversies. Wikipedia's open-editing model, under which anyone can edit most articles, has led to concerns such as the quality of writing, the amount of vandalism, and the accuracy of information on the project. The media have covered controversial events and scandals related to Wikipedia and its funding organization, the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF). Common subjects of coverage include articles containing false information, public figures, corporations editing articles for which they have a conflict of interest, paid Wikipedia editing and hostile interactions between Wikipedia editors and public figures.

The Seigenthaler biography incident[2] led to media criticism of the reliability of Wikipedia. The incident dates back to May 2005, with the anonymous posting of a hoax Wikipedia article containing false and negative allegations about John Seigenthaler, a well-known American journalist. In March 2007, Wikipedia was again the subject of media attention with the Essjay controversy, which involved a prominent English Wikipedia editor and administrator, who claimed he was a "tenured professor of religion at a private university" with a "Ph.D. in theology and a degree in canon law" when in fact he was a 24-year-old who held no advanced degrees.[3][4]

The 2012 scandals involving paid consultancy for the government of Gibraltar by Roger Bamkin, a Wikimedia UK board member,[5][6] and potential conflicts of interest have highlighted Wikipedia's vulnerabilities.[5] The presence of inaccurate and false information, as well as the perceived hostile editing climate, have been linked to a decline in editor participation.[7] Another controversy arose in 2013 after an investigation by Wikipedians found that the Wiki-PR company had edited Wikipedia for paying clients, using "an army" of sockpuppet accounts that purportedly included 45 Wikipedia editors and administrators.[8][9] In 2015, the Orangemoody investigation showed that businesses and minor celebrities had been blackmailed over their Wikipedia articles by a coordinated group of fraudsters, again using hundreds of sockpuppets. Controversies within and concerning Wikipedia and the WMF have been the subject of several scholarly papers.[10][11] This list is a collection of the more notable instances.

  1. ^ "The State of the News Media 2007 Archived May 1, 2015, at the Wayback Machine." The Project for Excellence in Journalism. Retrieved on September 14, 2009.
  2. ^ Cohen, Noam (August 24, 2009). "Wikipedia to Limit Changes to Articles on People". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
  3. ^ Lih, Andrew (2009). The Wikipedia revolution: how a bunch of nobodies created the world's greatest encyclopedia. Aurum Press Ltd. pp. 195–197. ISBN 978-1-84513 473 0. Archived from the original on May 27, 2024. Retrieved April 17, 2013.
  4. ^ Schiff, Stacy (July 24, 2006). "Annals of Information: Know It All: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on November 22, 2008. Retrieved April 16, 2007.
  5. ^ a b Goldman, Eric (October 5, 2012). "Wikipedia's "Pay-for-Play" Scandal Highlights Wikipedia's Vulnerabilities". Forbes. Archived from the original on April 8, 2013. Retrieved September 3, 2017.
  6. ^ Blue, Violet (September 18, 2012). "Corruption in Wikiland? Paid PR scandal erupts at Wikipedia". CNET. Archived from the original on March 26, 2013. Retrieved April 15, 2013.
  7. ^ Angwin, Julia; Fowler, Geoffrey (November 27, 2009). "Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on October 25, 2017. Retrieved April 16, 2013.
  8. ^ McHugh, Molly (October 8, 2013). "The battle to destroy Wikipedia's biggest sockpuppet army". Daily Dot. Archived from the original on October 20, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  9. ^ Robbins, Martin (October 18, 2013). "Is the PR Industry Buying Influence Over Wikipedia?". Vice Media. Archived from the original on March 1, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  10. ^ The Future of the Internet: Ubiquity, mobility, security, by Harrison Rainie (et al.), Cambria Press, 2009, page 259.
  11. ^ Digital Cognitive Technologies: Epistemology and Knowledge Society, edited by Claire Brossard (et al.), John Wiley & Sons, 2013, page 325.