Vandalism on Wikipedia


On Wikipedia, vandalism is editing the project in a malicious manner that is. Vandalism includes any addition, removal, or modification that is humorous, nonsensical, a hoax, or otherwise degrading.
Throughout its history, Wikipedia has struggled to maintain a balance between allowing the freedom of open editing and protecting the accuracy of its information when false information can be potentially damaging to its subjects. Vandalism is easy to commit on Wikipedia because anyone can edit the site, with the exception of :Category:Wikipedia semi-protected pages|articles that are currently semi-protected, which means that new and unregistered users cannot edit them.
Vandalism can be committed by either guest editors or those with registered accounts; however, a semi-protected or protected page can be edited by only editors, or administrators, respectively. Frequent targets of vandalism include articles on hot and controversial topics, famous celebrities, and current events. In some cases, people have been falsely reported as having died. This has notably happened to United States Senators Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd, and American rapper Kanye West.
The challenge from vandalism on Wikipedia was once characterized by the former Encyclopædia Britannica editor-in-chief Robert McHenry: "The user who visits Wikipedia... is rather in the position of a visitor to a public restroom. It may be obviously dirty so that he knows to exercise great care, or it may seem fairly clean, so that he may be lulled into a false sense of security. What he certainly does not know is who has used the facilities before him".

Prevention

There are various measures taken by Wikipedia to prevent or reduce the amount of vandalism. These include:
Editors are generally warned prior to being blocked. Wikipedia employs a 4-stage warning process leading up to a block. This includes:
  1. The first warning and takes a relaxed approach to the user..
  2. The second warning does not assume any faith and is an actual warning.
  3. The third warning assumes bad faith and is the first to warn the user that continued vandalism may result in a.
  4. The fourth warning is a final warning, stating that any future acts of vandalism will result in a block.
  5. After this, other users may place additional warnings, though only administrators can actually carry out the block.
In 2005, the English Wikipedia started to require those who create new articles to have a registered account in an effort to fight vandalism. This occurred after inaccurate information was added to Wikipedia in which a journalist was accused of taking part in Kennedy's assassination.
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.
on the English Wikipedia in December 2013.

ClueBot NG

The most well-known "bot" that fights vandalism is. The bot was created by Wikipedia users Christopher Breneman and Cobi Carter in 2010, and uses machine learning and Bayesian statistics to determine if an edit is vandalism.
While the bot has been effective in helping keep Wikipedia clean, some claim the bot is to new users by not being able to apply a human brain's knowledge to the edit, and leaving impersonal.

Blacklisting">:Special:AbuseFilter">Blacklisting

The MediaWiki title blacklist extension prevents page move vandalism and creation vandalism by using regular expressions to identify bad titles. Titles on the blacklist can only be created by or moved to by administrators. Pages that are also created repeatedly can be protected to prevent vandals from recreating bad pages.
In addition to the title blacklist, the spam blacklist prevents external link spamming, a form of vandalism. New/unregistered users who want to add external links are required to answer a CAPTCHA.
The "bad image list" prevents images that could be used to vandalize pages from being inserted, such as images with sexual content. Images on the list can be added only to pages where the use of the image is explicitly allowed.
The entirety of the MediaWiki namespace, the main page, and high risk templates are protected to prevent high server load and sudden interface changes.
The edit filter can also prevent vandalism by disallowing the bad edit altogether, or by allowing only autoconfirmed users or administrators to perform the edit.

Notable acts of vandalism

Seigenthaler incident

In May 2005, a user edited the biographical article about John Seigenthaler, Sr. so that it contained several false and defamatory statements. The inaccurate claims went unnoticed between May and September 2005, when they were discovered by Victor S. Johnson, Jr., a friend of Seigenthaler. Wikipedia content is often mirrored at sites such as Answers.com, which means that incorrect information can be replicated alongside correct information through a number of websites. Such information can develop a misleading air of authority because of its presence at such sites:

Stephen Colbert

Comedian Stephen Colbert made repeated references to Wikipedia on his TV show The Colbert Report, frequently suggesting on air that his viewers vandalize selected pages. These instances include the following:
When Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales appeared as a guest on 24 May 2007 episode of The Colbert Report, they discussed Colbert-related vandalism. Wales later said on the show that he may have to lock down the entire Spanish-language Wikipedia for a few days after Colbert commented that perhaps it should learn English.

Hillsborough disaster vandalism

In April 2014, the Liverpool Echo reported that computers on an intranet used by the United Kingdom government had been used to post offensive remarks about the Hillsborough disaster on Wikipedia pages relating to the subject. The government announced that it would launch an inquiry into the reports. Following the allegations, The Daily Telegraph reported that government computers appeared to have been used to vandalize a number of other articles, often adding insulting remarks to biographical articles, and in one case falsely reporting a death.

Other notable acts of vandalism

was blanked twice on 22 July 2015.