[Foundation-l] depraved neutrality / influencing Wikipedia contents on behalf and in favor of industry and organizations

Fri Jul 1 18:38:42 UTC 2011

Hoi all,

as a recent lengthy CU case on de.wp showed, there is clear evidence
that two people (a lawyer and a PR entrepeneur) working at the law
school of a university in Germany, but on outside funding, have
influenced contents of de.wp (away from a neutral point of view) on at
least two different sites. Aggravatingly, these two work on a project
"Wiki Watch" to evaluate Wikipedia articles on their quality and
contents... The university probably did not even know (now they do,
reaction still pending) about the shenanigans of these people.

The first incident involves a company who fabricates drugs including a
type of insuline, which was deemed possibly potentially cancerogene by
an institute. From WP accounts associated (by checkuser and other
evidence) to these Wiki Watch people, the articles about the
institute, about that drug and about the drug company (and some more
related to this) were changed (in general positivizing/promoting the
company and the drug and adding critics to the article about the
institute).

The second incident involves articles in the field of evangelical
organizations (including such who want to cure homosexuality and stuff
like that, all highly non-scientifical). One of the Wiki Watch guys
worked for such an organization until recently. A number of WP
accounts, also associated to the Wiki Watch people (by CU), was found
editing in this field, adding the views of this sort of organizations
to articles and promoting such views.

For those of you who read German, the FAZ, one of the most widespread
daily newspapers in the country, have published a long article on this
matter online: http://www.faz.net/artikel/C31013/die-dubiosen-verstrickungen-von-wiki-watch-hier-prueft-der-buerger-das-insulin-noch-persoenlich-30452874.html

So, heads up, everyone, this can happen in other Wikipediae, too. (or
it might already have...)

Best regards,
Thogo.
p.s. thanks to the CU people at dewiki and to others who helped to reveal this.