On August 31, 2015, the
English Wikipedia community discovered 381
sockpuppet accounts operating an
undisclosed paid editing ring. Participants in the ring
extorted money from mid-sized businesses who had articles about themselves rejected by the encyclopedia's "Articles for Creation" process, in which drafts are submitted for approval to experienced editors. The ring was nicknamed "Operation Orangemoody" after the first account uncovered in the sockpuppet investigation and was Wikipedia's biggest
conflict-of-interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations ...
scandal as of June 2021,
[ exceeding the scope of the ]Wiki-PR editing of Wikipedia
Wiki-PR is a consulting firm that formerly marketed the ability to edit Wikipedia by "...directly edit ngyour page using our network of established Wikipedia editors and admin .
It received media attention in 2013 after a sockpuppet investiga ...
incident in which approximately 250 sockpuppets were found and blocked in 2013.
The story was reported by many English language and non-English language news sources, including ''Komsomolskaya Pravda
''Komsomolskaya Pravda'' (russian: link=no, Комсомольская правда; lit. "Komsomol Truth") is a daily Russian tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper, founded on 13 March 1925.
History and profile
During the Soviet era, ...
'', '' Le Temps'', '' Le Monde'' and ''Die Zeit
''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles.
History
The ...
''.[ The editing was described by various media as "black hat" editors ('' TechCrunch''),][ "dishonest editing" ('' PC World''),][ "extortion" ('' Wired''),][ a "blackmail scam" ('' The Independent''),][ and an "extensive cybercrime syndicate" ('' ThinkProgress'').][
]
History
In 2015, administrators of the English Wikipedia blocked 381 accounts,[ ] many of them suspected of being sockpuppets of the same group of people, after a two-month investigation launched by Wikipedia editors.[
Wikipedia's resulting investigation, named "Orangemoody" after the first account uncovered, found that sockpuppets had searched the site for deleted or rejected articles about businesses and individuals.][ Many of the articles had been deleted because of excessive promotional content. The editors, some posing as Wikipedia administrators, would then extort][ payment from the businesses to publish and protect the articles. Besides businesses, individuals were targeted, including Cuban musician ]Dayramir González
Dayramir González Vicet is a Cuban pianist, composer, arranger, and producer.
In 2004 he formed his own project Dayramir & Habana enTRANCe, which has performed internationally since its inception.
While still attending Berklee College of Music, ...
.[ The scammers themselves may have been involved in the deletion of some articles.][
]
References
External links
*
{{Wikipedia, state=collapsed
Corporate scandals
Conflict-of-interest editing on Wikipedia
Internet fraud
Public relations
Wikipedia reliability