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On Wikipedia, vandalism is editing the project in an intentionally disruptive or malicious manner. Vandalism includes any addition, removal, or modification that is intentionally humorous, nonsensical, a
hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...
, offensive, libelous or degrading in any way. 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 protected pages (which, depending on the level of protection, can only be edited by users with certain privileges). Certain
Wikipedia bots Wikipedia bots are Internet bots (computer programs) that perform simple, repetitive tasks in Wikipedia. One prominent example of an internet bot used in Wikipedia is Lsjbot, which generated millions of short articles across various language edit ...
are capable of detecting and removing vandalism faster than any human editor could. It is not a criminal act to vandalize Wikipedia. However, it is against the site's terms of use to vandalize or otherwise cause disruption. Vandals are blocked from editing, and may also be further banned according to the terms of use. Vandalism can be committed by either guest editors (IP addresses) or those with registered accounts. To combat inappropriate user edits, Wikipedia has instated a protection policy, serving as a user-privilege merit system. For example, a semi-protected or fully protected page can be edited only by accounts that meet certain account age and activity thresholds or administrators respectively. Frequent targets of vandalism include articles on trending and controversial topics, 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.


Prevention

There are various measures taken by Wikipedia to prevent or reduce the amount of vandalism. These include: * Using Wikipedia's history functionality, which retains all prior versions of an article, restoring the article to the last version before the vandalism occurred; this is called ''reverting'' vandalism. The majority of vandalism on Wikipedia is reverted quickly. There are various ways in which the vandalism gets detected so it can be reverted: **''Bots'': In some cases, the vandalism is automatically detected and reverted by a
Wikipedia bot Wikipedia bots are Internet bots (computer programs) that perform simple, repetitive tasks in Wikipedia. One prominent example of an internet bot used in Wikipedia is Lsjbot, which generated millions of short articles across various language edit ...
. The vandal is always warned with no human intervention. ** ''Recent changes patrol'': Wikipedia has a special page that lists all the most recent changes. Some editors will monitor these changes for possible vandalism. ** Watchlists: Any registered user can watch a page that they have created or edited or that they otherwise have an interest in. This functionality also enables users to monitor a page for vandalism. ** ''Incidental discovery'': Any reader who comes across vandalism by chance can revert it. In 2008, it was reported that the rarity of such incidental discovery indicated the efficacy of the other methods of vandalism removal. * Protecting articles so only established users, or in some cases, only administrators can edit them. ''Semi-protected'' articles are those that can be edited only by those with an account that is ''autoconfirmed'' (at least four days old with at least ten edits). ''Fully protected articles'' are those that can be edited only by administrators. Protection is generally instituted after one or more editors make a request on a special page for that purpose. An administrator familiar with the protection guidelines chooses whether or not to fulfill this request based on the guidelines. * Blocking and banning those who have repeatedly committed acts of vandalism from editing for a period of time or in some cases, indefinitely. Vandals are not blocked as an act of punishmentthe purpose of the block is simply to
prevent Prevention may refer to: Health and medicine * Preventive healthcare, measures to prevent diseases or injuries rather than curing them or treating their symptoms General safety * Crime prevention, the attempt to reduce deter crime and crimin ...
further damage. * The "abuse filter" extension, which uses regular expressions to detect common vandalism terms. Editors are generally warned before being blocked. Wikipedia employs a 5-stage warning process leading up to a block. This includes: #The first warning "assumes
good faith In human interactions, good faith ( la, bona fides) is a sincere intention to be fair, open, and honest, regardless of the outcome of the interaction. Some Latin phrases have lost their literal meaning over centuries, but that is not the case ...
" and takes a relaxed approach to the user. (in some cases, this level can be skipped if the editor assumes the user is acting in
bad faith Bad faith (Latin: ''mala fides'') is a sustained form of deception which consists of entertaining or pretending to entertain one set of feelings while acting as if influenced by another."of two hearts ... a sustained form of deception whic ...
). #The second warning does not assume any faith and is an actual warning (in some cases, this level may also be skipped). #The third warning assumes
bad faith Bad faith (Latin: ''mala fides'') is a sustained form of deception which consists of entertaining or pretending to entertain one set of feelings while acting as if influenced by another."of two hearts ... a sustained form of deception whic ...
and is the first to warn the user that continued vandalism may result in a block. #The fourth warning is a final warning, stating that any future acts of vandalism will result in a block. #After this, other users may place additional warnings, though only administrators can 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.


ClueBot NG

The most well-known "bot" that fights vandalism is ClueBot NG. The bot was created by Wikipedia users Christopher Breneman and Cobi Carter in 2010 (succeeding the original ClueBot created in 2007; NG stands for Next Generation) 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 hostile to new users by not being able to apply a human brain's knowledge to the edit, and leaving impersonal .


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, after which they were discovered by
Victor S. Johnson, Jr. Victor Samuel Johnson Jr. (June 12, 1916 – January 19, 2008) was an American lawyer who was president of Aladdin Industries, a manufacturer of vacuum bottles, kerosene lamps, and stoves. He was notable for creating the market for decor ...
, 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: * On a 2006 episode of his show, Colbert suggested viewers vandalize the article " Elephant". This resulted in his Wikipedia account named " Stephencolbert" being blocked from editing, as well as many elephant-related articles being protected. * On 7 August 2012, Colbert suggested that his viewers go to pages for possible 2012 U.S. Republican vice-presidential candidates, such as the Tim Pawlenty and
Rob Portman Robert Jones Portman (born December 19, 1955) is an American attorney and politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from Ohio since 2011. A member of the Republican Party ...
articles, and edit them many times. This was in response to a Fox News hypothesis that mass editing of the
Sarah Palin Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, author, and reality television personality who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 R ...
page the day before she was announced as
John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...
's running mate could help predict who would be chosen as
Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts f ...
's running mate in the
2012 election This national electoral calendar for 2012 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2012 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *3–4 January: ...
. After Colbert's request and his viewers' subsequent actions, all these articles were put under by Wikipedia administrators, with editing restricted to established users.


Hillsborough disaster vandalism

In April 2014, the '' Liverpool Echo'' reported that computers on an
intranet An intranet is a computer network for sharing information, easier communication, collaboration tools, operational systems, and other computing services within an organization, usually to the exclusion of access by outsiders. The term is used in c ...
used by the
British government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...
had been used to post offensive remarks about the
Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the ...
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.


Political vandalism

Politicians are a common target of vandalism on Wikipedia. The article on Donald Trump was replaced with a single sentence critical of him in July 2015, and in November 2018, the lead picture on the page was replaced with an image of a penis, causing Apple's virtual assistant Siri to briefly include this image in answers to queries about the subject. Both Hillary and Bill Clinton's Wikipedia pages were vandalized in October 2016 by a member of the Internet trolling group
Gay Nigger Association of America The Gay Nigger Association of America (GNAA) was an Internet trolling group. They targeted several prominent websites and Internet personalities including ''Slashdot'', Wikipedia, CNN, Barack Obama, Alex Jones, and prominent members of the ...
adding pornographic images to their articles. That same month, New York Assembly candidate Jim Tedisco's Wikipedia page was modified to say that he had "never been part of the majority", and "is considered by many to be a total failure". Tedisco expressed dismay at the changes to his page. On 24 July 2018, Utah
senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
Orrin Hatch posted humorous tweets after Google claimed that he had died on 11 September 2017, with the error being traced back to an edit to his Wikipedia article. Similarly, vandalism of the
California Republican Party The California Republican Party (CAGOP) is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in the U.S. state of California. The party is based in Sacramento and is led by chair Jessica Millan Patterson. As of October 2020, Republicans repre ...
's Wikipedia page caused Google's information bar to list Nazism as one of the party's primary ideologies. The week of 29 January 2017 saw various acts of Wikipedia vandalism that attracted media attention. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's Wikipedia page was vandalized and his picture replaced with that of Baghdad Bob,
Dana J. Boente Dana James Boente ( Bent-Ë) (born February 7, 1954) is an American attorney who served as General Counsel of the FBI from January 2018 to 2020, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia from September 2013 to January 2018, an ...
's page description was edited to read that he was "the newest sock puppet for the Trump Administration", and Paul Ryan's picture was added to a list of invertebrates, with the edit summary stating that he was added due to his lack of a spine. On 27 September 2018, the personal information of United States senators Lindsey Graham, Mike Lee, and Orrin Hatch were added to their respective Wikipedia articles during the hearing of Supreme Court Nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. The information included their home addresses and phone numbers, and originated from the network located from within the United States House of Representatives. The edits were removed from Wikipedia and hidden from public view shortly afterwards. These edits were captured and automatically posted publicly to Twitter by an automated account. Twitter shortly removed the posts and suspended the account in response to the incident. An internal police investigation located the person who made the edits, and 27-year-old Jackson A. Cosko (a staffer for Congress paid by an outside institution) was arrested and charged with multiple felony crimes relating to the incident. Cosko was sentenced in 2019 to four years in prison after pleading guilty to five felonies.


Miscellaneous

* A vandal called "Willy on Wheels" moved thousands of articles so that their titles ended with "on wheels". * In 2006, '' Rolling Stone'' printed a story about
Halle Berry Halle Maria Berry (; born Maria Halle Berry; August 14, 1966) is an American actress. She began her career as a model and entered several beauty contests, finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and coming in sixth in the Mis ...
based on false information from Wikipedia, which had arisen from an act of Wikipedia vandalism. * In February 2007, professional golfer
Fuzzy Zoeller Frank Urban "Fuzzy" Zoeller Jr. (; born November 11, 1951) is an American professional golfer who has won ten PGA Tour events including two major championships. He is one of three golfers to have won the Masters Tournament in his first appearan ...
sued a Miami company whose IP-based edits to the Wikipedia site included negative information about him. * In August 2007, local media from the Netherlands reported that several IP addresses from
Nederlandse Publieke Omroep The Dutch public broadcasting system ( nl, Nederlands publieke omroepbestel) is a group of organizations that are responsible for public service television and radio broadcasting in the Netherlands. It is composed of the Nederlandse Publieke Omroe ...
had been blocked from Wikipedia for adding "false and defamatory" information to pages. A similar incident occurred with the
Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
in France in January 2016. * In May 2012, media critic Anita Sarkeesian created a
Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
project, intending to raise money to make a series of videos exploring sexism in digital
gaming culture Video game culture is a worldwide new media subculture formed by video gamers. As video games have exponentially increased in popularity over time, they have had a significant influence on popular culture. Video game culture has also evolved with ...
. The idea evoked a hostile response, which included repeated vandalism of Sarkeesian's Wikipedia article with pornographic imagery, defamatory statements, and threats of sexual violence. More than 12 IP addresses from unregistered editors contributed to the ongoing vandalism campaign before editing privileges were revoked for the page. * In May 2012, webcomic and humor website ''
The Oatmeal ''The Oatmeal'' is a webcomic and humor website created in 2009 by cartoonist Matthew Inman. It offers original comics, quizzes, and occasional articles. Inman has produced a series of ''Oatmeal'' books with content from the webcomic and previou ...
'' published a comic in which it is suggested that Thomas Edison should be added as an example to the disambiguation page "". After having Edison added and removed several times, the page was extended-confirmed protected. * In November 2012, the
Leveson report The Leveson Inquiry was a judicial public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the British newspapers, press following the News International phone hacking scandal, chaired by Brian Leveson, Lord Justice Leveson, who was appointed ...
published in the UK by
Lord Justice Leveson Sir Brian Henry Leveson (; born 22 June 1949) is a retired English judge who served as the President of the Queen's Bench Division and Head of Criminal Justice. Leveson chaired the public inquiry into the culture, practices and ethics of the ...
incorrectly listed a "Brett Straub" as one of the founders of '' The Independent'' newspaper. The name originated from one of the several erroneous edits by one of Straub's friends as a prank to Wikipedia by falsely including his name in several articles across the site. The name's inclusion in the report suggested that part of the report relating to that newspaper had been cut and pasted from Wikipedia without a proper check of the sources. The Straub issue was also humorously referenced in broadcasts of BBC entertainment
current affairs Current affairs may refer to: News * Current Affairs (magazine), ''Current Affairs'' (magazine) a bimonthly magazine of culture and politics. * Current affairs (news format): a genre of broadcast journalism * Current Affairs, former name for Behi ...
TV program '' Have I Got News for You'' (and extended edition ''Have I Got a Bit More News for You''), with '' The Economist'' also making passing comment on the issue: "The Leveson report... Parts of it are a scissors-and-paste job culled from Wikipedia." * In April 2015, '' The Washington Post'' reported on an experiment by "
Gregory Kohs Conflict-of-interest (COI) editing on Wikipedia occurs when editors use Wikipedia to advance the interests of their external roles or relationships. The type of COI editing of most concern on Wikipedia is paid editing for public relations (PR) p ...
, a former editor, and prominent Wikipedia critic": "Kohs wrapped up an experiment in which he inserted outlandish errors into 31 articles and tracked whether editors ever found them. After more than two months, half of his hoaxes still had not been foundand those included errors on high-profile pages, like "" and "". (By his estimate, more than 100,000 people have now seen the claim that volcanic rock produced by the
human body The human body is the structure of a Human, human being. It is composed of many different types of Cell (biology), cells that together create Tissue (biology), tissues and subsequently organ systems. They ensure homeostasis and the life, viabi ...
causes inflammation pain.)" * In August 2016, a sentence was added to saying that he "Died at the hands of Michael Phelps, being literally blown out of the water by the greatest American since Abraham Lincoln" after Phelps won the gold medal for 200-meter butterfly at the
2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...
. This particular instance of Wikipedia vandalism attracted moderate media attention. * On 25 April 2018, various pages related to American video game director
Todd Howard Todd Andrew Howard (born 1970) is an American video game designer, director, and producer. He serves as director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios, where he has led the development of the ''Fallout'' and ''The Elder Scrolls'' s ...
were vandalized after a post went viral on Tumblr stating that his page would no longer be semi-protected as of said date. Although Howard's page had its protection extended, a massive raid campaign vandalized many related pages. These included "'" (the most popular game he worked on), "" (his hometown), and "" (after a Wikipedia administrator who reversed the vandalism). * On 16 August 2021, a template that was transcluded onto approximately 53,000 pages was replaced with a
swastika The swastika (卐 or 卍) is an ancient religious and cultural symbol, predominantly in various Eurasian, as well as some African and American cultures, now also widely recognized for its appropriation by the Nazi Party and by neo-Nazis. It ...
. The vandalism was reverted five minutes later.{{Cite web, url=https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/wikipedia-template-swastika-vandalism-193049735.html, title=Wikipedia vandal adds swastikas to 53,000 pages


See also

{{Portal, Internet, Society, Wikipedia * Reliability of Wikipedia * Vandalism


Notes

{{notelist


References

{{reflist {{Wikipedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Vandalism on Wikipedia Wikipedia Vandalism Wikipedia reliability Wikipedia vandalism