Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2020-12-28/In the media

Revealing the obvious concealment
"Wikipedia page for Biden's new Covid czar scrubbed of politically damaging material" states Politico. The article reports how an account linked to consulting firm Saguaro Strategies removed potentially politically compromising details from Jeff Zients's Wikipedia page. US President-elect Joe Biden plans to put Zients in charge of his administration's response to COVID-19. The account – which initially operated under the username, was renamed, then was indefinitely blocked for undisclosed paid editing in violation of the WMF Terms of Use – removed information related to Zients's corporate career, made him appear less "Republican" and added that he left his role on the board of Facebook "over differences with company leadership over governance and its policies around political discourse" though Zients has never claimed such publicly. The article discusses how the online images of both Democrats and Republicans have been a common cause of scandal in recent years and attempts to clean them up have become a normalized part of American political life, with an inside source suggesting that while the law firms which specialize in helping candidates for senior positions through their confirmation processes generally focus on other issues such as removing social media posts, editing Wikipedia is more likely done by consultants. Another Wikipedia-related scenario mentioned was the period prior to Kamala Harris' nomination as Biden's VP candidate: her Wikipedia page "was edited far more than the other contenders for vice president and the majority of the edits were by a single person".

However, America's politicians certainly aren't the only ones not always playing above board in the Wiki world. Staffers in the Canadian and Australian governments got into hot water for Wikipedia editing in 2014 and 2016 respectively, while analysis from 2012 suggested that British MPs and their staff were responsible for nearly 10,000 changes to the site. – L

Introducing Wikipedia and data journalism
"Harnessing Wikipedia's superpowers for journalism" by Wikipedian Monika Sengul-Jones on DataJournalism.com gives a great introduction to Wikipedia in 4,000 words – with many charts, tables and illustrations. It would be worth every word even if you only wanted an academically-oriented introduction to the encyclopedia, but it spends most of those words on how journalists can use Wikipedia – a skill that many general reporters could use – and then describes how the data provided to the public as well as to reporters can be even more useful. This reporter, who has spent a couple of years writing for The Signpost, picked up a few pointers. Those Wikipedians who wish to become reporters for this newspaper are highly encouraged to read and re-read Sengul-Jones's article.

Her first example shows how a Twitter bot, which monitors Wikipedia's data feeds, revealed that an anonymous editor with an IP address from the Executive Office of the President in the White House removed the following from the article on Adam S. Boehler: "During college, Boehler was a summer roommate of his future Trump administration boss Jared Kushner." Then Sengul-Jones adds "but there's evidence the bots can be manipulated". After discussing some of the limits of Wikipedia data she quotes Benjamin Mako Hill: "The reality for journalists working on the internet is fraught [...] Most internet data sets are controlled by commercial companies. That means there's never going to be a full data set and what's available has been – or is being –manipulated. Wikipedia is different. It's free, it's accessible, and it's from a public service organization."

In just the first half of the article pageviews are covered in detail, as are the Wikipedia organizational structure, editing model, and Section 230 with quotes from Noam Cohen, Brian Keegan, Jackie Koerner and WMF CEO Katherine Maher along the way. The second half is just as packed with information. -S

The article on Michael Perry falsely said that he is a pig farmer
Michael Perry claims that he types for a living. He writes a weekly column in the Wisconsin State Journal and formerly kept a passel of five pigs. While he might return to his porcine pursuits, he doubts that it will be possible, so he wanted to correct "his" Wikipedia article. With that premise and some quirky humor he cranked out a 500 word column. He's got this writing business down to an art.

I wasn't quite convinced, so I emailed him and asked – what was that column all about? Yep, he just wanted the Wikipedia article about him to be correct. It was corrected on the same morning the column was published. It looks like Perry has solved one of the most ancient mysteries of the internet – how to get a Wikipedia article corrected. You just need to publish an article in a reliable source. Of course not everybody can write a newspaper article about themself, but thinking along the same line, article subjects might make a YouTube video of themselves, or even just write a press release to get noticed. Not that a press release would always work, but it's got to be better than writing on the article talkpage: "I'm not a pig farmer, I'm a writer, I'm a former pig farmer, a reformed swineherd, a redundant hog handler, please believe me, please ...".

Perry has written ten books, including a New York Times bestseller, Visiting Tom. He is a musician, radio show host, comedian, and nurse. He grew up on a dairy farm where he had "a childhood spent slinging manure – the metaphorical basis for a writing career." – S

In brief

 * "Twitter Wants to Use Wikipedia to Help Determine Who Gets a Blue Checkmark": Stephen Harrison in Slate discusses Twitter's plan to use Wikipedia as part of its verification process. The new system would require that bluetick wannabes prove they have a 'presence in public indices' in the case of companies or 'Off Twitter Notability' for individuals. A Wikipedia article covering the person or organization in question could be used as evidence of either status. Harrison quotes Wikipedia editors Monika Sengul-Jones, and Kevin Li, who reacted to the proposal with a mixture of 'pride and wariness' and suggests that it wouldn't hurt Twitter to bring in a few other features of Wikipedia in particular the Citation needed tag. The Twitter proposal seems to import Wikipedia's definition of "notability" into Twitter and might end up importing the systemic biases that go along with the definition. At the same time "It’s a form of Twitter offloading its work to us and expecting us to deal with it," according to Li. Perhaps Twitter should consider increasing its donation to the Wikimedia Foundation by several times.
 * "Govt asks Wikipedia to remove wrong map showing Aksai Chin as part of China": India Today (via MSM) covers a decision by the Indian government to "request" that Wikipedia take down a map depicting Aksai Chin (a part of the disputed region of Kashmir governed by China) as part of China. The issue which has created a great deal of debate in the world's largest democracy and on the world's best encyclopedia (including advice from WMF's legal counsel to the community) was sparked when a Twitter user shared an image of the map. The article suggests that India may take legal action against Wikipedia or even block the website if the map is not removed.
 * Here are a few of Wikipedia's most surprisingly controversial topics: Mike Vago at The A.V. Club takes a look down the "Wiki Wormhole". Perhaps the term 'controversial' is used too liberally in the article's headline, but the column does glance over several niche topics from the underbelly of medieval measurements to some rather contrarian traffic control methods. During December Vago has departed slightly from his usual subject matter by collecting a group of smaller topics rather than writing about one Wikipedia article per column. His December 20 column speeds through Honkbal Hoofdklasse, Root hog or die, and our favorite, List of games that Buddha would not play.
 * "Let's walk" sheriff merits Wikipedia page: The Flint, Michigan radio station, WCRZ did a story on the creation of a biography for their county's sheriff, Christopher R. Swanson. His notability is due largely to his humane response to the George Floyd protests, taking off his riot gear and telling protesters "let's walk". He has also written a children's book.

Odd bits

 * UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson won't say how many children he has: But The Economist cites Wikipedia's "at least six" in its December 19 story "Sprechen Sie Tory?". Wikipedia patched together the inequality from stories in The Guardian and The Independent.
 * Someone In 'Northern Territory Government' Changed McDonald's Name On Wikipedia To McBumholes: Stewart Perrie in The Lad Bible reports how geolocate caught out the playground humour of a bored Australian civil servant. The article explains how an edit changing the name of the Wikipedia page for McDonald's to Mcbumholes was traced back to an IP address belonging to the territorial government of the Northern Territory of Australia. What would Crocodile Dundee think?
 * Wiki Who?: The CW31 show Good Day has a segment on trivia questions usually taken from a Wikipedia biography. In this edition there are 2 panelists answering 3 questions about 3 people named Meg.
 * Researching Wikipedia on the origins of toxic words: The author tells about how he "find[s] that there are places where Wikipedia doesn't fear to tread", not just the many uses of the f-word (a noun, a verb, an adjective, an interjection or an adverb), but the origins of the aubergine/eggplant schism. (Asian Age)
 * Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is "well reported": The list of NFL players with the condition is noted by The National Law Review.
 * Beware This Wikipedia Photo Copyright Scam: Petapixel discusses social media reports that scammers are editing the wiki commons to claim ownership of photographs they did not take.
 * The most-read Wikipedia page on each day of 2020 (Quartz)
 * Pakistan threatens Google, Wikipedia over 'sacrilegious content' (Deutsche Welle)