IFRAME: [1]https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5HBJC2K

   [2]Skip to main content
   (BUTTON) Open Navigation Menu

   To revist this article, visit My Profile, then [3]View saved stories.
   (BUTTON) Close Alert
   [4]WIRED
   See Who's Editing Wikipedia - Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign
     * [5]Backchannel
     * [6]Business
     * [7]Culture
     * [8]Gear
     * [9]Ideas
     * [10]Science
     * [11]Security
     * [12]Prime Day

   (BUTTON) More

   To revist this article, visit My Profile, then [13]View saved stories.
   (BUTTON) Close Alert
   [14]Sign In

   [15]Search

     * [16]Backchannel
     * [17]Business
     * [18]Culture
     * [19]Gear
     * [20]Ideas
     * [21]Science
     * [22]Security
     * [23]Prime Day

     * [24]Podcasts
     * [25]Video
     * [26]Artificial Intelligence
     * [27]Climate
     * [28]Games
     * [29]Newsletters
     * [30]Magazine
     * [31]Events
     * [32]Wired Insider
     * [33]Jobs
     * [34]Coupons

   [35]John Borland
   [36]Business
   Aug 14, 2007 12:00 PM

See Who's Editing Wikipedia - Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign

   CalTech graduate student Virgil Griffith built a search tool that
   traces IP addresses of those who make Wikipedia changes.

   (BUTTON) Save
   (BUTTON) Save

   CalTech graduate student Virgil Griffith built a search tool that
   traces IP addresses of those who make Wikipedia changes. Photo: Jake
   Appelbaum

   On November 17th, 2005, an anonymous Wikipedia user deleted 15
   paragraphs from an article on e-voting machine-vendor Diebold, excising
   an entire section critical of the company's machines. While anonymous,
   such changes typically leave behind digital fingerprints offering hints
   about the contributor, such as the location of the computer used to
   make the edits.

   In this case, the changes came from an IP address reserved for the
   corporate offices of Diebold itself. And it is far from an isolated
   case. A new data-mining service launched Monday traces millions of
   Wikipedia entries to their corporate sources, and for the first time
   puts comprehensive data behind longstanding suspicions of manipulation,
   which until now have surfaced only piecemeal in investigations of
   specific allegations.

   [37]Wikipedia Scanner -- the brainchild of Cal Tech computation and
   neural-systems graduate student Virgil Griffith -- offers users a
   searchable database that ties millions of anonymous Wikipedia edits to
   organizations where those edits apparently originated, by
   cross-referencing the edits with data on who owns the associated block
   of internet IP addresses.

   Inspired by news last year that Congress members' offices had been
   editing their own entries, Griffith says he got curious, and wanted to
   know whether big companies and other organizations were doing things in
   a similarly self-interested vein.

   "Everything's better if you do it on a huge scale, and automate it," he
   says with a grin.

   This database is possible thanks to a combination of Wikipedia policies
   and (mostly) publicly available information.

   The online encyclopedia allows anyone to make edits, but keeps detailed
   logs of all these changes. Users who are logged in are tracked only by
   their user name, but anonymous changes leave a public record of their
   IP address.

   Share Your Sleuthing!

   Cornered any companies polishing up their Wikipedia entries? Spotted
   any government spooks rewriting history? Try Virgil Griffith's
   [38]Wikipedia Scanner yourself, then [39]submit your finds and vote on
   other readers' discoveries here.

   The organization also allows downloads of the complete Wikipedia,
   including records of all these changes.

   Griffith thus downloaded the entire encyclopedia, isolating the
   XML-based records of anonymous changes and IP addresses. He then
   correlated those IP addresses with public net-address lookup services
   such as ARIN, as well as private domain-name data provided by
   IP2Location.com.

   The result: A database of 34.4 million edits, performed by 2.6 million
   organizations or individuals ranging from the CIA to Microsoft to
   Congressional offices, now linked to the edits they or someone at their
   organization's net address has made.

   Some of this appears to be transparently self-interested, either adding
   positive, press release-like material to entries, or deleting whole
   swaths of critical material.

   Voting-machine company Diebold provides a good example of the latter,
   with someone at the company's IP address apparently [40]deleting long
   paragraphs [41]detailing the security industry's concerns over the
   integrity of their voting machines, and information about the company's
   CEO's fund-raising for President Bush.
   Most Popular
     * [42]The Last 96 Hours of the Titan Tragedy
       Science
       The Last 96 Hours of the Titan Tragedy
       Alex Christian
     * [43]WIRED’s Favorite ‘Buy It for Life’ Gear
       Gear
       WIRED’s Favorite ‘Buy It for Life’ Gear
       Parker Hall
     * [44]Reddit Won't Be the Same. Neither Will the Internet
       Culture
       Reddit Won't Be the Same. Neither Will the Internet
       Angela Watercutter
     * [45]Your Clothes Are Making You Sick
       Gear
       Your Clothes Are Making You Sick
       Michael Calore
     *

   The text, deleted in November 2005, was quickly restored by another
   Wikipedia contributor, who advised the anonymous editor, "Please stop
   removing content from Wikipedia. It is considered vandalism."

   A Diebold Election Systems spokesman said he'd look into the matter but
   could not comment by press time.

   Wal-Mart has a series of relatively small changes in 2005 that that
   burnish the company's image on its own entry while often leaving
   criticism in, [46]changing a line that its wages are less than other
   retail stores to a note that it pays nearly double the minimum wage,
   for example. Another leaves activist criticism on community impact
   intact, while [47]citing a "definitive" study showing Wal-Mart raised
   the total number of jobs in a community.

   As has been previously reported, politician's offices are heavy users
   of the system. Former Montana Sen. Conrad Burns' office, for example,
   apparently changed one critical paragraph headed "A controversial
   voice" to "A voice for farmers," with predictably image-friendly
   content following it.

   Perhaps interestingly, many of the most apparently self-interested
   changes come from before 2006, when news of the Congressional offices'
   edits reached the headlines. This may indicate a growing sophistication
   with the workings of Wikipedia over time, or even the rise of corporate
   Wikipedia policies.

   Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told Wired News he was aware of the new
   service, but needed time to experiment with it before commenting.

   The vast majority of changes are fairly innocuous, however. Employees
   at the CIA's net address, for example, have been busy -- but with
   little that would indicate their place of apparent employment, or a
   particular bias.

   One [48]entry on "Black September in Jordan" contains wholesale
   additions, with specific details that read like a popular history book
   or an eyewitness' memoir.

   Many more are simple copy edits, or additions to local town entries or
   school histories. One CIA entry deals with the details of lyrics sung
   in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode.

   Griffith says he launched the project hoping to find scandals,
   particularly at obvious targets such as companies like Halliburton. But
   there's a more practical goal, too: By exposing the anonymous edits
   that companies such as drugs and big pharmaceutical companies make in
   entries that affect their businesses, it could help experts check up on
   the changes and make sure they're accurate, he says.

   For now, he has just scratched the surface of the database of millions
   of entries. But he's putting it online so others can look too.

   The nonprofit Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, did not
   respond to e-mail and telephone inquiries Monday.

   [49]Diebold Loses Key Copyright Case

   [50]The Wikipedia FAQK

   [51]Wikipedia Tightens the Reins

   [52]Wikipedia Faces Growing Pains

   Topics[53]politics
   More from WIRED
   [54]
   How ChatGPT and Other LLMs Work—and Where They Could Go Next
   How ChatGPT and Other LLMs Work—and Where They Could Go Next
   Large language models like AI chatbots seem to be everywhere. If you
   understand them better, you can use them better.

   David Nield
   [55]The Hacking of ChatGPT Is Just Getting Started
   The Hacking of ChatGPT Is Just Getting Started
   Security researchers are jailbreaking large language models to get
   around safety rules. Things could get much worse.

   Matt Burgess
   [56]11 Tips to Take Your ChatGPT Prompts to the Next Level
   11 Tips to Take Your ChatGPT Prompts to the Next Level
   Sure, anyone can use OpenAI’s chatbot. But with smart engineering, you
   can get way more interesting results.

   David Nield
   [57]Molly White Tracks Crypto Scams. It's Going Just Great
   Molly White Tracks Crypto Scams. It's Going Just Great
   In 2021, software engineer Molly White launched a cautionary Web3 blog
   to pour cold water on cryptocurrency's dumpster fires

   Joel Khalili
   [58]Runaway AI Is an Extinction Risk, Experts Warn
   Runaway AI Is an Extinction Risk, Experts Warn
   A new statement from industry leaders cautions that artificial
   intelligence poses a threat to humanity on par with nuclear war or a
   pandemic.

   Will Knight
   [59]AI Is Steeped in Big Tech’s ‘Digital Colonialism’
   AI Is Steeped in Big Tech’s ‘Digital Colonialism’
   Artificial intelligence continues to be fed racist and sexist training
   materials and then distributed around the world.

   Grace Browne
   [60]Temu Is Losing Millions of Dollars to Send You Cheap Socks
   Temu Is Losing Millions of Dollars to Send You Cheap Socks
   The Chinese shopping app is topping app stores in the US. But it’s
   burning money and squeezing its suppliers to a breaking point in a bid
   to take on Amazon.

   Tracy Wen Liu
   [61]What Really Made Geoffrey Hinton Into an AI Doomer
   What Really Made Geoffrey Hinton Into an AI Doomer
   The AI pioneer is alarmed by how clever the technology he helped create
   has become. And it all started with a joke.

   Will Knight

   [62]WIRED
   WIRED is where tomorrow is realized. It is the essential source of
   information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant
   transformation. The WIRED conversation illuminates how technology is
   changing every aspect of our lives—from culture to business, science to
   design. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new
   ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries.
     *
     *
     *
     *
     *
     *

   (BUTTON) More From WIRED
     * [63]Subscribe
     * [64]Newsletters
     * [65]FAQ
     * [66]Wired Staff
     * [67]Press Center
     * [68]Coupons
     * [69]Editorial Standards
     * [70]Prime Day
     * [71]Archive

   (BUTTON) Contact
     * [72]Advertise
     * [73]Contact Us
     * [74]Customer Care
     * [75]Jobs

     * [76]RSS
     * [77]Accessibility Help
     * [78]Condé Nast Store
     * (BUTTON) Do Not Sell My Personal Info

   © 2023 Condé Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes
   acceptance of our [79]User Agreement and [80]Privacy Policy and Cookie
   Statement and [81]Your California Privacy Rights. WIRED may earn a
   portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as
   part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this
   site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or
   otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast.
   [82]Ad Choices
   Select international site (BUTTON) United States
     * [83]UK
     * [84]Italia
     * [85]Japón

References

   Visible links
   1. https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5HBJC2K
   2. https://www.wired.com/2007/08/wiki-tracker/#main-content
   3. https://www.wired.com/account/saved
   4. https://www.wired.com/
   5. https://www.wired.com/category/backchannel/
   6. https://www.wired.com/category/business/
   7. https://www.wired.com/category/culture/
   8. https://www.wired.com/category/gear/
   9. https://www.wired.com/category/ideas/
  10. https://www.wired.com/category/science/
  11. https://www.wired.com/category/security/
  12. https://www.wired.com/tag/amazon-prime-day/
  13. https://www.wired.com/account/saved
  14. https://www.wired.com/auth/initiate?redirectURL=/2007/08/wiki-tracker/&source=VERSO_NAVIGATION
  15. https://www.wired.com/search/
  16. https://www.wired.com/category/backchannel/
  17. https://www.wired.com/category/business/
  18. https://www.wired.com/category/culture/
  19. https://www.wired.com/category/gear/
  20. https://www.wired.com/category/ideas/
  21. https://www.wired.com/category/science/
  22. https://www.wired.com/category/security/
  23. https://www.wired.com/tag/amazon-prime-day/
  24. https://www.wired.com/podcasts/
  25. https://www.wired.com/video/
  26. https://www.wired.com/category/artificial-intelligence/
  27. https://www.wired.com/category/science/environment-climate-change/
  28. https://www.wired.com/tag/video-games/
  29. https://www.wired.com/newsletter
  30. https://www.wired.com/magazine
  31. https://re.wired.com/RE-WIRED/en
  32. https://www.wired.com/category/wiredinsider/
  33. https://jobs.wired.com/?source=navbar
  34. https://www.wired.com/coupons
  35. https://www.wired.com/author/john-borland
  36. https://www.wired.com/category/business
  37. http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/
  38. http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/
  39. https://www.wired.com/27bstroke6/wikiwatch/
  40. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=28623375
  41. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=28623410
  42. https://www.wired.com/story/titan-sub-oceangate-hull-failure-loss-tragedy/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9896713c-8316-4e60-90e6-a1dc383f049f_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
  43. https://www.wired.com/story/buy-it-for-life/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9896713c-8316-4e60-90e6-a1dc383f049f_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
  44. https://www.wired.com/story/reddit-api-changes-ai-labor/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9896713c-8316-4e60-90e6-a1dc383f049f_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
  45. https://www.wired.com/story/gadget-lab-podcast-603/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9896713c-8316-4e60-90e6-a1dc383f049f_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
  46. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=13283596
  47. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=13351938
  48. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=77017195
  49. https://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2004/09/65173
  50. https://www.wired.com/software/webservices/commentary/alttext/2006/04/70670
  51. https://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2005/12/69759
  52. https://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2005/01/66210
  53. https://www.wired.com/tag/politics/
  54. https://www.wired.com/story/how-chatgpt-works-large-language-model/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  55. https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-jailbreak-generative-ai-hacking/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  56. https://www.wired.com/story/11-tips-better-chatgpt-prompts/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  57. https://www.wired.com/story/molly-white-crypto-scams/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  58. https://www.wired.com/story/runaway-ai-extinction-statement/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  59. https://www.wired.com/story/abeba-birhane-ai-datasets/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  60. https://www.wired.com/story/temu-is-losing-millions-of-dollars-to-send-you-cheap-socks/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  61. https://www.wired.com/story/geoffrey-hinton-ai-chatgpt-dangers/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  62. https://www.wired.com/
  63. https://www.wired.com/subscribe/
  64. https://www.wired.com/newsletter?sourceCode=HeaderAndFooter
  65. https://www.wired.com/about/faq/
  66. https://www.wired.com/wired-staff/
  67. https://www.wired.com/about/press/
  68. https://www.wired.com/coupons
  69. https://www.wired.com/about/wired-on-background-policy/
  70. https://www.wired.com/tag/amazon-prime-day/
  71. https://archive.wired.com/t/storefront/storefront
  72. https://www.condenast.com/brands/wired
  73. https://www.wired.com/about/feedback/
  74. https://subscriptions.wired.com/pubs/N3/WIR/Register.jsp?cds_page_id=175371&cds_mag_code=WIR&id=1423757547774&lsid=50431012277019467&vid=1
  75. https://www.wired.com/about/wired-jobs/
  76. https://www.wired.com/about/rss-feeds/
  77. https://www.wired.com/about/accessibility-help/
  78. https://www.condenaststore.com/
  79. https://www.condenast.com/user-agreement/
  80. http://www.condenast.com/privacy-policy#privacypolicy
  81. http://www.condenast.com/privacy-policy#privacypolicy-california
  82. http://www.condenast.com/privacy-policy#privacypolicy-optout
  83. https://www.wired.co.uk/
  84. https://www.wired.it/
  85. https://wired.jp/

   Hidden links:
  87. https://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/08/
  88. https://www.wired.com/story/titan-sub-oceangate-hull-failure-loss-tragedy/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9896713c-8316-4e60-90e6-a1dc383f049f_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
  89. https://www.wired.com/story/buy-it-for-life/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9896713c-8316-4e60-90e6-a1dc383f049f_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
  90. https://www.wired.com/story/reddit-api-changes-ai-labor/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9896713c-8316-4e60-90e6-a1dc383f049f_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
  91. https://www.wired.com/story/gadget-lab-podcast-603/#intcid=_wired-right-rail_9896713c-8316-4e60-90e6-a1dc383f049f_popular4-1-reranked-by-vidi
  92. https://www.wired.com/story/how-chatgpt-works-large-language-model/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  93. https://www.wired.com/story/chatgpt-jailbreak-generative-ai-hacking/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  94. https://www.wired.com/story/11-tips-better-chatgpt-prompts/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  95. https://www.wired.com/story/molly-white-crypto-scams/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  96. https://www.wired.com/story/runaway-ai-extinction-statement/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  97. https://www.wired.com/story/abeba-birhane-ai-datasets/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  98. https://www.wired.com/story/temu-is-losing-millions-of-dollars-to-send-you-cheap-socks/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
  99. https://www.wired.com/story/geoffrey-hinton-ai-chatgpt-dangers/#intcid=_wired-bottom-recirc_0760bbc0-8efa-45fb-9e37-de3e4bf854f1_wired-content-attribution-evergreen
 100. https://www.facebook.com/wired/
 101. https://twitter.com/wired/
 102. https://pinterest.com/wired/
 103. https://www.youtube.com/user/wired/
 104. https://instagram.com/wired/
 105. https://www.tiktok.com/@wired?lang=en