imported>Cewbot: Convert Fondazione Bruno Kessler to wikilink (The bot operation is completed 89.9% in total)

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Convert Fondazione Bruno Kessler to wikilink (The bot operation is completed 89.9% in total)

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{{short description|Defunct database linking Wikipedia edits to institutions}}
{{Infobox website
| name = WikiScanner
| logo =
| screenshot = [[File:WikiScanner screenshot.png|250px]]
| caption = Screenshot of the website on August 22, 2007.
| url = [https://web.archive.org/web/20120408180929/http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/ wikiscanner.virgil.gr] [http://virgil.gr/page/2016/10/4/wikiscanner Virgil Griffith's] [https://virgil.gr/ virgil.gr] (current)
| commercial = No
| type = Database tool
| language = Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish
| registration = No
| owner = [[Virgil Griffith]]
| author = Virgil Griffith
| launch_date = {{start date and age|2007|8|13|p=y}}
| current_status = Offline (at least since 2013, page moved)
}}
'''WikiScanner''' (also known as '''Wikipedia Scanner''') was a publicly searchable database that linked [[Community of Wikipedia#Anonymity of editors|anonymous edits]] on [[Wikipedia]] to the organizations where those edits apparently originated. It did this by cross-referencing the edits with data on the owners of the associated block of [[IP addresses]], though it did not investigate edits made under a username. It was created by [[Virgil Griffith]] and released on August 13, 2007.<ref>{{cite news |first=Emily |last=Biuso |title=Wikiscanning |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09wikiscanning.html |quote=When Virgil Griffith, a 24-year-old [[Hacker (computer security)|hacker]], heard reports that Congressional staff members had been caught altering Wikipedia for the benefit of their boss, he got to thinking of all the other kinds of spin occurring on the site. |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=December 9, 2007 |access-date=December 9, 2007}}</ref><ref name=Borland07>{{cite magazine |title=See Who's Editing Wikipedia - Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign |date=August 14, 2007 |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |first=John |last=Borland |url=https://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/08/wiki_tracker?currentPage=all |access-date=September 15, 2012}}</ref>

In his "WikiScanner FAQ" Griffith stated his belief that WikiScanner could help make Wikipedia more [[Reliability of Wikipedia|reliable]] for controversial topics.<ref name=FAQ>{{cite web |url=http://virgil.gr/31.html |title=WikiScanner FAQ |first=Virgil |last=Griffith |access-date=August 18, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070830003427/http://virgil.gr/31.html |archive-date=August 30, 2007 }}</ref> He also indicated that he had never been employed by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] and claimed his work on WikiScanner was "100% noncommercial".<ref name=FAQ/>
On December 21, 2012, a research group from [[Fondazione Bruno Kessler]] released an open-source clone of WikiScanner called ''WikiWatchdog''.

By April 2013, attempts to run "WikiScanner Classic" from wikiscanner.virgil.gr returned to the WikiScanner home page, which identified itself as "WIKIWATCHER.COM"; and invoking "WikiScanner2 PreviewNew!" led to a "failure to load the page due to [[Timeout (computing)|timeout]]" error.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://katrina.cs.caltech.edu/erenrich_rnd345/scanner_final/ |title=WikiScanner2 PreviewNew! |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100922011827/http://katrina.cs.caltech.edu/erenrich_rnd345/scanner_final/ |archive-date=September 22, 2010}} Accessibility of WikiScanner can be checked on [http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/ the web page] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120408180929/http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/ |date=April 8, 2012 }}</ref>

In 2007, Virgil Griffith said he had to take WikiScanner down, as it was costing him "several thousand USD per month."<ref name=vgwp>{{Cite web |url=http://virgil.gr/wikiscanner/ |title=Virgil Griffith's WikiScanner Page |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314095050/http://virgil.gr/wikiscanner/ |archive-date=March 14, 2016}}</ref> He added below this on his WikiScanner webpage that as a grad student at Caltech in 2008 he developed with the aid of several undergraduates "a suite of Wikipedia-related tools known collectively as "WikiWatcher" which included: WikiScanner2 (Daniel), Wikiganda (Rishi), Poor Man's Checkuser, and BeaverScope," which he launched at the Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) conference that year. They used "high-quality data" from Quova, and among them WikiWatcher "had some media successes, but when the summer was over there was no one to maintain the tools and they fell into disrepair."<ref name=vgwp/>

== Design ==
The tool's [[database]] contained 34 million entries on anonymous edits (those by users who were not logged in to Wikipedia) between February 7, 2002, and August 4, 2007.<ref name=FAQ/> Griffith stated that the database was constructed by compiling the anonymous edits included amongst the monthly public database dumps of Wikipedia. He claimed to have connected the organizations to their IP address with the assistance of the IP2Location database, and through comparison had found "187,529 different organizations with at least one anonymous Wikipedia edit."<ref name=FAQ/>

WikiScanner only worked on anonymous edits, which are made under an IP address, not edits by anyone logged in under a username. It could not distinguish between edits made by authorized users of an organization, unauthorized intruders, or users of public-access computers that may have been using an organization's network. In discussing edits made from computers in the [[Holy See|Vatican]], computer expert Kevin Curran was quoted by the [[BBC]] as saying that it was "difficult to determine if the person was an employee or if they had maliciously hacked into the Vatican system and were 'spoofing' the IP address."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/did-vatican-alter-wikipedia-info-on-adams-13467789.html |title=Did Vatican alter Wikipedia info on Adams? |work=Belfast Telegraph |date=August 16, 2007 |access-date=May 18, 2009}}</ref>

The WikiScanner FAQ noted that edits could not be positively attributed to representatives of a company, only to a computer logged into a company's network. The FAQ went on to say there is no guarantee that an edit was made by an authorized user rather than an intruder.<ref name=FAQ/> The likelihood of such intrusions depended upon an organizations' network security; organizations such as the [[Vatican Library]] have public access terminals or networks.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vaticanlibrary.vatlib.it/BAVT/info/vaticanlibraryfiles/rules.pdf |title=Rules for Readers in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana |publisher=Vatican Library |date=September 15, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927122201/http://www.vaticanlibrary.vatlib.it/BAVT/info/vaticanlibraryfiles/rules.pdf |archive-date=September 27, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Media coverage and reaction==

According to [[Wired (magazine)|''Wired'']], which first broke the story on August 13, 2007, most edits were "fairly innocuous".<ref name="Borland07" /> ''Wired'' asked users to submit "The most shameful Wikipedia spin jobs",<ref name="Wired">{{cite news |url=http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/vote-on-the-top.html |title=Vote On the Most Shameful Wikipedia Spin Jobs |date=August 13, 2007 |access-date=August 17, 2007 |publisher=Wired blogs |first=Kevin |last=Poulsen}}</ref> which generated many news stories about organizations, such as the [[Al Jazeera Arabic|Al-Jazeera]] network, [[Fox News Channel]], staffers of Democratic [[Robert Byrd|Senator Robert Byrd]] and the [[CIA]], that had edited Wikipedia articles.

On August 21, 2007, satirist [[Stephen Colbert]] who had long featured [[Wikipedia in culture#Wikiality|stories about Wikipedia]] and its "[[truthiness]]" on his program mocked WikiScanner creator [[Virgil Griffith]]'s ambivalent stance on anonymity on Wikipedia, declaring it the "right" of corporations and governments to participate in the [[Consensus reality|democratic process]] of deciding what is and is not true on Wikipedia.<ref>''[[The Colbert Report]]''. [[Comedy Central]]. August 21, 2007</ref>

According to the [[BBC]] from August 15, 2007, WikiScanner found that some editorial contributions to Wikipedia had originated from computers operated by the [[Diebold]] company, the [[Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee]], as well as the [[Holy See|Vatican]].<ref name=BBC>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6947532.stm |title=Wikipedia 'shows CIA page edits' |first=Jonathan |last=Fildes |date=August 15, 2007 |access-date=August 16, 2007 |publisher=BBC}}</ref> ''[[The Times]]'' reported that an IP address at the BBC had made edits to Wikipedia.<ref name=Times>{{cite news |last=Blakely |first=Rhys |title=Exposed: guess who has been polishing their Wikipedia entries? |url=http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article2264150.ece |work=[[The Times]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090517025259/http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article2264150.ece?token=null&offset=12 |archive-date=May 17, 2009 |access-date=December 4, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The BBC's Head of Interactive News, [[Pete Clifton]] published a blog on August 16 acknowledging the earlier omission, but characterized the BBC's edits of Wikipedia in this manner: "Some of the examples are pretty unedifying, but for every dodgy one there are many, many more uncontroversial edits where people at the BBC have added information or changed a detail in good faith".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/08/wikipedia_edits.html |title=Wikipedia edits |first=Pete |last=Clifton |date=August 16, 2007 |access-date=August 16, 2007 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>

The Associated Press reported on August 15, 2007, that computers owned by the [[Church of Scientology]] had been used to remove criticism from articles about [[Scientology]] on Wikipedia, including edits to the article [[Cult Awareness Network]]. The Associated Press admitted that edits to Wikipedia had been made anonymously from its own computers, though the news organization did not describe the content of the edits.<ref name=AP>{{cite web |url=http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=172757 |title=New online tool unmasks Wikipedia edits |date=August 15, 2007 |access-date=August 16, 2007 |agency=Associated Press |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929090635/http://creativemac.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=172757 |archive-date=September 29, 2007 }}</ref> In its story on WikiScanner, the ''[[New York Times]]'' too admitted that edits had been made from its own computers.<ref name=NYT>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/technology/19wikipedia.html?ei=5124&en=786d0a243046f262&ex=1345262400&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink&pagewanted=print |title=Seeing Corporate Fingerprints in Wikipedia Edits |date=August 19, 2007 |access-date=August 19, 2007 |work=[[The New York Times]] |author-link=Katie Hafner |first=Katie |last=Hafner}}</ref> [[Wired (magazine)|Wired.com]] reported that the office of former Republican Senator [[Conrad Burns]] had also edited critical passages.<ref name=Borland07/>

According to Maltastar.com from August 16, WikiScanner has shown edits by other large organizations, including [[Amnesty International]], [[Apple Inc.]], [[ChevronTexaco]], [[The Coca-Cola Company|Coca-Cola]], the British [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]], [[Dell]], [[EA Games]], [[ExxonMobil]], the [[FBI]], ''[[The Guardian]]'', [[Microsoft]], [[MySpace]], the [[National Rifle Association of America]], [[Nestlé]], ''[[News of the World]]'', the ''[[New York Times]]'', the [[Government of Portugal]], the US [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]], [[Reuters]], [[Sony]], the [[United Nations]], [[Walmart]], and a dog breeding association.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.maltastar.com/pages/msFullArt.asp?an=14323 |title=Student's program sends PR chaos in Wiki-scandal |publisher=Maltastar.com |date=August 16, 2007 |access-date=August 19, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071225102900/http://www.maltastar.com/pages/msFullArt.asp?an=14323 |archive-date=December 25, 2007}}</ref> The Canadian television network [[CTV Television Network|CTV]] reported edits by other organizations including [[Disney]] and the [[Government of Canada|Canadian government]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ctvnews.ca/government-computers-linked-to-wikipedia-edits-1.252825 |title=Government computers linked to Wikipedia edits |date=August 16, 2007 |access-date=August 20, 2007 |publisher=CTV}}</ref>

Reuters reported that CIA computers were used to edit an article regarding the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq, including editing a chart showing casualties.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=August 16, 2007 |title=CIA and FBI computers used for Wikipedia edits |language=en |work=[[Reuters]]|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/oukin-uk-security-wikipedia-idUKN1642896020070816 |access-date=January 27, 2023}}</ref> CIA computers also edited the article for former CIA chief William Colby.<ref name=":0" /> Reuters reported that an FBI computer edited an article on the United States prison at Guantanamo Bay.<ref name=":0" />

On August 24, 2007, [[headline]] reports in the [[Australia]]n [[Printing|print]] and [[electronic media]] were made of anonymous edits to Wikipedia by staff in the [[Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet (Australia)|Australian Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet]] in order to remove potentially damaging details from articles related to the [[Government of Australia|Government]]. Information found using WikiScanner showed 126 anonymous edits from the department to articles on sometimes controversial issues and on government ministers.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/08/23/1187462441687.html |title=PM's staff edited Wikipedia |date=August 24, 2007 |access-date=August 25, 2007 |work=[[Sydney Morning Herald]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/government-caught-wikiwatching/2007/08/23/1187462438744.html |title=Government caught Wiki-watching |date=August 24, 2007 |access-date=August 25, 2007 |work=[[The Age]] |location=Melbourne |first1=Asher |last1=Moses}}</ref> The department responded by saying that [[Prime Minister of Australia|Prime Minister]] [[John Howard]] did not direct his staff to modify the articles,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/24/2013984.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070825064958/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/24/2013984.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 25, 2007 |title=PM 'not behind Wikipedia edits' |date=August 24, 2007 |access-date=August 25, 2007 |publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]}}</ref> and later that day the head of the department said that the changes were not made by anyone in his department or the Prime Minister's office, but by another user with the same [[Internet service provider]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/24/2014759.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071102105801/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/24/2014759.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 2, 2007 |title=PM's Dept denies making Wikipedia changes |date=August 24, 2007 |access-date=August 25, 2007 |publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]}}</ref> Wikiscanner also identified [[Department of Defence (Australia)|Australian Department of Defence]] (DoD) employees as having made over 5,000 edits, prompting an unprecedented announcement from the DoD to block Defence staff from editing Wikipedia in case edits were interpreted as official comment.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22299568-911,00.html |title=PM's staff edit Wikipedia entries |date=August 24, 2007 |access-date=August 24, 2007 |work=The Advertiser}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/24/2013756.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070825112814/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/24/2013756.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 25, 2007 |title=Defence blocks staff's Wikipedia access |date=August 24, 2007 |access-date=August 25, 2007 |publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]}}</ref>

On August 26, 2007, ''[[The Boston Globe]]'' published an editorial about Wikipedia, described as a "democratic fountain of facts" and related WikiScanner technology, reporting as among those companies found to have edited Wikipedia were [[Pepsi]], [[Wal-Mart]], [[ExxonMobil]] and [[Shell plc|Royal Dutch Shell]], in which specific case "In 2005, someone using a computer inside Royal Dutch Shell, the oil company, rewrote a benign description of the company, claiming it is 'run by a group of geriatrics who find it impossible to make timely decisions and have an aversion to highly-profitable ventures.'"<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/08/26/behind_the_e_curtain/ |work=The Boston Globe |title=Behind the e-curtain |date=August 26, 2007}}</ref> The WikiScanner story was also covered by ''[[The Independent]]'', which stated that many "censorial interventions" by editors with vested interests on a variety of articles in Wikipedia had been discovered.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article2874112.ece |title=Wikipedia and the art of censorship |last=Verkaik |first=Robert |date=August 18, 2007 |work=The Independent |access-date=September 17, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090109005336/http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article2874112.ece |archive-date=January 9, 2009 |location=London}}</ref>

On December 18, 2007, ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune magazine]]'' mentioned the use of WikiScanner in the 96th of its list of the "101 Dumbest Moments in Business", saying, "A ''Washington Post'' employee is found to have changed a reference to the owner of a rival paper from [[Philip Anschutz]] to [[Charles Manson]], while someone at ''The New York Times'' added the word 'jerk' 12 times to the entry on George W. Bush."<ref>{{cite news |title=101 Dumbest Moments in Business - 96. WikiScanner |work=Fortune |url=https://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0712/gallery.101_dumbest.fortune/96.html |date=December 17, 2007 |access-date=December 18, 2007}}</ref>

During the period of May 27 to June 4, 2008, edits originating from an IP address belonging to [[Industry Canada]] were made to the [[Jim Prentice]] (Federal [[Minister of Industry (Canada)|Minister of Industry]]) article on Wikipedia. The edits included the removal of references to new copyright legislation and the addition of two passages about Prentice's recent accomplishments as Minister of Industry.<ref name=CBC1>{{cite news |first=Peter |last=Nowak |title=Government buffing Prentice's Wikipedia entry |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/government-buffing-prentice-s-wikipedia-entry-1.703403 |publisher=CBC News |location=Canada |access-date=June 4, 2008 |date=June 4, 2008}}</ref><ref name=Geist1>{{cite web |url=http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2999/125/ |title=Prentice's Staff Scrubbing Copyright Controversy From Wikipedia Entry |publisher=michaelgeist.ca |access-date=June 4, 2008 |last=Geist |first=Michael |archive-date=April 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419082822/http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2999/125/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Wikipedia reaction==
Wikipedia co-founder [[Jimmy Wales]] spoke enthusiastically about WikiScanner, noting that "It brings an additional level of transparency to what's going on at Wikipedia"<ref name=AP/> and that it was "fabulous and I strongly support it."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.technewsworld.com/story/58856.html |title=New Tool Outs Would-Be Wikipedia Tricksters |date=August 15, 2007 |access-date=August 16, 2007 |publisher=TechNewsWorld |first=Katherine |last=Noyes}}</ref> The BBC quoted an unnamed Wikipedia spokesperson's praise for the tool in taking transparency "to another level" and preventing "an organisation or individuals from editing articles that they're really not supposed to."<ref name=BBC/> In responding to the edits from the Canadian Ministry of Industry, spokesman for the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] Jay Walsh noted that neutrality of language and guarding against conflicts of interest are two of the central pillars of Wikipedia, adding that "The edits which should be trusted would come from people who don't possess a conflict of interest, in this case, it would be worthwhile saying that if someone is making edits from a computer within the government of Canada … if it was someone within that ministry, that would theoretically constitute a conflict of interest."<ref name=wikimedia1>{{cite news |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/copyright-rewrite-war-rages-on-prentice-wikipedia-page/article1055972/ |title=Copyright rewrite war rages on Prentice Wikipedia page |first=Bruce |last=Cheadle |agency=The Canadian Press |location=Ottawa |date=June 6, 2008 |work=The Globe and Mail |access-date=October 9, 2010}}</ref>

Wales speculated on a possible warning to anonymous editors: "When someone clicks on 'edit,' it would be interesting if we could say, 'Hi, thank you for editing. We see you're logged in from ''The New York Times''. Keep in mind that we know that, and it's public information' … That might make them stop and think."<ref name=NYT />

==See also==
*[[Reliability of Wikipedia]]
*[[Seigenthaler incident]], one of several scandals involving anonymous hoaxes on Wikipedia
*[[WHOIS]]
*[[Wiki-Watch]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160314095050/http://virgil.gr/wikiscanner/ WikiScanner], Virgil Griffiths page about wikiscanner.
* [http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0816/morningireland_av.html?2279827,null,209 Listen] to an [[RTÉ]] news piece on WikiScanner (RealPlayer required).August 16, 2007
* [http://www.slate.com/id/2172703/nav/ais A new website unmasks Wikipedia's vandals] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070827174211/http://www.slate.com/id/2172703/nav/ais/ |date=August 27, 2007 }} - by Michael Agger, ''[[Slate.com]]'',August 24, 2007
* {{cite news |url=http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article2874112.ece |title=Wikipedia and the art of censorship |date=August 18, 2007 |first=Robert |last=Verkaik |work=The Independent |access-date=August 20, 2007 |location=London |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070820145110/http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article2874112.ece |archive-date=August 20, 2007}}
* [http://computer.howstuffworks.com/wikipedia-scanner.htm How the Wikipedia Scanner Works] on [[howstuffworks.com]]
* {{cite web |url=http://wikiscan.org |title=Users' traffic data on all WIki projects |website=wikiscan.org}} – similar current site.

{{COI on Wikipedia}}
{{Wikipedia}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}

[[Category:Conflict-of-interest editing on Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Internet privacy]]
[[Category:Internet Protocol]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 2007]]

WikiScanner - Revision history

imported>Cewbot: Convert Fondazione Bruno Kessler to wikilink (The bot operation is completed 89.9% in total)