WikipediaGate. So: Why is it called "Gate"?
August 31, 2007 Leave a comment
Okay, I know. I’m from the ‘Watergate‘ era, during the Nixon years.
Since then, we’ve had:
- NannyGate (hiring a sitter and failing to pay payroll taxes)
- NippleGate (The unfortunate ‘wardrobe malfunction‘ at Super Bowl XXXVIII, starring Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake)
- .. there was even a GoogleGate, back in 2005.
Now I’m hearing WikipediaGate.
Essentially, it describes the situation created when an article is edited to benefit an individual or organization. This could be someone who writes their own, inflating their contributions, an organization removing unfavorable bits about itself (or hiding the truth entirely), or any number of similar, FBO entries.
Up until recently, most anyone with an account could edit an article on Wikipedia. Entries and updates were rudimentarily tracked.
Then, along came WikiScanner, a nifty tool that tracks who (by IP and other means) posted what, when and where.
Allegedly, CIA and FBI computers were used to edit posts in Wikipedia. Topics include the Iraq situation and the prison at Guantanamo.
Not that I’m political (I’m really not), but: why would the government want to change articles?
As the changes will likely violate Wikipedia’s conflict-of-interest guidelines (duh), I suspect we’ll hear more about this by the outraged web as time goes by.
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