Now, on a personal level, I’m a big fan of Wikipedia. I think it is one of the most organised and accessible information sites out there but because of the very nature of its editability, it is very open to abuse. However, the scale of abuse appears to be somewhat larger than expected!!

An American student, Virgil Griffith has developed a program called the Wikipedia Scanner which scans the IP addresses of those who have editted pages within Wikipedia and then cross-references them against a directory of IP address owners. Some of the findings are a little alarming:

- Apple edit Microsoft entries and Microsoft edits Apple entries, adding more negative comments about each other

- In the 9/11 Wikipedia article, the NRA added that “Iraq was involved in 9/11�

- The Vatican edits Irish Catholic politician Gerry Adams page

- UN address calls journalist Oriana Fallaci a racist ‘prostitute’

- FBI edits Guantanamo Bay, removing numerous pictures

Griffith has admitted that it’s impossible to be sure if the edits were made by someone working at one of the organizations, although the I.P. address reveals that they were made by someone with access to their network, he says.

“If the edit occurred during working hours, then we can reasonably assume that the person is either an agent of that company or a guest that was allowed access to their network,” he wrote.

To find out more, click here for the original article at MaltaStar.com.