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And students are more likely to check other hits, perhaps being more realistic about the expectations of Wikipedia—which for many teachers seems to have become gospel. And students are more likely to check other hits, perhaps being © WikiScanning revelations more realistic about the expectations of Wikipedia—which for This has underlined some serious problems with the second many teachers seems to have become gospel. pillar of WikiWorld: tolerance. But what about Sarfatti's Orwellian claims that Wikipedia is the Ministry of Truth—i.e., When lies cause detention Lies? On 14 August 2007, Wired reported that CalTech So far, only a few egos seem to have been bruised. But Robert computation and neural-systems graduate student Virgil Griffith Fisk, in the British newspaper The Independent, reported on 21 had created the "Wikipedia Scanner", which "offers users a April 2007 on the experience of Taner Akcam, a Turkish historian searchable database that ties millions of anonymous Wikipedia and writer. Akgam faces prosecution in Turkey for writing about edits to organizations where those edits apparently originated, by the Armenian genocide. However, due to the vandalising of cross-referencing the edits with data on who owns the associated Akcam's Wikipedia entry, which accused him of being a member block of Internet IP addresses". of a terrorist group, he was detained by Canadian border police on "I came up with the idea when I heard about Congressmen 17 February 2007. This is acknowledged in the Wikipedia entry, getting caught for white-washing their Wikipedia pages," he says which can now only be edited by registered users—though on his website (http://virgil.gr/31.html). Griffith became very anyone can still register for free, and registration only leaves intrigued when, on 17 November 2005, an anonymous Wikipedia y g g y g y P' some trace of who made the entry, nothing user deleted 15 paragraphs from an article on more. e-voting machine vendor Diebold, excising an Taner Akcam wrote to Fisk, stating: entire section critical of the company's "Additional to the criminal investigation (law machines. Griffith traced those changes to an 301) in Turkey, there is a hate campaign IP address reserved for the corporate offices of going on here in the USA, as a result of Diebold itself. which I cannot travel internationally any Due to the Wired concluded that when the new data- more... My recent detention at the Montreal vandalising of mining service was launched, it traced airport—apparently on the basis of ' ony . millions of Wikipedia entries to their sources, anonymous insertions in my Wikipedia Akcam i) Wikipedia and for the first time put "comprehensive data hoary a durtng aw hss entry, which (falsely) | hind nesanding suspicions intensified since the November 2006 accused him of only piecemeal in investigations of specific publication of my book." H allegations". In short, Griffith proved Sarfatti Fisk continued: "Akcam was released, but being a member of and others’ conspiracy theory. his reflections on this very disturbing a terrorist group, Griffith has compiled lists of different incident are worth recording. ‘It was he was detained corporations and government branches that have abused the "trust" of Wikipedia essentially to edit the truth out of existence, replacing it with a PR- friendly fagade favourable not to the facts or any sense of neutrality but only to the interests of the parties concerned. The WikiScanner page (see http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr) lists a few "favourites" which include the CIA, the Vatican and the Church of Scientology. You might expect that the CIA would unlikely, to say the least, that a Canadian immigration officer found out that I was coming to Montreal, took the sole initiative to research my identity on the internet, discovered the archived version of my Wikipedia biography, printed it out on 16 February, and showed it to me—voila!—as a result.’ "But this was not the end. Prior to his Canadian visit, two Turkish-American websites had been hinting that Akgam's ‘terrorist activities’ should be of interest make the biggest use of this tool, to to American immigration authorities. spread propaganda, but such thinking And sure enough, Akcam was detained yet again—for another would be too primitive: a multibillion-dollar agency that has by Canadian border police on 17 February 2007. hour—by US Homeland Security officers at Montreal airport existed for 60 years has better and less traceable methodologies at before boarding his flight at Montreal for Minnesota two days later. its disposal. Still, rather interesting and somewhat humorous is "On this occasion, he says that the American officer—US that, on the profile of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a Homeland Security operates at the Canadian airport—gave him a worker on the CIA network added the exclamation "Wahhhhhh!" warning: 'Mr Akcam, if you don't retain an attorney and correct before a section on the leader's plans for his presidency. A this issue, every entry and exit from the country is going to be warning on the profile of the anonymous editor read: "You have problematic. We recommend that you do not travel in the recently vandalised a Wikipedia article, and you are now being meantime and that you try to get this information removed from asked to stop this type of behaviour." It seems that one CIA your customs dossier.’ worker also tweaked the profile of Oprah Winfrey—an edit which "So let's get this clear," Fisk continued. "US and Canadian hopefully occurred during a lunch break. officials now appear to be detaining the innocent on the grounds More interestingly, WikiScanner uncovered that the Vatican of hate postings on the internet. And it is the innocent—guilty edited entries about Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams. The edit until proved otherwise, I suppose—who must now pay lawyers to removed links to newspaper stories written in 2006 that alleged protect them from Homeland Security and the internet. But as that Mr Adams's fingerprints and handprints had been found on a Akcam says, there is nothing he can do," he concluded. car used in 1971 in connection with a double murder. The As the platform on which this false propaganda was offered, Vatican spokesman, Jesuit father Federico Lombardi, clarified on Wikipedia should accept part of the blame. Vatican Radio on 17 August 2007 that accusations saying that the Due to the vandalising of Akcam's Wikipedia entry, which (falsely) accused him of being a member of a terrorist group, he was detained by Canadian border Police on 297 FL -—_- AAA 14 = NEXUS 17 February 2007. www.nexusmagazine.com OCTOBER —- NOVEMBER 2007