The English-language version of the online encyclopedia has been hit by a campaign of misinformation and manipulation, researchers say. The target: the article on the war between Russia and Ukraine.
On the English version of Wikipedia, one of the most visited pages of the year is the one dedicated to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. However, according to a study conducted by two think tanks English and relayed by Gizmodo on October 18, the article has, on numerous occasions, been vandalized in order to put forward a pro-Russian discourse.
In all, since the start of the invasion in February 2022, Wikipedia administrators have had to ban 89 editors from the page (including 3 bots), and undo their edits. These would have violated Wikipedia rules by engaging in vandalism, abuse and personal attacks, for infringement of intellectual property, and for corruption ”, according to the observations of the study. Through their action, these publishers tried to give pride of place to the Russian version of the facts.
Hundreds of edits on Wikipedia
In all, the 86 banned human editors are responsible for 681 interventions on the page, the study says. They represent only 8% of all the changes that have occurred on the article since the beginning of the conflict. However, the changes made by the editors all relayed the Moscow version, and were often accompanied by links from Russian state media.
Besides adding pro-Kremlin sources to the article, the editors had 4 main goals, the study points out. They have ” cast doubt on the objectivity of the article », by modifying the text of the article in order to discredit the sources « pro-western and make pro-Kremlin sources appear more honest. The editors have also added passages of text supporting the Russian government versions and deleted those doing the opposite.
Another of their missions seems to have been to tackle historical subjects, in order to put forward a vision of history more favorable to Russia. Finally, their last role was to add quotes from Moscow directly in the text of the article in order to increase the presence of Russian arguments.
The editors did not modify only the page on the war between Russia and Ukraine. The other articles they edited concerned Iraq, Libya, and the terrorist organization Islamic State. Finally, the editors have also made changes to less geopolitical pages, such as those of airlines.
The authors of the study underline the fact that the editors seem to have coordinated to carry out their alterations, because several of them “ constantly shared the same links to Russian state media in the articles.
Concerted action between publishers
Despite all these elements, it is difficult to conclude that the action was mandated by a State. ” There are few known examples of illicit behavior on Wikipedia that can clearly be attributed to a state. “say the authors of the research. ” The easiest way to prove their involvement is to find the changes made from a government-owned IP address. »
Hiding an IP address is very easy, however, and there are groups and companies that specialize in manipulating Wikipedia pages. The most obvious attempt at instrumentalization by a state was exposed in September 2021, when the Wikimedia Foundation banned a dozen Chinese administrators, who had “ infiltrated the platform. »
The online encyclopedia is often the target of acts of manipulation. One of the most visited sites in the world, Wikipedia also offers the possibility to any Internet user to make changes to articles, and it is up to the volunteer administrators of the encyclopedia to ensure the validity and the relevance of these additions. To make it easier, however, some sensitive topics may be locked to newcomers.
Volunteers with responsibilities within Wikipedia must therefore regularly face attempts at manipulation, whether by political groups seeking to promote their ideas, by parties trying to embellish the CVs of their electoral candidates, or sometimes out of boredom or to promote a product or service.