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Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

wikiwho.ailef.tech

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Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#1

Post by ailef »

Hi HN!

Wikiwho is a tool that scans Wikipedia edits and extracts those coming from specific IP ranges associated to known organizations. I've made this as a for-fun side project two years ago.

If you want to read more on how it works I've written a short blog article about it here: https://ailef.tech/2020/04/18/discovering-wikipedia-edits-ma...

I had already posted it here at the time (previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22907200) but I've now decided to release the code openly, hence the repost.

If you're insterested, you can check the repo here: https://github.com/aileftech/wikiwho (disclaimer: the code is a bit clumsy).

Cheers!

Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments
wikiwho.ailef.tech

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#2

Post by ailef »

One amusing edit: http://wikiwho.ailef.tech/diff/7d674d710c8d1328f0f74f6b351ff...

IPs from the European Parliament editing out connections to Cambridge Analytica from Alex Phillips' (member of the European Parliament) page: http://wikiwho.ailef.tech/diff/584f4588ec12334300a448f39ae4c...

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#3

Post by culi »

One of the Navy Network Information Center (NNIC)'s top edits is the Subic rape case.[0] Predictably and, unfortunately, it's essentially all edits trying to play down the case or cast doubt

I've been a Wikipedia editor for a few years now (mostly botany-related pages) and I've been quite the pessimist about the platform for almost as long. But browsing this website has gotten me really demoralized to be honest. Many of these edits seem like individual contributors, but some of these look downright coordinated

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subic_rape_case

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#5

Post by pastacacioepepe »

culi wrote: post #3

One of the Navy Network Information Center (NNIC)'s top edits is the Subic rape case.[0] Predictably and, unfortunately, it's essentially all edits trying to play down the case or cast doubt I've been a Wikipedia editor for a few years now (mostly botany-related pages) and I've been quite the pessimist about the platform for almost as long. But browsing this website has gotten me really demoralized to be honest. Many…

I completely lost trust in Wikipedia once I realized recent history is literally being rewritten by biased editors.

For one, check the edit history of anything Russia/Ukraine war related, it's a complete shitshow.

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#7

Post by Sophira »

This is amazing. Thank you for making this!

I want to highlight one part from the About page[0], as it's important enough to bear repeating:

> Any information that you find with this tool must be independently verified. The mapping between IP ranges and organizations has been compiled from multiple sources and has not been manually verified so it is certain that it contains inaccuracies.

I do have a question about this tool. Is there a page that lists all the organizations in the dataset?

[0] http://wikiwho.ailef.tech/about.html

[edited to ask a question]

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#8

Post by newsclues »

culi wrote: post #3

One of the Navy Network Information Center (NNIC)'s top edits is the Subic rape case.[0] Predictably and, unfortunately, it's essentially all edits trying to play down the case or cast doubt I've been a Wikipedia editor for a few years now (mostly botany-related pages) and I've been quite the pessimist about the platform for almost as long. But browsing this website has gotten me really demoralized to be honest. Many…

I am convinced the military has teams dedicated to maintaining their wikipedia information.

And that isn't including a high ranking commander having their subordinates do something for them unofficially.

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#9

Post by thedudeabides5 »

Org/Page Search not working here fwi.

Great transparency, now where are the foreign service firm and their proxies.

You are telling me the FSB and the United Front aren't editing Wiki?

I've had them edit my stuff, so know it's happening. Just not sure the scale.

Re: Show HN: Explore Wikipedia edits made by institutions, companies and governments

#10

Post by SapporoChris »

skilled wrote: post #6

I have to say, this is depressing to see just how corrupt brands and institutions are to protect their own bullshit. Nevertheless, great work and a very useful project.

A more charitable conclusion would be that brands and institutions want to ensure that accurate information is available. If a company is 5th largest yet they're shown as 6th then of course they want to correct the entry. However, I agree it's probably abused to remove any unflattering information.

Wikipedia does have a number of editing guidelines, dispute resolutions, etc. It appears they have tried to combat abuse, but I'm sure HN readers can find many failures :)

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