New Wikipedia Policy: Editors Must OK Changes to Bios of Living People
Back in the day, it may have been more acceptable to allow virtually anyone to make changes to a Wikipedia entry and simply correct it, after the fact, if the new information was wrong.
But the open-source online encyclopedia is now routinely relied on as a source of information by millions. So, because of the damage that can be done by erroneous information, Wikipedia’s nonprofit governing body is about to implement a major policy concerning English-language articles about living people, according to the New York Times.
Within weeks, the Wikimedia Foundation plans to launch a “flagged revisions” program that will require a trusted editor to approve changes to the biographical information contained in such articles, the newspaper reports.
“We are no longer at the point that it is acceptable to throw things at the wall and see what sticks,” says Seattle attorney Michael Snow, who serves as the chairman of the foundation’s board of trustees. “There was a time probably when the community was more forgiving of things that were inaccurate or fudged in some fashion—whether simply misunderstood or an author had some ax to grind. There is less tolerance for that sort of problem now.”
The new flagged revisions policy follows an incident earlier this year in which vandals changed information about Sen. Edward Kennedy and Sen. Robert Byrd, falsely reporting the “death” of each man, the Times notes.
Hat tip: Wired
Earlier related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “How N.Y. Times Pretty Much Kept Reporter’s Kidnapping Off Wikipedia”
ABAJournal.com: “Wikipedia Bans Scientologists from Editing Articles About Own Religion”
