Germany tightens control of Wikipedia edits

By Matt Chapman on Sep 24, 2007 2:55 PM
Filed under Software

Germany will be the first country to wield tighter control of the user information posted on Wikipedia.

The German language version of the online encyclopaedia will restrict instant editing to allow "trusted editors" to look over the content before it appears online.

The changes will come into effect later this year, and could be applied to the English language version of Wikipedia if feedback from users is positive.

Allowing anyone to edit the site is supposed to allow experts in a given field to provide the correct information, but Wikipedia's accuracy and unbiased nature has been called into question.

American student Virgil Griffith invented a Wikipedia scanner that matches the IP addresses of companies and organisations to see whether they have edited any entries.

Griffith cited several worrying examples, including the CIA editing a page on the 2003 invasion of Iraq to highlight the "speculative" nature of civilian casualty figures.

Sony, meanwhile, was caught editing information about Microsoft's upcoming Halo 3 game.