Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales is looking to tighten his website’s rules about editors altering pages with which they have a conflict of interest.
Wales renewed interest in the policies follows a Washington Examiner report that a crewmember of “The Hunting Ground,” a one-sided film about campus sexual assault, had been editing Wikipedia pages to promote the film and conform facts to its narrative.
“I have long advocated that we should deal much more quickly and much more severely with [Conflict of Interest] editors,” Wales wrote after citing the Examiner. “The usual objections (from some quarters — I think most people agree with me) have to do with it being hard to detect them, but in this case, the COI was called out, warnings were issued, and nothing was done. Now the editor has been called out by the media embarrassing him (he deserves it), his employer (who may not), and Wikipedia.”
Another Wikipedia editor, KirkCliff2, chimed in on the thread by suggesting that the crewmember didn’t break just COI rules but also Wikipedia’s rules against gaming the system and neutrality. This editor also noted how Edward Patrick Alva, “The Hunting Ground” crew member, “has also been fairly disingenuous about his actions” and had been “shamelessly plugging the movie and the ‘stars’ thereof.”
Alva had made multiple edits to the Wikipedia pages of subjects from his film, including former Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston, who was accused of rape by fellow FSU student Erica Kinsman. Some of Alva’s edits included removing information that cast doubt on Kinsman’s story and made the Tallahassee police look worse — in line with how the movie portrays the situation.
KirkCliff2, who wrote that he is “a veteran editor who rarely even weighs in on such issues” believes Alva “must be banned.” Other editors were not so quick to rush to punishment.
Another editor, whose username is BullRangifer, suggested Wikipedia not become “a kangaroo court or lynching” by rushing to ban accounts who break COI. BullRangifer suggested following seven steps to determine whether “The Hunting Ground” crew member should be banned and whether his edits should be removed. Some of the steps included how he handled questions related to his edits and whether he stuck to discussion pages to ask for edits rather than making them himself.
Alva weighed in on the discussion in a separate thread, saying that his user page had been “vandalized” since the Examiner story broke. He also said he had “been up-front” about his affiliation with the film and defended his edits.
A Wikipedia editor responded to his comments by suggesting it was “best that you step away from editing in this subject area entirely.” Another editor suggested that “the source leading the charge” against Alva (the Examiner) “is one we don’t typically take as reliable for contentious social/political issues.”
Other editors suggested that Alva’s disruptive edits were obvious breaches of Wikipedia’s COI rules.
The discussion continued throughout Monday, but there have been no updates since. Wales did not immediately respond to an Examiner request to comment. This post will be updated if that changes.
