Can we trust Wikipedia?

By Charles-Henry Ruyant

Wikipedia is the largest free online encyclopedia with over 12 million pages. It is funded by donations and volunteers (‘admins’) ensure the accuracy of the pages.

A few months ago a young Irish student from Dublin (Shane Fitzgerald) posted a fake poetic quote on the Maurice Jarre Wikipedia page following his death. Some newspapers (including the Guardian) used Shane’s quote in articles on the passing of the musician.

Maurice Jarre Wikipedia

Obviously some journalists did not check the accuracy and the source of the quote. However,Shane Fitzgerald’s experiment has sparked a debate about the accuracy and monitoring of Wikipedia.

Most people know that Wikipedia is not 100% correct all of the time but nevertheless it is regarded as a trustworthy source. It is easy to overlook the fact that it is still very easy to put pretty much whatever you want on it.

It is even easier when you have an auto-approve user login (once 10 of your modifications have been approved). All you have to do is to write something plausible on one of the less popular Wikipedia pages and here we go!

I tried this experiment for you using my boss (Maurice Lévy)! I added :‘Maurice Lévy is also famous for his quote ‘Viva la différence’ which is now the tagline of Publicis Group.’ to his Wikipedia page.

This statement is totally incorrect but plausible. In two minutes I have changed a Wikipedia page… now lets see how long this statement will stay on Wikipedia.

Maurice Levis Wikipedia

Fake Quote Wikipedia

This example shows how is easy to modify for at least a few minutes/hours a Wikipedia page and if you target the right page at the right moment you can do some damage!

Wikipedia is still a nice and useful tool but do be careful to double check the facts.