Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-05-23/German scandal

Suspicious edits to election candidate article originated from national parliament

The

(SPD) after some 38 years in opposition in the region.

The scandal surrounded the Wikipedia entries for CDU Prime Ministerial candidate

were subject to removal and alteration.

Culprits in the German Parliament

Investigation of the IP address via reverse

neutrality

.

The edits from within the Bundestag led to the suspicion that party workers themselves were behind the attempts to manipulate Wikipedia content for political ends. However, tracing those responsible further than their location proved impossible, because of the way the parliament assigns its IP addresses. One IP may be used by any of the 600 members of parliament or their 6000 members of staff.

One attempt to pin down the suspect apparently didn't take this into account, and incorrectly pointed the finger at CDU parliamentarian Ole Schröder. Schröder was forced to issue a statement denying any involvement, and said those who had accused him of being responsible were 'uninformed'.

Protection for political articles proposed

High-profile elections are always likely to trigger a flurry of edits to articles relating to them, and to prevent a similar kind of attempt at manipulation in the future, some Wikipedianer proposed that relevant political articles be

and monitor them carefully for signs of biased edits. Temporary protection of articles was not ruled out though.

Mathias Schindler asked on his blog that people back away from the gamesmanship and find better ways of occupying their time. Among his suggested alternatives was translating the respective articles into other languages instead of fighting over them; so far, no article exists in English for either candidate.

Wikipedia is unlikely to have played a crucial role in the outcome of the election, as Rüttgers defeated Steinbrück by a decisive margin of 44%-37%. The result was a blow to

, much earlier than originally expected.