Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2007-05-21/Trafigura
Corporate editing lands in Dutch media
As demonstrated again last week, Wikipedia editions in other languages encounter similar challenges and confront common problems much like the English version. This time the Dutch Wikipedia was apparently the scene of corporate PR staff trying to modify an article in its favor, a discovery that made it into the national media there.
The company involved was
On this occasion the matter involved
The Dutch Probo Koala article had been untouched since January when on 15 May, an account named Press Office T NL began editing it. Based on the editor's statements, the T does in fact stand for Trafigura. The edits to the Probo Koala article tried to tone down the article and emphasize the company's efforts to comply with international regulations in handling the toxic waste.
After some back-and-forth with other contributors turned to reverting, the article was protected a little more than two hours later. The story was then reported in the Volkskrant, a Dutch national daily. Meanwhile, the article has been significantly expanded and is now unprotected again.
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