Is the Wikipedia community under threat?

Our latest investigation with CASM Technology looking into information manipulation on Wikipedia is covered in WIRED.

Highly regarded by many, including tech platforms themselves, to be a trusted source of information, Wikipedia faces unique challenges in ensuring its information stays current, unbiased and undisturbed. ISD and CASM Technology set out to understand the threats Wikipedia, and its community of editors, faces and the current responses in place.

With extensive knowledge on the latest in information warfare, ISD and CASM used tested technologies and methods to uncover any suspicious activity, specifically in the case of the English-language Russo-Ukraine war page and the editors that helped craft the narrative. We honed in on 86 now-banned editors’ activity on the page and mapped their almost 800,000 edits across all of Wikipedia. The editors were found to be altering language and sometimes linking to state-backed media sources to source their claims.

“The main message that I have taken away from all of this is that the main danger is not vandalism. It’s entryism,” said Carl Miller, one of the co-authors of the report, referring to editors that may be attempt to infiltrate the community.

Our full report is available here.