Posted by: : Category: Uncategorized
Wikipedia has banned the Church of Scientology from editing any articles as punishment for repeated and deceptive editing of articles related to the controversial religion, a landmark ruling from the site’s inner circle which prides itself on being open and inclusive.
In a 10-1 ruling Thursday, the site’s arbitration counsel voted to ban users coming from all IP addresses owned by the Church of Scientology and its associates, and further banned a number of editors by name. The story was first reported by The Register.
Self-serving Wikipedia edits are hardly new. Wired.com readers pulled in an award for discovering the most egregious Wikipdia whitewashes by corporation and government agencies, but this is the first time the site has taken such drastic actions to block such edits.
The Church of Scientology, founded by sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard in 1953, has had a long and bloody history on the web, where critics maintain that the organization is a cult that brainwashes its members and sucks them dry financially. The Church, which teaches that humans are reincarnated and lived on other planets, says it is a legitimate religion.
The case, which began in December, centers on more than 400 articles about the ultra-secretive Church and its members. Those pages have hosted long-running, and fierce edit wars that pitted organized Church of Scientology editors — using multiple accounts — versus critics of Scientology who fought those changes by citign their own or each other’s self-published material. In fact, this is the fourth Wikipedia arbitration case concerning Scientology in as many years.
The Committee also banned a number of editors individually, prohibiting them from editing any Scientology-related articles for at least six months. Those privileges can be re-instated afterwards if they show they can play nicely by Wikipedia’s rules.
While most disputes involving the Web and Scientology in the past year have involved anti-Scientology activists who bind toghther under the name Anonymous, that group is largely not involved in this argument, since only registered accounts are able to edit the articles under dispute.
The Church of Scientology did not immediately return a voice message, asking for comment.
See Also:
- ‘Anonymous’ Member Pleads Guilty To Scientology Web Attacks
- Wired 3.12: alt.scientology.war
- Scientology Shares Secrets on YouTube … Sort Of
- War Breaks Out Between Hackers and Scientology — There Can Be Only
- Google Yanks Anti-Church Sites
Source: Ryan Singel
