The Government Information Service has admitted on behalf of members of the Dutch royal family, Prince Friso and Princess Mabel, that they attempted to alter information on the princess in the English language version of the Internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia. They made a crucial cut in a quote from Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.
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| The Dutch Royal House on Queens Day 2005 in Scheveningen, the Netherlands. Wikipedia visitors Princess Mabel and Prince Friso are second and third from the left. Photo: (c) www.flickr.com/photos/grrrl/ |
The Prime Minister said the couple had given him "incomplete and false information" on the matter and refused to give official permission for them to marry. They got married anyway in 2004, but Friso lost his place in the line of succession to the throne.
Wikipedia is a multilingual Internet encyclopaedia, for which the users themselves provide the content. Anyone can add or remove information. The principle is that the users correct each other, thus producing a reliable encyclopaedia. However, this also makes Wikipedia susceptible to misuse, says Martin van Dalen of Wikipedia Netherlands.
"It quite often happens that people colour the information on themselves or the organisation they're involved with, or simply make publicity for themselves."Wikiscanner
In response, a student in the United States has developed Wikiscanner, a website that allows you to find out who is behind Wikipedia entries or alterations. Mr Van Dalen explains:
"You can use the software to locate the organisation or corporate body belonging to the IP address from which a change has been made in Wikipedia."Wikiscanner revealed that the word "false" had been removed from the quote from Jan Peter Balkenende, and the computer used to make the cut was at Queen Beatrix's royal palace, Huis ten Bosch.
Princess Mabel is by no means the first to be exposed by the scanner. The US Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA, has also been accused of altering information on Wikipedia, including entries on the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the head of the CIA, Porter Gross. The CIA has never admitted tampering with Wikipedia.
False or offensive informationThe Vatican has also tried to change information on Gerry Adams, leader of the Northern Irish republican party Sinn Féin, which is on the Catholic side of the region's religious divide. They tried to remove references to Mr Adam's involvement in a double murder.
Wikipedia says that many commercial companies have tried to influence information in the website as well. If it happens repeatedly, Wikipedia can decide to block the IP address of the computer used to make the changes.
In the Netherlands, for example, all computers belonging to Netherlands Public Broadcasting and Radio Netherlands Worldwide have been temporarily blocked from making changes to Wikipedia, because over the past two years there have been no less than 70 attempts by public broadcasting staff to post false or offensive information.
* RNW translation (mb)
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