The Hunt for Wikipedia's Disinformation Moles | WIRED

The Hunt for Wikipedia's Disinformation Moles | WIRED: The%20fact%20that%20the%20research%20focused%20on%20bad%20actors%20who%20were%20already%20found%20and%20rooted%20out%20may%20also%20show%20that%20Wikipedia%u2019s%20system%20is%20working%2C%20adds%20O%u2019Neil.%20But%20while%20the%20study%20did%20not%20produce%20a%20%u201Csmoking%20gun%2C%u201D%20it%20could%20be%20invaluable%20to%20Wikipedia%3A%20%u201CThe%20study%20is%20really%20a%20first%20attempt%20at%20describing%20suspicious%20editing%20behavior%20so%20we%20can%20use%20those%20signals%20to%20find%20it%20elsewhere%2C%u201D%20says%20Miller.%0A%0AVictoria%20Doronina%2C%20a%20member%20of%20the%20Wikimedia%20Foundation%u2019s%20board%20of%20trustees%20and%20a%20molecular%20biologist%2C%20says%20that%20Wikipedia%20has%20historically%20been%20targeted%20by%20coordinated%20attacks%20by%20%u201Ccabals%u201D%20that%20aim%20to%20bias%20its%20content.%0A%0A%u201CWhile%20individual%20editors%20act%20in%20good%20faith%2C%20and%20a%20combination%20of%20different%20points%20of%20view%20allows%20the%20creation%20of%20neutral%20content%2C%20off-Wiki%20coordination%20of%20a%20specific%20group%20allows%20it%20to%20skew%20the%20narrative%2C%u201D%20she%20says.%20If%20Miller%20and%20its%20researchers%20are%20correct%20in%20identifying%20state%20strategies%20for%20influencing%20Wikipedia%2C%20the%20next%20struggle%20on%20the%20horizon%20could%20be%20%u201CWikimedians%20versus%20state%20propaganda%2C%u201D%20Doronina%20adds.%0A%0AThe%20analyzed%20behavior%20of%20the%20bad%20actors%2C%20Miller%20says%2C%20could%20be%20used%20to%20create%20models%20that%20can%20detect%20disinformation%20and%20find%20how%20just%20how%20vulnerable%20the%20platform%20is%20to%20the%20forms%20of%20systematic%20manipulation%20that%20have%20been%20exposed%20on%20Facebook%2C%20Twitter%2C%20YouTube%2C%20Reddit%2C%20and%20other%20major%20platforms.%0A%0AThe%20English-language%20edition%20of%20Wikipedia%20has%201%2C026%20administrators%20monitoring%20over%206.5%20million%20pages%2C%20the%20most%20articles%20of%20any%20edition.%20Tracking%20down%20bad%20actors%20has%20mostly%20relied%20on%20someone%20reporting%20suspicious%20behavior.%20But%20much%20of%20this%20behavior%20may%20not%20be%20visible%20without%20the%20right%20tools.%20In%20terms%20of%20data%20science%2C%20it%27s%20difficult%20to%20analyze%20Wikipedia%20data%20because%2C%20unlike%20a%20tweet%20or%20a%20Facebook%20post%2C%20Wikipedia%20has%20many%20versions%20of%20the%20same%20text.%0A%0AAs%20Miller%20explains%20it%2C%20%u201Ca%20human%20brain%20just%20simply%20can%27t%20identify%20hundreds%20of%20thousands%20of%20edits%20across%20hundreds%20of%20thousands%20of%20pages%20to%20see%20what%20the%20patterns%20are%20like.%u201D%0A%0A%0A