Wikimedia Foundation wants editing services firm Wiki-PR to immediately stop editing the site.
In case you're wondering why this move has been initiated, it is because Wiki-PR has purportedly authored articles in lieu of money and has passed them off as written by impartial sources.
"The Wikimedia community of volunteer writers, editors, photographers, and other contributors has built Wikipedia into the world's most popular encyclopedia, with a reputation for transparency, objectivity, and lack of bias. When outside publicity firms and their agents conceal or misrepresent their identity by creating or allowing false, unauthorized, or misleading user accounts, Wikipedia's reputation is harmed," per law firm Patrick P. Gunn's email to Wiki-PR CEO Jordan French.
Wikipedia and other sites are hosted by the foundation and maintained by a community of volunteers. The site's terms of use also caution against "attempting to impersonate another user or individual, misrepresenting your affiliation with any individual or entity, or using the username of another user with the intent to deceive..."
"Wiki-PR is working with the Wikimedia foundation and its counsel to sort this out," said Wiki-PR CEO Jordan French in an email.
French indicated that the problem may get sorted by middle of next week.
Wiki-PR offers Wikipedia page creation, translation services and monitoring, and its website does not state that it directly edits Wikipedia.
Editors of Wikipedia (English version) have begun examining the allegations of "sockpuppetry" and suspicious edits, said Sue Gardner, executive director of Wikimedia in a blog post in October.
"Editors on the English Wikipedia are currently investigating allegations of suspicious edits and sockpuppetry (i.e. using online identities for purposes of deception). At this point, as reported, it looks like a number of user accounts -- perhaps as many as several hundred -- may have been paid to write articles on Wikipedia promoting organizations or products, and have been violating numerous site policies and guidelines, including prohibitions against sockpuppetry and undisclosed conflicts of interest," per the blog post at the time.
As a result, Wikipedia blocked or debarred more than 250 user accounts as it seemed that more than several hundred accounts were paid to write articles on the site, which promoted products or organizations - a violation of its policies.
The Wikimedia Foundation has insisted that Wiki-PR stop any further editing of Wikipedia until it has fulfilled the terms and conditions of the company and would consider legal action if there is no compliance.
