Vandalism on the Wikipedia

Allowing the public to edit Wikipedia articles and the presence of a large number of anonymous users leaves Wikipedia vulnerable to vandalism. The ease with which vandalism can be carried out was illustrated by the Izusu Experiment conducted by Professor Alexander Halavais of the School of Informatics at Buffalo University, where he made 13 changes to deliberately introduce factual errors into the Wikipedia¹. Even though Halavais intended to remove the changes after two weeks, this incident highlights how easy it is for vandalism of information in the Wikipedia to occur. In the run up to the 2004 U.S. elections, the vandalism carried out on Wikipedia pages of the Presidential candidates resulted in the pages being locked. Due to recent vandalism, the Wikipedia article for President George W. Bush is currently protected², which prevents new and anonymous users from editing the article.

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¹ Halavais, Alexander. "The Isuzu Experiment." a thaumaturgical compendium. 29 August 2004. School of Informatics, University at Buffalo, State University of New York. 21 February 2006.

² "George W. Bush." The Wikipedia. 16 February 2006.