Wikipedia's volunteer editor community has the responsibility of fact-checking Wikipedia's content.[1] Wikipedia has been considered one of the major free open source webpages, where millions can read, edit and post their views for free. This can be both on the grounds of dissemination of misinformation and disinformation publications.
Wikipedia's practice of flagging unsubstantiated information with "Citation needed" warnings has become almost synonymous with the need for fact checking more generally.
Therefore Wikipedia takes the effort to provide its users with the best possible verified sources. Fact-checking is an aspect of the broader reliability of Wikipedia.
Various academic studies about Wikipedia and the body of criticism of Wikipedia seek to describe the limits of Wikipedia's reliability, document who and how anyone uses Wikipedia for fact-checking, and what consequences result from the use of Wikipedia as a fact-checking resource. There are several low-quality article types on Wikipedia such as the self-contradictions.[2] These types of articles require improvement and noisy articles can be ruled out.
Major platforms including YouTube[3] and Facebook[4] use Wikipedia's content to confirm the accuracy of the information in their own media collections.
Wikipedia serves as a public resource for access to genuine information. One such is the COVID-19 information, where people can rely on the Wikipedia's page for genuine information.[5] Seeking public trust is a major part of Wikipedia's publication philosophy.[6] Various reader polls and studies have reported public trust in Wikipedia's process for quality control.[6][7] In general, the public uses Wikipedia to counter fake news.[8]
YouTube fact-checking
YouTube using Wikipedia for fact-checking
At the 2018 South by Southwest conference, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki made the announcement that YouTube was using Wikipedia to fact check videos which YouTube hosts.[3][9][10][11] No one at YouTube had consulted anyone at Wikipedia about this development, and the news at the time was a surprise.[9] The intent at the time was for YouTube to use Wikipedia as a counter to the spread of conspiracy theories.[9] This is done by adding new information boxes under some YouTube videos, thereby, attracting conspiracy theorists.
Facebook fact-checking
Facebook uses Wikipedia in various ways. Following criticism of Facebook in the context of fake news around the 2016 United States presidential election, Facebook recognized that Wikipedia already had an established process for fact-checking.[4] Facebook's subsequent strategy for countering fake news included using content from Wikipedia for fact-checking.[4][12] In 2020, Facebook began to provide information from Wikipedia's info boxes into its own general reference knowledge panels to provide objective information.[13]
Fact-checking Wikipedia
Fact-checking is one aspect of the general editing process in Wikipedia. The volunteer community develops a process for reference and fact-checking through community groups such as WikiProject Reliability.[8] Wikipedia has a reputation for cultivating a culture of fact-checking among its editors.[14] Wikipedia's fact-checking process depends on the activity of its volunteer community of contributors, who numbered 200,000 as of 2018.[1]
The development of fact-checking practices is ongoing in the Wikipedia editing community.[6] One development that took years was the 2017 community decision to declare a particular news source, Daily Mail, as generally unreliable as a citation for verifying claims.[6][15] Through strict guidelines on verifiability, Wikipedia has been combating misinformation.[16] According to Wikipedia guidelines, all articles on Wikipedia's mainspace must be verifiable.
Some of the core content policies include verifiability, no original research, and a neutral point of view. Materials must also comply with the copyright policy. While some of the key principles are copyright and plagiarism, neutrality, notability, and original research. While linking to sites such as Scribd or YouTube should be done with due care to avoid linking to material violating copyright.
Reliable sources
Wikipedia states that "if no reliable sources can be found on a topic, Wikipedia should not have an article on it." Here are some of the key features to consider to count a source as reliable: the work, author of the work, and publisher of the work.
Reliable sources are:
Base articles
Published materials
Scholarship
News organizations
Vendor and e-commerce sources
Academic and peer-reviewed
University-level textbooks
Books published by respected publishing houses
Academic and peer-reviewed sources publications are the most reliable sources. Not all newspapers and magazines can be considered reliable even though they may have credible sources. Wikipedia is still under discussion to consider magazines as a reliable source.
An experiment was conducted on detecting self-contradiction articles on Wikipedia using a developed model called "Pairwise Contradiction Neural Network" (PCNN).[17]
Contributions to this experiment are as follows:
A novel Wikipedia dataset named WikiContradiction was created which is the first dataset for self-contradiction tasks on Wikipedia.
A novel model PCNN was developed and was fine-tuned via the WikiContradiction dataset.
The empirical results exhibit the PCNN model's promising performance as well as highlight the most contradicted pairs.
The compiled WikiContradiction dataset can be used as a training resource for improving Wikipedia's articles.
This can further contribute to fact-checking and claim verification as well.
Limitations
When Wikipedia experiences vandalism, platforms that reuse Wikipedia's content may republish that vandalized content.[18] Vandalism is prohibited in Wikipedia.
Wikipedia suggests these steps for inexperienced beginners to handle vandalism: access, revert, warn, watch, and finally report.[19]
In 2018, Facebook and YouTube were major users of Wikipedia for its fact-checking functions, but those commercial platforms were not contributing to Wikipedia's free nonprofit operations in any way.[18] In 2016, journalists described how vandalism in Wikipedia undermines its use as a credible source.[20]
Self-contradiction limitations: The two main limitations of the self-contradiction PCNN model are the subjectivity of self-contradiction and not being able to deal with lengthy documents.
^ abTimmons, Heather; Kozlowska, Hanna (April 27, 2018). "200,000 volunteers have become the fact checkers of the internet". Quartz.
^Hsu, Cheng; Li, Cheng-Te; Saez-Trumper, Diego; Hsu, Yi-Zhan (2021). "WikiContradiction: Detecting Self-Contradiction Articles on Wikipedia". 2021 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data): 427–436. arXiv:2111.08543. doi:10.1109/BigData52589.2021.9671319. ISBN978-1-6654-3902-2. S2CID 244130115.
^ abGlaser, April (August 14, 2018). "YouTube Is Adding Fact-Check Links for Videos on Topics That Inspire Conspiracy Theories". Slate Magazine.
^ abcFlynn, Kerry (October 5, 2017). "Facebook outsources its fake news problem to Wikipedia—and an army of human moderators". Mashable.
^Benjakob, Omer (August 4, 2020). "Why Wikipedia is immune to coronavirus". Haaretz.
^ abcdIannucci, Rebecca (July 6, 2017). "What can fact-checkers learn from Wikipedia? We asked the boss of its nonprofit owner". Poynter Institute.
^Cox, Joseph (August 11, 2014). "Why People Trust Wikipedia More Than the News". Vice.
^ abZachary J. McDowell; Matthew A. Vetter (July 2020). "It Takes a Village to Combat a Fake News Army: Wikipedia's Community and Policies for Information Literacy". Social Media + Society. 6 (3): 205630512093730. doi:10.1177/2056305120937309. ISSN 2056-3051. Wikidata Q105083357.
^ abcMontgomery, Blake; Mac, Ryan; Warzel, Charlie (March 13, 2018). "YouTube Said It Will Link To Wikipedia Excerpts On Conspiracy Videos — But It Didn't Tell Wikipedia". BuzzFeed News.
^Feldman, Brian (March 16, 2018). "Why Wikipedia Works". Intelligencer. New York.
^Feldman, Brian (March 14, 2018). "Wikipedia Is Not Going to Save YouTube From Misinformation". Intelligencer. New York.
^Locker, Melissa (October 5, 2017). "Facebook thinks the answer to its fake news problems is Wikipedia". Fast Company.
^Perez, Sarah (June 11, 2020). "Facebook tests Wikipedia-powered information panels, similar to Google, in its search results". TechCrunch.
^Keller, Jared (June 14, 2017). "How Wikipedia Is Cultivating an Army of Fact Checkers to Battle Fake News". Pacific Standard.
^Rodriguez, Ashley (February 10, 2017). "In a first, Wikipedia has deemed the Daily Mail too "unreliable" to be used as a citation". Quartz.
^"Wikipedia:Verifiability", Wikipedia, April 18, 2022, retrieved April 19, 2022
^Hsu, Cheng; Li, Cheng-Te; Saez-Trumper, Diego; Hsu, Yi-Zhan (December 15, 2021). "WikiContradiction: Detecting Self-Contradiction Articles on Wikipedia". 2021 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data). Orlando, FL, USA: IEEE: 427–436. arXiv:2111.08543. doi:10.1109/BigData52589.2021.9671319. ISBN978-1-6654-3902-2. S2CID 244130115.
^ abFunke, Daniel (June 18, 2018). "Wikipedia vandalism could thwart hoax-busting on Google, YouTube and Facebook". Poynter. Poynter Institute.
^"Wikipedia:Vandalism", Wikipedia, April 16, 2022, retrieved April 19, 2022
^A.E.S. (January 15, 2016). "Wikipedia celebrates its first 15 years". The Economist.
Further consideration
Anker, Andrew; Su, Sara; Smith, Jeff (October 5, 2017). "New Test to Provide Context About Articles". About Facebook. Facebook, Inc.
Mohan, Neal; Kyncl, Robert (July 9, 2018). "Building a better news experience on YouTube, together". blog.youtube. YouTube.
wikipedia, fact, checking, wikipedia, volunteer, editor, community, responsibility, fact, checking, wikipedia, content, wikipedia, been, considered, major, free, open, source, webpages, where, millions, read, edit, post, their, views, free, this, both, grounds. Wikipedia s volunteer editor community has the responsibility of fact checking Wikipedia s content 1 Wikipedia has been considered one of the major free open source webpages where millions can read edit and post their views for free This can be both on the grounds of dissemination of misinformation and disinformation publications Wikipedia s practice of flagging unsubstantiated information with Citation needed warnings has become almost synonymous with the need for fact checking more generally Therefore Wikipedia takes the effort to provide its users with the best possible verified sources Fact checking is an aspect of the broader reliability of Wikipedia Various academic studies about Wikipedia and the body of criticism of Wikipedia seek to describe the limits of Wikipedia s reliability document who and how anyone uses Wikipedia for fact checking and what consequences result from the use of Wikipedia as a fact checking resource There are several low quality article types on Wikipedia such as the self contradictions 2 These types of articles require improvement and noisy articles can be ruled out Major platforms including YouTube 3 and Facebook 4 use Wikipedia s content to confirm the accuracy of the information in their own media collections Contents 1 Platforms that fact check with Wikipedia 1 1 Public trust and counter to fake news 1 2 YouTube fact checking 1 3 Facebook fact checking 2 Fact checking Wikipedia 2 1 Reliable sources 2 2 Non reliable sources 2 3 Self contradiction articles 3 Limitations 4 See also 5 References 6 Further consideration 7 External linksPlatforms that fact check with Wikipedia EditPublic trust and counter to fake news Edit Wikipedia serves as a public resource for access to genuine information One such is the COVID 19 information where people can rely on the Wikipedia s page for genuine information 5 Seeking public trust is a major part of Wikipedia s publication philosophy 6 Various reader polls and studies have reported public trust in Wikipedia s process for quality control 6 7 In general the public uses Wikipedia to counter fake news 8 YouTube fact checking Edit YouTube using Wikipedia for fact checking At the 2018 South by Southwest conference YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki made the announcement that YouTube was using Wikipedia to fact check videos which YouTube hosts 3 9 10 11 No one at YouTube had consulted anyone at Wikipedia about this development and the news at the time was a surprise 9 The intent at the time was for YouTube to use Wikipedia as a counter to the spread of conspiracy theories 9 This is done by adding new information boxes under some YouTube videos thereby attracting conspiracy theorists Facebook fact checking Edit Facebook uses Wikipedia in various ways Following criticism of Facebook in the context of fake news around the 2016 United States presidential election Facebook recognized that Wikipedia already had an established process for fact checking 4 Facebook s subsequent strategy for countering fake news included using content from Wikipedia for fact checking 4 12 In 2020 Facebook began to provide information from Wikipedia s info boxes into its own general reference knowledge panels to provide objective information 13 Fact checking Wikipedia EditFact checking is one aspect of the general editing process in Wikipedia The volunteer community develops a process for reference and fact checking through community groups such as WikiProject Reliability 8 Wikipedia has a reputation for cultivating a culture of fact checking among its editors 14 Wikipedia s fact checking process depends on the activity of its volunteer community of contributors who numbered 200 000 as of 2018 1 The development of fact checking practices is ongoing in the Wikipedia editing community 6 One development that took years was the 2017 community decision to declare a particular news source Daily Mail as generally unreliable as a citation for verifying claims 6 15 Through strict guidelines on verifiability Wikipedia has been combating misinformation 16 According to Wikipedia guidelines all articles on Wikipedia s mainspace must be verifiable Some of the core content policies include verifiability no original research and a neutral point of view Materials must also comply with the copyright policy While some of the key principles are copyright and plagiarism neutrality notability and original research While linking to sites such as Scribd or YouTube should be done with due care to avoid linking to material violating copyright Reliable sources Edit Wikipedia states that if no reliable sources can be found on a topic Wikipedia should not have an article on it Here are some of the key features to consider to count a source as reliable the work author of the work and publisher of the work Reliable sources are Base articles Published materials Scholarship News organizations Vendor and e commerce sources Academic and peer reviewed University level textbooks Books published by respected publishing housesAcademic and peer reviewed sources publications are the most reliable sources Not all newspapers and magazines can be considered reliable even though they may have credible sources Wikipedia is still under discussion to consider magazines as a reliable source Non reliable sources Edit Questionable sources Self published sources Lack of sources citation needed looks like this citation needed It is advisable to be very cautious when sourcing content related to the medical field or a living person Wikipedia provides Wikipedia Reliable sources Noticeboard as a space to consult and discuss if a source is reliable Self contradiction articles Edit An experiment was conducted on detecting self contradiction articles on Wikipedia using a developed model called Pairwise Contradiction Neural Network PCNN 17 Contributions to this experiment are as follows A novel Wikipedia dataset named WikiContradiction was created which is the first dataset for self contradiction tasks on Wikipedia A novel model PCNN was developed and was fine tuned via the WikiContradiction dataset The empirical results exhibit the PCNN model s promising performance as well as highlight the most contradicted pairs The compiled WikiContradiction dataset can be used as a training resource for improving Wikipedia s articles This can further contribute to fact checking and claim verification as well Limitations EditWhen Wikipedia experiences vandalism platforms that reuse Wikipedia s content may republish that vandalized content 18 Vandalism is prohibited in Wikipedia Wikipedia suggests these steps for inexperienced beginners to handle vandalism access revert warn watch and finally report 19 In 2018 Facebook and YouTube were major users of Wikipedia for its fact checking functions but those commercial platforms were not contributing to Wikipedia s free nonprofit operations in any way 18 In 2016 journalists described how vandalism in Wikipedia undermines its use as a credible source 20 Self contradiction limitations The two main limitations of the self contradiction PCNN model are the subjectivity of self contradiction and not being able to deal with lengthy documents See also EditCircular reporting on WikipediaReferences Edit a b Timmons Heather Kozlowska Hanna April 27 2018 200 000 volunteers have become the fact checkers of the internet Quartz Hsu Cheng Li Cheng Te Saez Trumper Diego Hsu Yi Zhan 2021 WikiContradiction Detecting Self Contradiction Articles on Wikipedia 2021 IEEE International Conference on Big Data Big Data 427 436 arXiv 2111 08543 doi 10 1109 BigData52589 2021 9671319 ISBN 978 1 6654 3902 2 S2CID 244130115 a b Glaser April August 14 2018 YouTube Is Adding Fact Check Links for Videos on Topics That Inspire Conspiracy Theories Slate Magazine a b c Flynn Kerry October 5 2017 Facebook outsources its fake news problem to Wikipedia and an army of human moderators Mashable Benjakob Omer August 4 2020 Why Wikipedia is immune to coronavirus Haaretz a b c d Iannucci Rebecca July 6 2017 What can fact checkers learn from Wikipedia We asked the boss of its nonprofit owner Poynter Institute Cox Joseph August 11 2014 Why People Trust Wikipedia More Than the News Vice a b Zachary J McDowell Matthew A Vetter July 2020 It Takes a Village to Combat a Fake News Army Wikipedia s Community and Policies for Information Literacy Social Media Society 6 3 205630512093730 doi 10 1177 2056305120937309 ISSN 2056 3051 Wikidata Q105083357 a b c Montgomery Blake Mac Ryan Warzel Charlie March 13 2018 YouTube Said It Will Link To Wikipedia Excerpts On Conspiracy Videos But It Didn t Tell Wikipedia BuzzFeed News Feldman Brian March 16 2018 Why Wikipedia Works Intelligencer New York Feldman Brian March 14 2018 Wikipedia Is Not Going to Save YouTube From Misinformation Intelligencer New York Locker Melissa October 5 2017 Facebook thinks the answer to its fake news problems is Wikipedia Fast Company Perez Sarah June 11 2020 Facebook tests Wikipedia powered information panels similar to Google in its search results TechCrunch Keller Jared June 14 2017 How Wikipedia Is Cultivating an Army of Fact Checkers to Battle Fake News Pacific Standard Rodriguez Ashley February 10 2017 In a first Wikipedia has deemed the Daily Mail too unreliable to be used as a citation Quartz Wikipedia Verifiability Wikipedia April 18 2022 retrieved April 19 2022 Hsu Cheng Li Cheng Te Saez Trumper Diego Hsu Yi Zhan December 15 2021 WikiContradiction Detecting Self Contradiction Articles on Wikipedia 2021 IEEE International Conference on Big Data Big Data Orlando FL USA IEEE 427 436 arXiv 2111 08543 doi 10 1109 BigData52589 2021 9671319 ISBN 978 1 6654 3902 2 S2CID 244130115 a b Funke Daniel June 18 2018 Wikipedia vandalism could thwart hoax busting on Google YouTube and Facebook Poynter Poynter Institute Wikipedia Vandalism Wikipedia April 16 2022 retrieved April 19 2022 A E S January 15 2016 Wikipedia celebrates its first 15 years The Economist Further consideration EditAnker Andrew Su Sara Smith Jeff October 5 2017 New Test to Provide Context About Articles About Facebook Facebook Inc Mohan Neal Kyncl Robert July 9 2018 Building a better news experience on YouTube together blog youtube YouTube External links EditWikipedia WikiProject Reliability the English Wikipedia community project which self organizes fact checking Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Wikipedia and fact checking amp oldid 1129531737, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
