Wikiwarfare: How Wikipedia's Platform And Inherent Bias Makes It A Perfect Tool For Propagandists
Wikipedia, the "online encyclopedia" is, despite all the jokes about how flawed and biased it is due to design, still one of the first stops for information seekers on the world wide web. The issues, however, have not lessened over the years and with more and more focus on how delusion and disinformation spread online, Wikipedia certainly deserves a closer look.
Due to allowing "anyone in the world" to write "anything they want" (as The Office's Michael Scott puts it) is bound to cause a few problems. Due to the prevalence of the site and how it's user-gathered and edited results are so easily altered by anyone, it's become a magnet for "propaganda trolls." When multiple entities take it upon themselves to wage war via "social propaganda" Wikipedia and Google search results often become important "turf" in such territorial cyber-squabbles. Spamming social media and other channels of communication, editing Wikipedia and working to manipulate your and/or your opponent's SEO have become a part of a practice that is something akin to the evil twin of social media marketing.
I know what you're thinking, "but social media marketing was already pretty evil!" Ok, fine then, social propaganda is the eviler twin of social media marketing.
This has resulted in what are called "Wiki wars." Individuals or groups who use MediaWiki platforms to influence Google's search engine and shape the narrative are engaging in a form of cyberwarfare. A modern form of Psyops that's far more advanced than old practices like dropping pamphlets from helicopters.
Gamergate was an example of a topic which inspired heated "wiki warfare" to help control the narrative and influence the sentiment related to whatever person, topic, idea or event was presented on the proving grounds.
"as sophisticated methods" as used by foreign agents.
https://thegoldwater.com/news/43946-Wikiwarfare-How-Wikipedia-s-Platform-And-Inherent-Bias-Makes-It-A-Perfect-Tool-For-Propagandists