WikiScanner or Wikipedia Scanner provides an online searchable tool that takes a database dump from Wikipedia and crawls through anonymous edits which were made from source IP addresses that can be traced back to organizations who may have a vested interest in the content of the respective Wikipedia pages. It uses a IP2Location database to connect IP addresses with organizations.
In most cases these were edits where the organizations would have removed content with criticism. The homepage lists the following organizations as editor's picks on its homepage.
- Government
- U.S. Senate Sergeant At Arms
- U.S. House Of Representatives
- Environmental Protection Agency
- National Institute of Health
- Democratic Party
- Republican Party
- NATO
- Education
- California Institute of Technology
- Bob Jones University
- Policy
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- The Rand Corporation
- National Rifle Association
- American Civil Liberties Union
- Corporate
- Diebold Inc
- Amgen Inc
- Pfizer Inc
- Wal-Mart Stores Inc
- ExxonMobil
- Raytheon
- News
- Washington Post
- Washington Times
- Fox News Channel
- New York Times Company
- Al-Jazeera
- Locations
- Ft. George G Meade, Maryland
- Havana, Ciudad De La Habana
- Misc
- darpa.mil
- Central Intelligence Agency
- Church of Scientology
- Vatican
- Christian Science Publishing Society
- Church of Latter Day Saints
The creator, Virgil Griffith, wrote in the FAQ page that he created WikiScanner "to create a fireworks display of public relations disasters in which everyone brings their own fireworks, and enjoys". He however suggests that a tool like WikiScanner is not necessary and anonymous speech should be preserved.
The Wired wrote See Who's Editing Wikipedia - Diebold, the CIA, a Campaign to break the story.
The online tool is available here.
