Wikipedia is one of the few trusted sources of reliable information left on the Internet. This, of course, is exactly why governments that want to promote a particular perspective have incentive to manipulate it.

New research by Chapman University and the University of Ottawa shows how a small group of individuals, with no ties to any government, can slowly erode reason and accuracy to promote ideological zeal and prejudice on Wikipedia.

The paper, “Wikipedia’s Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust” published today in The Journal of Holocaust Research.

“For the last ten years, a group of committed Wikipedia editors have been promoting a skewed version of history on Wikipedia whitewashing the role of Polish society in the Holocaust and bolstering stereotypes about Jews,” says Shira Klein, associate professor of history at Chapman University in Orange, California and co-author of the essay, “Wikipedia’s Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust” in The Journal of Holocaust Research.

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