Examining Identity as a Form of Information Regulation on Wikipedia in the Middle East

• In Event: 033 - Regular Session. Internet and Society

Abstract

In this paper we describe and implement a technique for identifying the locations of Wikipedia authors. We use this information to map and interpret the reversion patterns on Wikipedia at the national level. A reversion occurs when an author rejects a recent edit on the website. These edits are often rejected because of vandalism. However, in the case of geographic content, edits are also reverted because of local controversies and disagreements about tone, quality and neutrality (which itself is often problematic). These editing and reversion pattersn show two stark facts – first the West is primarily responsible for editing the English Wikipedia, although countries still vary in the extent to which they self-represent. Second, countries are far more interested in policing their own country than neighbor countries. The U.S. is the most reverted county, while the UK does most of the reverting. Countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region tend to be reverted the most, with Israel as a notable outlier.

Authors

• Bernie Hogan, University of Oxford

• Mark Graham, University of Oxford

• Claudio Calvino, University of Oxford

• Ahmed Medhat, University of Oxford