page_title: Vandalism on Wikipedia
section_title: Seigenthaler incident
hierarchical_section_title: Vandalism on Wikipedia / Notable acts of vandalism / Seigenthaler incident
caption_attribution_description: English: John Seigenthaler Sr. speaking at the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce's "Birmingham Innovation Group" (BIG) in Nashville, Tennessee.
context_page_description: On Wikipedia, vandalism is editing the project in a malicious manner that is intentionally disruptive. Vandalism includes any addition, removal, or modification that is humorous, nonsensical, a hoax, or otherwise degrading.
  Throughout its history, Wikipedia has struggled to maintain a balance between allowing the freedom of open editing and protecting the accuracy of its information when false information can be potentially damaging to its subjects. Vandalism is easy to commit on Wikipedia because anyone can edit the site, with the exception of articles that are currently semi-protected, which means that new and unregistered users cannot edit them.
  Vandalism can be committed by either guest editors or those with registered accounts; however, a semi-protected or protected page can be edited by only autoconfirmed or confirmed editors, or administrators, respectively. Frequent targets of vandalism include articles on hot and controversial topics, famous celebrities, and current events. In some cases, people have been falsely reported as having died. This has notably happened to United States Senators Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd, and American rapper Kanye West.
context_section_description: In May 2005, a user edited the biographical article about John Seigenthaler, Sr. so that it contained several false and defamatory statements. The inaccurate claims went unnoticed between May and September 2005, when they were discovered by Victor S. Johnson, Jr., a friend of Seigenthaler. Wikipedia content is often mirrored at sites such as Answers.com, which means that incorrect information can be replicated alongside correct information through a number of websites. Such information can develop a misleading air of authority because of its presence at such sites:
  Then [Seigenthaler's] son discovered that his father's hoax biography also appeared on two other sites, Reference.com and Answers.com, which took direct feeds from Wikipedia. It was out there for four months before Seigenthaler realized and got the Wikipedia entry replaced with a more reliable account. The lies remained for another three weeks on the mirror sites downstream.
caption: John Seigenthaler, who in 2005 criticized Wikipedia
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