-By Warner Todd Huston
A new study of the most controversial entries on Wikipedia, the crowd sourced, online encyclopedia, shows that in the English language entry the most fought over is the biography of George W. Bush.
The authors of The most controversial topics in Wikipedia, a study that looked at the most controversial pages by language group, finds some topics stir passions in all cultures–such as matters of religion, God, Jesus, and Muhammad–while others are dependent on more localized matters–such as ages old ethnic conflicts and local politics.
The study looked at the pages that are fought over the most by constant behind the scenes editing by users. The most debated pages undergo what the study terms “edit wars,” which is the back and forth of “reverts,” the action of undoing what another editor added. The goal of the study was to find what subjects were most controversial by language, but also to see what topics straddled cultures.
Maybe unsurprisingly, in the English language Wiki, which is visited most heavily in the United States, the bio of George W. Bush still elicits hot controversy. Bush’s entry appears at the very top among the top ten most edited pages in English. Anarchism comes in second and Muhammad third.
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Wikipedia’s Top Hits: In America, George W. Bush’s Entry Most Controversial”
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