Editing History of Wikipedia (section)

====Effect of biographical articles====
Because Wikipedia biographies are often updated with new information comes, they are often used as a reference source on the lives of [[:Category:Living people|notable people]]. This has led to attempts to manipulate and falsify Wikipedia articles for promotional or defamatory purposes ([[#Controversies|Controversies]]) and has also led to novel uses of the biographical material provided.
* In November 2005, the [[Wikipedia Seigenthaler biography incident|Seigenthaler controversy]] occurred when a hoaxer asserted on Wikipedia that journalist John Seigenthaler had been involved in the [[Kennedy assassination]] of 1963.
* In December 2006, German comedian [[Atze Schröder]] sued Arne Klempert, secretary of [[Wikimedia Deutschland]] because he did not want his real name published in Wikipedia. Schröder later withdrew his complaint but wanted his attorney's costs to be paid by Klempert. A court decided that the artist had to cover those costs himself.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Atze muss zahlen &#124; |url=http://recentchanges.de/blog/2007/06/atze-muss-zahlen/ |access-date=16 March 2023 |language=de-DE |archive-date=1 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080801090032/http://recentchanges.de/blog/2007/06/atze-muss-zahlen/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* On 16 February 2007, Turkish historian [[Taner Akçam]] was briefly detained upon arrival at [[Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport]] because of false information on his Wikipedia biography claiming he was a terrorist.<ref name="Independent">[http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article2469270.ece "Caught in the deadly web of the internet"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071001000113/http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/article2469270.ece |date=1 October 2007 }}. Robert Fisk. ''[[The Independent]]''. 21 April 2007. Retrieved 24 July 2007.</ref><ref name="CBC">{{Cite news |last=Jay |first=Paul |date=22 June 2007 |title=A question of authority |publisher=[[CBC News]] |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/wikipedia2.html |access-date=24 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629051007/http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/wikipedia2.html |archive-date=29 June 2007}}</ref>
* In November 2008, the German [[The Left (Germany)|Left Party]] politician [[Lutz Heilmann]] claimed that some remarks in his Wikipedia article caused damage to his reputation. He succeeded in getting a court order to make Wikimedia Deutschland remove a key search portal. The result was a national outpouring of support for Wikipedia, more donations to Wikimedia Deutschland, and a rise in daily pageviews of the Lutz Heilmann article from a few dozen to half a million. Shortly after, Heilmann asked the court to withdraw the court order.<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 November 2008 |title=Lawmaker apologizes for blocking Wikipedia |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE4AI7NB20081119?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=69 |access-date=20 November 2008 |archive-date=30 May 2012 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120530171758/http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE4AI7NB20081119?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=69 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In December 2008, Wikimedia Nederland, the Dutch chapter, won a preliminary injunction after an entrepreneur was linked in "his" article with the criminal [[Willem Holleeder]] and wanted the article deleted. The judge in [[Utrecht (province)|Utrecht]] believed Wikimedia's assertion that it has no influence on the content of Dutch Wikipedia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikimedia Nederland wint kort geding Sijthoff/en – Wikimedia |url=https://nl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Nederland_wint_kort_geding_Sijthoff/en |access-date=16 March 2023 |website=nl.wikimedia.org |language=nl |archive-date=31 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230131143955/https://nl.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Nederland_wint_kort_geding_Sijthoff/en |url-status=live }}</ref>
* In February 2009, when [[Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg|Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Buhl-Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg]] became federal minister on 10 February 2009, an unregistered user added an eleventh given name in the article on German Wikipedia: ''Wilhelm''. Numerous newspapers took it over. When wary Wikipedians wanted to erase ''Wilhelm'', the revert was reverted with regard to those newspapers. This case about Wikipedia reliability and journalists copying from Wikipedia became known as ''Falscher Wilhelm'' ("wrong Wilhelm").<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikimedia Deutschland press release |url=http://wikimedia.de/fileadmin/wiki/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/pm_Medienkompetenz_1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204025315/http://wikimedia.de/fileadmin/wiki/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/pm_Medienkompetenz_1.pdf |archive-date=4 December 2010}}; [http://futurezone.orf.at/stories/1502467/ ORF Futurezone] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090929010706/http://futurezone.orf.at/stories/1502467/ |date=29 September 2009 }}. Retrieved 27 May 2010.</ref>