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October 19, 2007
‘History’ rewrites itself
The Brooklyn Paper
By Michael McLaughlin
City Councilman Bill DeBlasio's Wikipedia entry keeps getting scrubbed of controversial references to Atlantic Yards and a new Trader Joe's supermarket, and the snail trail leads to a computer on the NYC government network.
In fact, DeBlasio’s Wikipedia page has been in a near constant state of flux, with several people taking aim at his stance on hot-button issues. But unlike the memory holes of Orwell’s dystopia, Wikipedia edits leave a “paper” trail, making it possible to view a record of all changes made to any listing.
The most-recent changes, first reported on the blog, Pardon Me For Asking, have involved the insertion and deletion of a paragraph about whether DeBlasio is in tune with his constituents.
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A spokesman for the city Department of Information Technology and Telecommunication said the agency could not easily determine which city computer system — whose IP address is recorded whenever edits are made — is being used to alter DeBlasio’s Wikipedia page because so many individual computers have the same IP address.But this much is clear: Seven times between June 28 and July 2, that same city computer system changed DeBlasio’s page — sometimes to burnish his image, other times to diminish it.
The most-recent edit from the city computer was a pro-DeBlasio change: The original paragraph — “DeBlasio is also a supporter of the generally unpopular Atlantic Yards development, which critics contend will be excessive in size, provide major tax subsidies to the developer and will have a detrimental impact upon the neighborhood” — was politically purged to become, “DeBlasio is a supporter of the generally popular Atlantic Yards development, which is a major mixed-income housing, retail, office and sports complex.”
Another time, the person at the city computer added this anti-DeBlasio sentence: “He is a highly controversial figure, known for his alliances with anti-development and NIMBY homeowners and has been accused of grandstanding on development issues.” The back-and-forth from the same city computer indicates that more than one person may be logging on to flog and praise DeBlasio.
NoLandGrab: If the City really can't determine who is making the edits, it's impossible to know for a fact that it is actually a single person waging a Wikiwar with him or herself.
For the record, we've had two conversations with Bill de Blasio on Atlantic Yards. The Councilman's position is that he thinks the project is too big, but will do nothing to jeopardize the large amount of affordable housing promised by developer Bruce Ratner.
Posted by lumi at October 19, 2007 8:43 AM