By Jennifer LeClaire
November 20, 2013 10:34AM
“When outside publicity firms and their agents conceal or misrepresent their identity by creating or allowing false, unauthorized, or misleading user accounts, Wikipedia’s reputation is harmed,” wrote the Wikimedia Foundation’s lawyer. “Sockpuppetry and meatpuppetry are especially harmful when used to disguise secret works of advocacy.”
The Wikimedia Foundation has sent a cease and desist letter to a public relations firm that has allegedly been collecting money to edit Wikipedia entries. Wikimedia is targeting Wiki-PR in a three-page letter accusing the company of violating its Web site’s terms of use.
On Oct. 21, the non-profit Wikimedia issued a statement from Executive Director Sue Gardner condemning the black-hat practice of “paid advocacy editing and sockpuppeting” on Wikipedia. The rebuke came after press coverage of an internal investigation into more than 300 sockpuppet accounts that allegedly belong to a PR firm.
Wikimedia retained Cooley LLP to review and investigate allegations that Wiki-PR was behind the edited posts. During the investigation, the Wikimedia community banned Wiki-PR and anyone financially associated with the firm until certain conditions were met. Then, on Tuesday, the law firm sent the cease and desist letter to the public relation company’s CEO, Jordan French.
Wikipedia Is Not for Promotion
Wiki-PR bills itself as a consultant for “thousands of people and companies on how to interact with the Wikipedia community.” The company offers a cadre of services, including page creation and editing, page monitoring, page translation, crisis editing, and concept development. Wiki-PR isn’t the only company to offer these types of services, but it is perhaps the most widely known.
Wiki-PR could not immediately be reached for comment, but its site makes claims such as, “the easy way to accurately tell your story on Wikipedia” and offers to “help you claim your top spot in Google search results.”
“When outside publicity firms and their agents conceal or misrepresent their identity 
by creating or allowing false, unauthorized, or misleading user accounts, Wikipedia’s reputation is harmed,” wrote the Wikimedia Foundation’s lawyer, Patrick P. Gunn of law office Cooley. “Sockpuppetry and meatpuppetry are especially harmful when used to disguise secret works of advocacy purchased by clients to promote a particular product, idea or agenda.”
Wikipedia’s Credibility
For a public relations perspective on the Wiki-PR drama, we turned to Aaron Gordon, a partner at Schwartz Media Strategies in Miami. He told us Wiki-PR seems to have crossed the line from a consultancy that can point out inaccuracies and correct them as part of other media relations services to a firm whose business model is cashing in on the Wikipedia platform.
“When you do this type of work, you are leaving the gray area and moving into a danger zone. They even named their firm Wiki-PR. Creating a Wikipedia page is a very tedious process with lots of controls,” Gordon said.
“These people were clearly very skilled at gaming the system. Any time you create the opportunity for somebody to exploit the system there’s going to be some bad actors. Even Wikipedia knows that. I am glad they are trying to put a stop to it because Wikipedia is the gold standard for online reference and it’s critical that they maintain their credibility.”
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