What can I do about libelous content or an invasion of privacy?
Unfortunately with Wikipedia’s policies where virtually anyone can publish changes to a wiki page, there runs a chance that someone may edit an article with inappropriate content, false information, or libel.
The good news is that Wikipedia employs robot editors alongside human editors that scan every move made on every Wikipedia page regularly. If a bot finds inappropriate content, it will flag it and remove it right away.
If you find wrongful content before a bot does, you may take liberties to edit the page yourself. If you do not have an account, you can make the edits public but your IP address will be known to the public. If you have a registered account, your edits will be attached to your profile and not your IP address.
How do I protect my Wikipedia page from defacement or vandalism?
There is no surefire way to protect against vandalism on Wikipedia. The organization is aware that this type of crime occurs, but over the years Wikipedia has strengthened its measures to better handle this kind of situation.
Bots are used to monitor content for blatantly harmful content and immediately takes it down. If you catch an edit on your page that a bot doesn’t flag but you think is harmful, you can make the change yourself or revert it back to how it was before the change.
How do I report a site that may be violating Wikipedia’s copyright policies?
Everything published on Wikipedia must comply with the Creative Commons license which states that published information may not infringe or violate any copyrights. This means direct quotes from a copyrighted source may be taken down at any time, as well as published information that is slightly altered but still holds the same meaning or interpretation. This is important to keep in mind if you are planning on using any media like images on your wiki page, and to credit the source appropriately.
If you believe a wiki page has material that may be violating Wikipedia’s copyright policies, you may request an edit by clicking on the “talk” tab at the top of the page. Once there you can select “new section” where you can write your comments/concerns about the material and request an edit of what you’d like to see in its place. Finally, click publish changes and wait for your comments to be reviewed.
Is it illegal to make changes on Wikipedia?
No, it is not illegal to make changes on Wikipedia. In fact, it is encouraged to keep information up-to-date and to help Wikipedia’s mission of sharing the world’s knowledge. You can make changes by clicking on the “edit this page” tab towards the top right corner of the screen.