Hindi Page on Wikipedia Defaced?

Techtree News Staff, Feb 01, 2007 1641 hrs IST

According to a report on ciol.com, an unscrupulous hacker has defaced the page on "Hindi" language on the popular online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

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According to a report on ciol.com, an unscrupulous hacker has defaced the page on "Hindi" language on the popular online encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

The hacker has added the phrase, "the language of the pimps" in bold font on the page where it is most visible. What's more, the phrase appears twice on the page.

It is likely that many users will view this hacked page, as it is the page that Google throws up first upon searching with 'Hindi' as keyword.

Just recently there was a furore over a video posted on YouTube.com starring NRI comedian, Gautham Prasad, dressed as Mahatma Gandhi, and pole dancing and brandishing an AK-47.

Ultimately, Prasad had to tender an apology for what he maintained was unintentional and strictly not meant to hurt anybody's sentiments.

As regards Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia has had its fill of pranksters, one of whom falsely linked a prominent journalist, John Seigenthaler, to the Kennedy assassinations, only to admit later that it was intended as a prank on a co-worker.

Wikipedia has been oft criticized for allowing unregistered users edit pages. The saving grace is that reportedly, there is a bunch of people out there who spend a large part of their time online, patrolling against vandals and tricksters.

In the latest case, it remains to be seen what action will be taken.

USER COMMENTS

idiots

by sneha sharma, sharjah, on May 06, 2009 09:08 PM, Report abuse Reply

i want to know hindi wikipedia

by sanjay khatri, dehi, on Apr 02, 2009 01:47 AM, Report abuse Reply

aah godamn brits, its all their work, they need 2 b circumcised bad!

by ORB, Hyderabad, on Feb 04, 2007 02:26 PM, Report abuse Reply

Anyone can edit almost any article on Wikipedia. Because of this, vandalism often happens to the articles. An anonymous user vandalised the article "Hindi" at 14:48 Greenwich mean time. Twenty-three minutes later, it was reverted. Generally, vandalism is reverted within five minutes. This sort of vandalism happens every day at Wikipedia, and the community tries it's best to clean it up as soon as possible. This is not news. By the time you published this article, the mention was gone for two entire days.

by Nicholas Moreau, Brampton, Ontario, Canada, on Feb 03, 2007 12:12 AM, Report abuse Reply

The Hindi article has already been fixed: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hindi&diff=104400237&oldid=104394954 The IP responsible for that particular edit has not been blocked, but also has not made any further edits. It appears that the vandal in question was just experimenting. Of course, the best way to deal with vandalism on Wikipedia is to fix it yourself.

by Jim Redmond, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, on Feb 02, 2007 08:15 PM, Report abuse Reply

Tamil page was also edited besides. Interestingly,the ip 82.12.x.x ,which belongs to the united kingdom.

by !!!, !, on Feb 01, 2007 10:13 PM, Report abuse Reply