Wiki War

Sexton’s Wiki page under fire
by Josh Burd
Washington Square News

The labor dispute at NYU has reached a new frontier — Wikipedia.

Internet users who support the Graduate Student Organizing Committee have been making their views known on the free, nonprofit online encyclopedia that allows visitors to edit articles. Many users — either identified by user name or IP address — have repeatedly edited the biographical article about NYU President John Sexton, whose administration has been at odds with the striking graduate students.

More than 100 total edits have been made to the article, including edits with one-sided accounts of the labor conflict as well as direct attacks on Sexton.

One of the more contentious changes to the article was made this past January, when someone anonymously wrote, “Sexton is a major-buster. He’s a trying to get rid of the legitimately organized and majority-approved union of graduate employees.”

The edits on Wikipedia, which allow visitors to view the editing history and compare past revisions of a given article, were first made in July and appeared more frequently after GSOC began striking on Nov. 9. Since then, several other hostile edits have been made by unnamed users, including one in October that referred to Sexton’s trademark hugs as “obnoxiously patronizing and demagogic.”

The administration does not seem concerned, but university spokesman Josh Taylor said the activity on the site is a sign of tampering with NYU's image.

“While President Sexton is familiar with Wikipedia, he has not personally used the site,” Taylor said on Sexton's behalf in an e-mail. “From my perspective, however, the disputed posts are all too reflective of the distorted view that many outside our community continue to try to spread.”

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