Are anonymity-seekers just like everybody else? An analysis of contributions to Wikipedia from Tor

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Tran, Chau, Champion, Kaylea, Forte, Andrea, Hill, Benjamin Mako, Greenstadt, Rachel
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2019
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author Tran, Chau
Champion, Kaylea
Forte, Andrea
Hill, Benjamin Mako
Greenstadt, Rachel
author_facet Tran, Chau
Champion, Kaylea
Forte, Andrea
Hill, Benjamin Mako
Greenstadt, Rachel
contents User-generated content sites routinely block contributions from users of privacy-enhancing proxies like Tor because of a perception that proxies are a source of vandalism, spam, and abuse. Although these blocks might be effective, collateral damage in the form of unrealized valuable contributions from anonymity seekers is invisible. One of the largest and most important user-generated content sites, Wikipedia, has attempted to block contributions from Tor users since as early as 2005. We demonstrate that these blocks have been imperfect and that thousands of attempts to edit on Wikipedia through Tor have been successful. We draw upon several data sources and analytical techniques to measure and describe the history of Tor editing on Wikipedia over time and to compare contributions from Tor users to those from other groups of Wikipedia users. Our analysis suggests that although Tor users who slip through Wikipedia's ban contribute content that is more likely to be reverted and to revert others, their contributions are otherwise similar in quality to those from other unregistered participants and to the initial contributions of registered users.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_1904_04324
institution arXiv
publishDate 2019
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Are anonymity-seekers just like everybody else? An analysis of contributions to Wikipedia from Tor
Tran, Chau
Champion, Kaylea
Forte, Andrea
Hill, Benjamin Mako
Greenstadt, Rachel
Social and Information Networks
Computers and Society
Human-Computer Interaction
User-generated content sites routinely block contributions from users of privacy-enhancing proxies like Tor because of a perception that proxies are a source of vandalism, spam, and abuse. Although these blocks might be effective, collateral damage in the form of unrealized valuable contributions from anonymity seekers is invisible. One of the largest and most important user-generated content sites, Wikipedia, has attempted to block contributions from Tor users since as early as 2005. We demonstrate that these blocks have been imperfect and that thousands of attempts to edit on Wikipedia through Tor have been successful. We draw upon several data sources and analytical techniques to measure and describe the history of Tor editing on Wikipedia over time and to compare contributions from Tor users to those from other groups of Wikipedia users. Our analysis suggests that although Tor users who slip through Wikipedia's ban contribute content that is more likely to be reverted and to revert others, their contributions are otherwise similar in quality to those from other unregistered participants and to the initial contributions of registered users.
title Are anonymity-seekers just like everybody else? An analysis of contributions to Wikipedia from Tor
topic Social and Information Networks
Computers and Society
Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.04324