PR agencies promise not to secretly edit Wikipedia pages
The 11 firms who have signed a statement affirming that they’ll go through proper channels to edit clients’ pages include Ogilvy & Mather, Edelman, and Ketchum.
Nearly a dozen of the world’s biggest PR firms have signed a statement promising they won’t edit clients’ Wikipedia pages without going through proper channels.
The statement stems from a February summit about the relationship between PR agencies and Wikipedia, which itself was a response to concerns about firms such as Wiki-PR, which was accused of using “sockpuppets” to make edits to company pages on the online encyclopedia, which anyone can edit.
The statement—which was signed by Beutler Ink, Ogilvy & Mather, FleishmanHillard, Peppercom, Burson-Masteller, Ketchum, Porter Novelli, Voce Communications, Edelman, and Alison+Partners—reads, in part, “it is in the best interest of our industry, and Wikipedia users at large, that Wikipedia fulfill its mission of developing an accurate and objective online encyclopedia.”
Wikipedia included some comments of its own on the page with the statement, such as:
Become a Ragan Insider member to read this article and all other archived content.
Sign up today
Already a member? Log in here.
Learn more about Ragan Insider.
