Is Tom Cruise Updating Articles in Wikipedia Again?

July 6, 2008 at 1:36 pm · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: Links, Wikipedia, Wikiscanner. Web sites

Scientology is a religion founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1952.   I have never met anyone who is or has been a scientologist.  However, they have a very large media presence especially since they have a large number of celebrity followers.  I must admit, I sometimes stereotype it as a religion for celebrities or rich people.

Recently, I have been checking out the Church’s activity on Wikipedia by researching Wikiscanner.  I have found that representatives of the church are somewhat active editors on Wikiedia.  As of August 2007 there were 170 updates throughout Wikipedia that linked to the Church’s IP address.  The obvious edits were on pages that discussed The Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard (founder), Dianetics, and David Miscavige the chairman of the board of Religious and Technology Center which oversees The Church of Scientology.  Most of the edits included adding links to their Web site or to Web sites that support their causes when it pertained to the subject matter.  They seem to edit on a wide variety of issues to help support their school of thought.

According to Wikipedia, Scientologists are “vehemently opposed” to psychology and psychiatry.   Several edits made in Wikiscanner were made to articles that dealt with depression or anti-depressants.  Articles that were edited that dealt with mental health or anti-depressants were:

·        Postpartum depression

·        Kurt Cobain

·        Schizophrenia

·        American Psychiatry

·        Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

·        Depression

·        Dyslexia

One article that was updated by The Church that I found interesting was about Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold of the Columbine High School massacre.  They edited the article to include the fact that the coroner’s offices found a “therapeutic amount” of the anti-depressant Luvox in Eric Harris’ system.  This was clearly edited to support their belief that anti-depressant cause suicidal thoughts and violence amongst its users.

I am surprised to admit that I think The Church of Scientology is pretty responsible in their Wikipedia edits.  Obviously they want more people to submit to their teachings so they add links to their site were they fit.  Again, I noticed that there were several links and additions added to support their theories however, I do not believe they were too presumptuous in their editing.

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