By Alice Seeley
After hundreds of users disagreed over edits of its “recession” page, Wikipedia announced it would change editing permissions to make the page “semi-protected.”
The conflict started after the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell for the second quarter in a row. According to Wikipedia, the “recession” page received dozens of edits that violated its company policies, thus forcing Wikipedia to make the page “semi-protected.”
Starting Aug. 3, edits from new accounts or guest users must be reviewed and accepted by a Wikipedia editor before the edits will be published. Wikimedia, the parent foundation of Wikipedia, explained that “semi-protected articles can only be edited by logged-in users whose accounts are at least four days old and have made at least 10 edits.”
The foundation claimed this policy is not unusual for popular pages, stating, “volunteer editors use these and other tools on a regular basis to help ensure that Wikipedia content is neutral and well-sourced.”
The “recession” page currently reads: “According to most scholars, countries, economists, and central banks, a recession refers to a period of two or more consecutive quarters of decline in a country’s real gross domestic product (real GDP).”
