Homeopathy and Wikipedia - Attack of the Quackbusters
by Amy L. Lansky, PhD
As a homeopath and former computer scientist, many people contact me when issues pertaining to both computing and homeopathy arise. So it was natural that I became the point person when an obvious smear campaign against homeopathy was initiated on Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is an internet-based encyclopedia that is entirely created and edited by its users. The concept has been a fairly successful experiment in open collaborative knowledge sharing and creation. It has emerged as a leading “go-to” location on the internet to find out more about any particular subject. A coterie of self-appointed volunteer “editors” police the articles so that gross violations do not take place. When disagreements arise, a behind-the-scenes “Talk page” associated with the particular subject page is initiated to iron out differences. In theory it should work out just fine because people are reasonable, right?
Wrong. It turns out, many people are not really reasonable. On many subjects, people have big axes to grind. Especially on controversial subjects. Even on not-so-controversial subjects, a person with a vested interest can overtake a Wikipedia page. For example, a friend of mine, internationally-known in a small niche area of earth science, told me about a page about a specific technical subject area that had been taken over in an effort to smear a colleague of hers. The content had become incomprehensible technically and was dedicated to maligning the particular individual and their work. The target of the attack was likely totally unaware that this had happened.
The moral of this tale: a single individual or a small set of individuals, if they have dedication and plenty of time to burn, can overtake a Wikipedia page with misinformation. Unless the “other side” is willing to devote a full time effort to combat this, there is very little that can be done. Any change they make will be undone the next day. Of course, in general, most credible sources of information have lives and careers and cannot devote all of their time in a never-ending Wikipedia war. This is what has happened to the Wikipedia page on homeopathy.
Here is an example of what someone has in store for them if they wish to combat this predicament. My husband, who occasionally contributes to Wikipedia, was asked by the National Center for Homeopathy to add a simple link to the organization on the Wikipedia page about homeopathy. This seems only natural, since the NCH is, after all, the leading homeopathic organization in the United States; there are links to Quackbuster organizations on this page – why not the NCH? Since the homeopathy page was “locked” at the time (due to all the controversy), the request had to be made in a special way via the Talk page. Soon, an avalanche of responses ensued.
First, there was the argument: why add this link and not a link to every other homeopathic organization in the world? Second, it was argued that since my husband is married to a board member of the NCH, he is biased. By the way, my husband’s last name is not the same as mine. Someone had done their homework. Very soon after that, my own Wikipedia page came under scathing attack. Even though it was two paragraphs long and contained neutral biographical information such as my education, book, and papers, it became one of the “most edited” Wikipedia pages for a couple of days!
After all of this, I conferred with a friend who is a well-known editor on Wikipedia. After examining the situation, it was his opinion that nothing could be done about the situation. Any addition to the homeopathy page would be roundly trounced. And any person who contributed to the page who had anything whatsoever to do with homeopathy would be viewed as “biased”.
Soon after this, I read an article by health freedom activist Tim Bolen about the online Quackbuster activities on Wikipedia and on other online forums. They have used the power of various internet features (for example, creating self-referencing rings of links) to create an exaggerated perception of their power and numbers. There have been similar attacks on other Wikipedia pages – for example, the page on chiropractic. The homeopaths are not alone. For more information, see http://www.bolenreport.net/feature_articles/feature_article070.htm
In my view, this phenomenon will ultimately hurt the Wikipedia organization and concept. I have heard that Wikipedia is aware of the problem and is at a loss as to what to do about it. It seems that good information cannot always be created by the open mob.
Addendum:
Wikipedia has just clarified its position on the situation regarding CAM therapies and who can participate on these pages. The following is the description from Wikipedia, which is a refreshing news after all the distortions from those who obviously despise all CAM therapies.
Welcome to Wiki4CAM - an online encyclopedia for Complementary & Alternative Medicine!
Wiki4CAM has been started to provide the CAM community their own space where they can build their knowledge base without any undue skeptical diversions. Only CAM practitioners can participate in this wiki.
Since we have just started, most of the pages are still empty. We have provided these initial categories and pages as stubs, from where the CAM community can build it further. A wiki is all about community participation, so let us all work together to make this the most exhaustive and authoritative source for all complementary and alternative therapies and systems of medicine.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is an umbrella term for alternative medicine, complementary medicine, and integrative medicine. Alternative medicine describes practices used in place of conventional medical treatments. Complementary medicine describes practices used in conjunction and cooperation with conventional medicine. While integrative medicine is viewed as the best of complementary medicine by its advocates.
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine defines complementary and alternative medicine as "a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine". It also defines integrative medicine as "[combining] mainstream medical therapies and CAM therapies for which there is some high-quality scientific evidence of safety and effectiveness".
CAM has been described as comprising "a diverse group of treatments, ranging from symptomatic interventions to be used in conjunction with traditional therapies—therapeutic touch or meditation—to unique treatments meant to replace conventional chemotherapy or surgery. CAM includes complex and longstanding fields of study, such as acupuncture, ayurvedic medicine, and homoeopathy, but can also be as straightforward as taking a specific dietary supplement to lower blood pressure or blood lipid concentrations."
