Friday, May 29, 2009

Scientology under attack

One of the world's all time greatest scams is under attack in a court in France and has just been summarily excommunicated by of all entities, Wikipedia. The pseudo-religious cult which has acquired a reputation for heavy handed tactics against defectors and critics has already been outlawed in Germany and may be on the way to a similar fate in France where it has been accused of criminal fraud. The trial has gripped international attention and may serve to rally the cult's many critics who are often subjected to abuse and outright harassment from the group and its members.

And in a remarkable move yesterday the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia which permits almost anyone to edit any article has banned all editing by Scientology affiliated computers and IP addresses after a multi-month investigation revealed thousands of abusive edits linked to the cult. Most of the edits were on some 400 pages related to their group, where negative references were removed and replaced by positive ones according to news reports. Wikipedia reports that the volume of abusive edits was swamping their ability to keep up and reverse them.

No comments: