The Biden administration's insistence that the U.S. economy has not entered an economic slump prompted a frenzy of alterations to Wikipedia's definition for "recession," but the entry has now been put on hold.
This week, unauthorised additions were made to Wikipedia by new users. The updates sparked an editing war that compelled registered volunteer editors to constantly undo changes in order to adhere to the site's principles, which in this case called for correct reference and no political prejudice.
Wikipedia's "edit warring" policy encourages disputing editors to settle their differences through discussion on a discussion page. The glut of new editors disregarded that best practise and continued to push questionable edits, forcing more seasoned editors to disable the freedom to edit.
According to Wikipedia, the page is temporarily "semi-protected" until August 3 and no new or unregistered users are permitted to update it.
Top officials in the Biden administration discount talk of a recession.
The economy fell at an annual pace of 0.9 percent in the April–June quarter, according to data released by the Commerce Department on Thursday. This was the second consecutive quarter with a negative GDP, or gross domestic product. Many people view a consecutive decline in GDP as an unofficial indicator for a recession.
President Biden had argued that low unemployment rates, record job growth, and foreign corporate investment indicated a thriving economy days before the release of the most recent economic indicators.
Janet Yellen, the secretary of the Treasury, refrained from using the R-word during a recent interview on NBC's Meet the Press. Although a recession is typically defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth, she asserted, "When you're producing approximately 400,000 jobs a month, that is not a recession."
A July 21 memo from the White House referred to the NBER as the "official recession scorekeeper," citing the NBER as the standard definition of a recession as "a major decrease in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months."
It was anticipated that the GDP report would reveal a negative number. Unregistered individuals circumvented Wikipedia's editing procedures in the days before the data release to make edits that highlighted a more specific definition of recession. The "two consecutive quarters of negative GDP" criterion was highlighted by the modifications.
The claims made by senior Biden officials regarding the various indicators of economic health were in conflict with those edits.
A surge of unauthorised Wikipedia edits disproved claims made by the administration.
There are many definitions of a recession on the Wikipedia article.
However, a user changed the first sentence of the entry on Monday, adding the following sentence: "Economists normally consider two consecutive quarters of decreasing GDP a recession."
Contrary to the standards of the platform, neither a citation nor a description of that language were included in the Wiki article's main text. It was also an odd inclusion because it came before a phrase that was already in the copy and expressly defined "negative economic growth for two consecutive quarters" for the United Kingdom.
According to longstanding volunteer Wikipedia editor Ryan McGrady, it was the first change in the editing controversy. He has been keeping up with the controversy, although not being actively involved in the recent action on the recession page.
He explained to NPR via Twitter direct message that "unregistered users continually tried to increase the visibility of the 'two consecutive quarters' definition in ways that weren't consistent with Wikipedia's principles." "Perhaps it was an effort to paint the words made by the administration in an unfavourable light, or perhaps it was just someone who saw Wikipedia didn't match what they were hearing on the news and tried to correct it in good faith. Perhaps even an economist thought the article was lacking. The unknown.
Nevertheless, stating that "economists often consider" is a broad statement that, in accordance with Wikipedia policy, required strong supporting evidence, and as with any Wikipedia article, it needed to be put to the page's body before being included in the lead.
Registered users retracted the modification and those like it for those reasons, in addition to alleging problems with political bias, before ultimately shutting the page.
Additionally, changes that have subsequently been undone aligned with the Biden administration's definition of a recession, whether on purpose or not.
Nevertheless, stating that "economists often consider" is a broad statement that, in accordance with Wikipedia policy, required strong supporting evidence, and as with any Wikipedia article, it needed to be put to the page's body before being included in the lead.
Registered users retracted the modification and those like it for those reasons, in addition to alleging problems with political bias, before ultimately shutting the page.
Additionally, changes that have subsequently been undone aligned with the Biden administration's definition of a recession, whether on purpose or not.
Wikipedia editors come to a consensus
Making the same edit several times without first seeking agreement on the Talk page, a forum located within each topic article where editors can discuss changes, is contrary to the convention followed by the Wikipedia editing community, as stated by McGrady.
Until such a consensus arises, it's critical to "err on the side of the status quo version for contentious matters," he continued.
The current version of the recession page on Wikipedia, which is protected from rogue edits, was created after experienced editors came to some agreement on certain phrases: "Although the definition of a recession varies between different countries and scholars, two consecutive quarters of decline in a country's real gross domestic product (real GDP) is commonly used as a practical definition of a recession."
Previous iterations of the "recession" entry can be seen in the revision history, as is the case with all Wikipedia pages.
The "recession" page has now been updated, and the disclaimer at the top of the website informs visitors that certain media outlets have shared an outdated version of it that "claimed to be its current status."
Please verify that any statements or screenshots you have seen are accurate by comparing them to the content of this page.
Editor's note: This article has been updated to include important information on the significant changes made to the "recession" page on Wikipedia. This article previously concentrated on the Wikipedia revisions that seemed to support the Biden administration. The report has been amended to include a mention of the Wikipedia edit by a brand-new user that started the "recession" page editing conflict.
Source: NPR
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