## Accessibility links

- Skip to content
- Skip to local navigation
- Accessibility Help

## Technology

18 July 2013 Last updated at 11:35 GMT

### Share this page

- Delicious
- Digg
- Facebook
- reddit
- StumbleUpon
- Twitter
- Email
- Print

# Topics that spark Wikipedia 'edit wars' revealed

The Wikipedia page of George W Bush saw the most savage edit war
Continue reading the main story

## Related Stories

- Protests planned over web spying row
- Jimmy Wales: 'Dull lectures doomed'
- Wikipedia's most searched revealed

Articles about ex-US President George W Bush and anarchism are the most hotly contested on Wikipedia's English-language edition, research suggests.

Scientists analysed page edits in 10 editions to find topics fought over by contributors to the open encyclopaedia.

While some topics were locally controversial, many religious subjects, such as Jesus and God, were universally debated, they found.

Further research is planned to log how controversial topics change over time.

Researchers from the University of Oxford and three other institutions analysed logs of the changes made to Wikipedia pages to identify those in the throes of an "edit war". Such a conflict involves editors of pages making changes that are almost instantly undone by another editor.

Continue reading the main story

## Top 10 touchy topics

- George W Bush
- Anarchism
- The Prophet Muhammad
- World Wrestling Entertainment employees
- Global warming
- Circumcision
- The United States
- Jesus
- Race and intelligence
- Christianity

Finding the pages over which editors scrap about such changes was a better guide to controversial subjects than simply picking out those that changed a lot, wrote the researchers in a paper describing their work.

Pages that get updated a lot might just be about a rapidly changing field or topic, they said. By contrast, a topic page in which words and phrases are constantly removed and reinstated gave an insight into the depth of feeling it evoked among contributors.

Millions of articles from 10 separate language editions of Wikipedia were subjected to analysis to find the topics over which editors scrapped most fiercely. English, Spanish, Persian, Arabic and Czech editions were among those analysed. Data was taken from editions of Wikipedia published on the web in 2010.

The most controversial topics across all the 10 editions analysed were:

- Israel
- Adolf Hitler
- The Holocaust
- God

In addition other religious subjects, such as Jesus, the Prophet Muhammad and Christianity were regularly fought over by editors.

The analysis also revealed many local controversies.

Among French editors, the page about French politician Segolene Royal was the one contributors fought over the most.

By contrast, in Romania information about the Universitatea Craiova football team proved most controversial.

Further work planned by the team will look at a more recent data set from Wikipedia and map edit wars over time to see the ebb and flow of controversial subjects.

## More on This Story

### Related Stories

- Protests planned over web spying row
  03 JULY 2013, TECHNOLOGY
- Jimmy Wales: 'Dull lectures doomed'
  01 MAY 2013, BUSINESS
- Wikipedia's most searched revealed
  28 DECEMBER 2012, TECHNOLOGY
- MPs get sneaky Wikipedia edit tip
  26 OCTOBER 2012, UK POLITICS

### Related Internet links

- Wikipedia
- Edit Wars study

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites

### Share this page

- Delicious
- Digg
- Facebook
- reddit
- StumbleUpon
- Twitter
- Email
- Print

## More Technology stories

RSS

- ### Huawei denies spying allegations

  Huawei denies claims made by a former chief of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that it has spied for the Chinese government.

- ### Kit turns sweat into drinking water

- ### Ћ symbol for The on new keyboards? Listen

## Top Stories

- Detroit in largest US bankruptcy
- Australia to block boat people - PM
- Kremlin critic Navalny freed on bail
- OECD plan to prevent tax 'abuse'
- Boston suspect capture photos leaked

## Features & Analysis

- ### Life in transit

  A man who has spent four months living in an airport

- ### Bouncing back

  What baseball teaches you about the American way of life

- ### Hard times

  Luxor's once-thriving tourist industry struggling to survive

- ### In pictures

  The dying art of mime in India

## Most Popular

### Shared

1. 1: Detroit in largest US bankruptcy
2. 2: Tax cut for shale gas firms planned
3. 3: What is it like to live in an airport?
4. 4: Warning over cancer health issues
5. 5: Early society 'not driven by war'

### Read

1. 1: Detroit in largest US bankruptcy
2. 2: Rowling to kill two in final book
3. 3: Boston accused 'manhunt photos' seen
4. 4: Australia announces PNG asylum deal
5. 5: What is it like to live in an airport?
6. 6: England heatwave spreads westwards
7. 7: Rowling 'anger' over pseudonym leak
8. 8: In pictures: Detroit bankruptcy
9. 9: Early society 'not driven by war'
10. 10: Prosecutors in plea to free Navalny

### Video/Audio

1. 1: Detroit files for bankruptcy Watch
2. 2: How long will the heatwave last? Watch
3. 3: 'Tourism is dying in Egypt's Luxor' Watch
4. 4: Detroit bankruptcy in 60 seconds Watch
5. 5: UAE holds man over road-attack video Watch
6. 6: Cage: 'I'm a pretty boring guy' Watch
7. 7: The man behind the death mask Watch
8. 8: Masterpieces believed burned in oven Watch
9. 9: Snail facial anyone? Watch
10. 10: Inside Yemen's 'torture camps' Watch

## BBC Future

### Reach inside your computer

3D tech allows you to "feel" digital worlds Read more...

## Programmes

- ### Click Watch

  Scientists use urine to power a mobile phone for the first time, plus other tech news

## BBC links

- - Mobile site
  - Terms of Use
  - About the BBC
- - Advertise With Us
  - Privacy
  - Accessibility Help
- - Ad Choices
  - Cookies
  - Contact the BBC
- - Parental Guidance

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.