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I'm posting this for discussion (please use talk page) and editing by Wikipedia editors. Because of the media's limited attention span, I propose that we edit and sign this open letter quickly, say edit it within 6 hours (0:00 UTC April 18, 2017), and then leave it open for signing until 16:00 UTC April 18, when I will send it out to the listed firms and to other media. Notice this is a statement of the individual editors, not of the entire community (that type of open letter would take forever to process).

Thanks for any help.

Smallbones(smalltalk) 17:12, 17 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

An excellent start! See my rather shorter attempt at Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Burger King open letter. Feel free to edit or copy it. Andrewa (talk) 21:39, 17 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The changes look good. I'll make some copy edits and sign. I'll also move the "oppose" to the talk page and encourage all "the opposes" to send their own open letter. At 0:00 let's consider it the final version. Thanks to all. Smallbones(smalltalk) 23:20, 17 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Restating from above, as requested, the undersigned editors do not necessarily represent the views of the Wikimedia Foundation or of the entire community of Wikipedia editors, but of their own views. Smallbones(smalltalk) 00:39, 18 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The following open letter has been sent to Burger King, RPI, 3G Capital, The Verge and Vox Media, and to some other media companies (e-mailing continues). Please do not modify this page. Smallbones(smalltalk) 16:57, 18 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Open letter[edit]

Open letter to Burger King, Restaurant Brands International, 3G Capital, The Verge, and Vox Media

We, the undersigned Wikipedia editors, have noticed that Burger King created an advertising campaign that involved the insertion of ad copy into Wikipedia by corporate employees. Burger King then broadcast an ad on television intended to activate Google Home to read text from the adulterated Wikipedia article in the TV viewers' homes.

Burger King broke several Wikipedia rules in the campaign. No editor may insert advertising, marketing, or promotional material into any article. Our terms of use require all paid editors to prominently post the fact that they are paid, the person or company paying them, and any other relevant affiliations. Our conflict-of-interest guideline strongly discourages editors with a conflict-of-interest from directly editing an article, though they may propose suggestions on the talk page.

The facts include:

  • edits to the Whopper article on April 4, 2017 made by User:Burger King Corporation and User:Fermachado123 inserting an ingredients list for the Whopper as the article’s lede.
  • on April 11, the day before the TV ad was broadcast, an editor, apparently a reporter from The Verge[1], added "medium-sized child” and “cyanide” to the ingredients list. These edits were removed by other editors within one hour and 10 minutes, though the ingredients list remained.
  • The TV ad was released about noon (EDT) on April 12. By 12:18 pm the ingredients list was removed from the article’s lede. At 12:35 the article was protected from disruptive editing, and then Google prevented the Burger King ad from triggering the Google Home device within 3 hours.
  • From 12:18 pm to 12:35 pm, the ingredients list was reinserted into the article twice and almost immediately reverted
  • From 12:18 pm to 12:35 pm, phrases including “cancer causing”, “rat meat and toenail clippings”, “inferior to the Big Mac”, “malted milk balls” and "the worst hamburger” were added about 10 times and were reverted by Wikipedians in a minute or less each time.

Media coverage of the campaign mentioned that the ingredient list was vandalized. We would like to stress that on the day the ad was released Wikipedians removed the vandalism extremely quickly. It appears that the most serious disruption was caused by The Verge the day before the ad was released.

Wikipedia's content is managed by unpaid volunteers supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit charitable organization that helps us develop and distribute free educational content. The English language Wikipedia is viewed about 8 billion times each month.[2] Unfortunately this attracts unethical advertisers, such as Burger King, to put hidden ads into our articles. We believe that these actions are harmful to our readers and our mission of providing high quality and neutral information to all people.

We demand that:

  • Burger King apologize to our editors and our readers
  • Burger King complies with our terms-of-use and posts on Wikipedia its paid editing accounts, the articles edited by them, and any affiliated editors or organizations involved in this editing since June 16, 2014.
  • Burger King’s parent corporation, Restaurant Brands International and RBI’s parent, 3G Capital take responsibility for ensuring that Burger King fulfills its responsibilities and that similar incidents not be repeated.
  • The Verge and its parent Vox Media similarly disclose its paid editing on Wikipedia and apologize to our editors and readers.

Signed by[edit]

  1. ~ Rob13Talk 19:59, 17 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  2. ~Endercase (talk) 19:59, 17 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  3. ~ Nocturnalnow (talk) 20:52, 17 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  4. ~ Guy Macon (talk) 20:59, 17 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  5. ~ Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 21:03, 17 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  6. ~ Smallbones(smalltalk) 23:20, 17 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  7. —Jeremy v^_^v Bori! 23:27, 17 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  8. --- Coretheapple (talk) 12:27, 18 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  9. ~ Pinguinn 🐧 16:23, 18 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  10. --v/r - TP 22:11, 18 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  11. ~ {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 10:53, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  12. Jonatan Svensson Glad (talk) 17:05, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  13. Herostratus (talk) 04:27, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  14. DGG ( talk ) 14:20, 20 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  15. RileyBugzYell at me | Edits 22:53, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  16. Tamwin (talk) 06:37, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  17. – Train2104 (t • c) 13:34, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

References[edit]

  1. ^ In an article dated 12:00 pm, April 12, 2017, The Verge stated that "The Verge modified the Whopper entry briefly". The only additions to the article in the previous week are shown here
  2. ^ "Wikimedia Report Card". Retrieved April 17, 2017.
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