WikipediaBot: Machine Learning Assisted Adversarial Manipulation of Wikipedia Articles

Abstract

This paper presents an automated adversarial mechanism called WikipediaBot. WikipediaBot allows an adversary to create and control a bot infrastructure for the purpose of adversarial edits of Wikipedia articles. The WikipediaBot is a self-contained mechanism with modules for generating credentials for Wikipedia editors, bypassing login protections, and a production of contextually-relevant adversarial edits for target Wikipedia articles that evade conventional detection. The contextually-relevant adversarial edits are generated using an adversarial Markov chain that incorporates a linguistic manipulation attack known as MIM or malware-induced misperceptions. We conducted a preliminary qualitative analysis with a small focus group to test the effect of the adversarial edits in manipulating the perception a human reader has about a target Wikipedia article. Because the nefarious use of WikipediaBot could result in harmful damages to the integrity of a wide range of Wikipedia articles, we provide an elaborate discussion about the implications, detection, and defenses Wikipedia could employ to address the threat of automated adversarial manipulations.