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Wikipedia article edited to list murder victim as Sault mayor

Apparently 'vandalized,' the online encyclopedia also says Sault city motto is ‘Go Outlaws’
The Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Wikipedia page was edited overnight on June 15 by 'cityssm' to remove bogus references to the Outlaws motorcycle club and the mayor being a 2007 murder victim.

In what appears to be a hack of the City of Sault Ste. Marie's Wikipedia page, the crowd-sourced online encyclopedia temporarily listed a victim of a 2007 double murder as the city's mayor.

Since June 9, Mayor Christian Provenzano's name has been replaced with that of Christopher Newsome.

Clicking on that name on the Sault's Wikipedia page takes readers to another Wikipedia page titled "Murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom."

That page describes a brutal 2007 carjacking, rape and double torture/murder that occurred in Knoxville, Tenn. on Jan. 6, 2007.

The same web page was edited to list the city motto as 'Go Outlaws.'

Wikipedia describes itself as a "free encyclopedia, written collaboratively by the people who use it."

"Since 2001, it has grown rapidly to become the world's largest reference website, with 6.5 million articles in English attracting billions of views every month."

"Anyone can edit almost every page; just find something that can be improved and make it better!" the website declares.

Wikipedia refers to instances of intentionally disruptive or malicious edits as 'vandalism' and employs bots and human editors to spot and reverse the bogus changes.


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David Helwig

About the Author: David Helwig

David Helwig's journalism career spans seven decades beginning in the 1960s. His work has been recognized with national and international awards.
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