Social media users share posts online of a screenshot showing a preview of the Wikipedia definition for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as found during a Google search, and suggest that this is evidence that Wikipedia or Google is biased against conservatives. The preview summary shows the entry for CPAC after being temporarily edited by an anonymous user. The page was quickly edited to a more neutral definition. Wikipedia is a collaborative platform with which users can usually add or edit entries. Administrators can restrict editing features to restrict improper use, and have done so on the CPAC page ever since.
Examples can be seen here and here.
One report’s description reads: “If you think Google is not politically charged ….. think again! Dennis and I talked about the CPAC conference that took place in Orlando. We could not remember what the initials stood for, so I google it. THIS crock from BS is the first thing to appear. The Wikipedia explanation was 2nd. I went to Google again and was surprised ….. it did not come up. Luckily I did a screenshot the 1st time. What a load of crap !!! ”
The post shows a mobile version of a Google search result showing the CPAC Wikipedia page. The first paragraph of the Wikipedia article is displayed, as is common when searching for people, events, or things.
It reads: “The Conservative Political Action Conference is an annual radical political conference attended by conservatives, QAnon sympathizers (sic), neo-Nazis, KKK members, rapists, insurgents (sic), Trumpists and fraudulent elected officials. from across the United States and beyond. ”
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia of freely editable content and articles are co-authored by anonymous volunteers, as explained in Wikipedia’s “about” section: here.
The site explains: “Anyone with Internet access can write and upload Wikipedia articles, except in limited cases where editing is restricted to prevent further disruption or vandalism.” It defines vandalism as an attempt to defeat the purpose of Wikipedia as a free online encyclopedia.
As of this writing, the introductory sentence of the CPAC Wikipedia page reads: ‘The Conservative Political Action Conference is an annual political conference attended by conservative activists and elected officials from across the United States and beyond. CPAC is offered by the American Conservative Union (ACU). This year it took place in Orlando, Florida, between February 25 and February 28, 2021 (cpac.conservative.org/).
The revision history for the Wikipedia entry for CPAC here shows that the first paragraph was processed on February 27, 2021 to include the text in the claim. It can be seen here.
The page was quickly restored to the original page by other users, but the next few days were still vandalized, as seen here, here, here and here.
Wikipedia allows users who act as administrators to change the access rules for specific pages to prevent vandalism.
The page now has the “extended protection” icon (like a blue chain lock) at the top right of the article heading. If you hang over the icon, it appears that this protection is valid until March 15, 2021.
Extensive confirmed protection means that the page only allows editing by users who have at least 30 days in office and have made 500 edits (here), thus limiting editing by trolls or amateur users.
If you use Wikipedia, it is important to remember that it can be edited by any anonymous user. These posts are not evidence that Google or Wikipedia workers described CPAC using these words.
VERDICT
Missing context. The Wikipedia page of the Conservative Political Action Conference was edited by an anonymous user to include the text in the screenshot, but it is not evidence of prejudice by Google or Wikipedia.