Wikipedia misused as a PR platform for cantonal banks
Some time ago, highly embellished entries were posted on Wikipedia. This case was recently uncovered by Swiss Equity Magazine. However, it is not an isolated case of the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia being used as an advertising platform.
The Association of Swiss Cantonal Banks (VSKB) whitewashed the entries about the bank on behalf of its members. Two PR employees are said to have written the entries about the bank in January 2009, as Sonntag writes. For example, the Glarner Kantonalbank is said to "contribute to the balanced and sustainable development of the Glarus economy". There was nothing about the fact that the canton had to rescue the banks three years ago because of bad loans. Nor about the lawsuits against those responsible.
According to Sonntag, the ASCB association has violated Wikipedia's rules twice with such entries. On the one hand, the authors' page states that "self-promotion of companies (...) is expressly undesirable". In addition, the association did not disclose the conflict of interest, although this is required by Wikipedia. One employee is even said to have worked anonymously under the pseudonym "Helveka". However, the association has relented on one point, according to Sonntag. The association no longer writes its Wikipedia entries anonymously, but under the abbreviation "VSKB".
