This report concerns disruptive edits to articles related to ccTLD (country code top-level domains). A discussion occurred here.

See discussion at ANI (July 2017).

Overview

edit

Recent activity can be seen in "related changes" for {{ccTLD}}:

ccTLD articles edited by the IPs:

.al .ar .bf .bi .bj .br .cd .cg .ci .cl .cn .co .cu .dz .ec .et .gh .gm .gn .hr .hu .id .il .in .ir .jp .ke .kp .kr .ly .md .mk .ml .mn .mx .my .ne .ng .pe .ph .pk .ro .rw .sd .sn .td .th .tn .tr .tw .ua .ug .vn

IPs from above (BTnet UK Regional network):

81.135.204.201 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
86.134.240.162 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
86.174.198.166 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
86.134.246.111 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
86.164.203.33 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
86.167.196.52 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
86.174.196.117 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs,x-wiki)
86.174.196.70 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
86.186.7.21 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)
86.188.38.18 (talk · contribs · WHOIS) (all contribs, x-wiki)

The IPs are active cross-wiki (click the x-wiki link for cross-wiki global contributions). Example: 10:55, 20 July 2017.

Outline of problem

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Many diffs show unhelpful changes of this nature:

  • Adding many unlikely or unhelpful or blatantly false assertions, often with {{citation needed}} tags.
  • Adding unhelpful empty sections, sometimes with an {{empty section}} tag.
  • Adding nonsensical dates ("as of 2018...", or "active since 1990" contradicting a known start date of 1994).
  • Adding fake statistics with {{citation needed}} ("69,000,000" registered domains at .co and .ng and .sn).
  • Nonsensical edit summaries, for example:
    500 Internal Server Error
    ARREST OF 8 SAMPAGA MEMBERS FOR THE MURDER OF 7 COLOBONG MEMBERS
    IMBESTIGADOR JULY 22, 2017 (see Imbestigador)
    MURDER SENSENG (see Sensing Murder)
    OBJECT REFERENCE NOT SET TO AN INSTANCE OF AN OBJECT
    S.O.C.O. JULY 22, 2017 (see S.O.C.O. (Scene of the Crime Operatives))

Reliable sources

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ICANN manages the process whereby domain names are allocated on the Internet. Page 117 of their document ICANN study on the African DNS market states:

"Research data from November 2016 indicates that a total of just over 2.9 million domains are active under the African ccTLDs."
[This shows the absurdity of the above 69,000,000 value for Nigeria and Senegal.]

The research data page includes a table with counts of all domains in each TLD. An extract from that table follows. The "spurious count" column shows values entered by the IP.

TLD Domain count Spurious count
.al 17,072 690,000
.ci 8,837 9,500,000
.co 2,186,090 69,000,000
.gm 1,521 650,000
.in 1,812,048 945,699
.ng 71,715 69,000,000
.pe 83,032 500,000
.ph 76,889 690,000
.sn 4,369 69,000,000

Sample of diffs

edit
Added
Presently, these .al website domains increased to 690,000 making them the very popular .al domain since 2018.
which has the made-up "690,000" and future 2018 date.
Included
registereddomains=9,500,000
however the .ci registry page [1] shows "9158 NOMS DE DOMAINE EN .CI" (9,158 domain names in .ci). That value is more up-to-date than the 8,837 count above.
Included
actualuse = Very Popular in Colombia; .CO top level domain has become the leading global alternative to .com for innovators, entrepreneurs and startups. This domain is also widely used in Colombia.
(other articles have similar "very popular" language; examples below).
Included
registereddomains = 69,000,000
Included future date:
As of 2018, this domain is re-established by Colombian Network Information Center.{{citation needed}}
Included (URL added twice)
http://www.nic.net.co Colombian Network Indormation Center - in Colombia (another website)
but that URL is for a non-existent domain.
Included:
actualuse=Very Popular in the Gambia; uses primarily and Frequently
registereddomains=650,000
Included:
registereddomains = 945,699
http://www.nic.net.in/
but that URL displays:
If you are seeing this message, the website for is not available at this time.
Included
registereddomains=69,000,000
and
http://www.nic.ng/ Nigerian Network Information Center (another website)
but that URL shows a "Buy this domain" parked domain.
Included six empty sections, each with {{empty section}}, and
As of 2017, they are currently 90,969 domains registered, currently, they are 69,000,000 domains registered in the .ng Domain.{{citation needed}}
while the infobox said
Registered domains 90,969 (July 22, 2017)[1]
the [1] source in the article takes a long time to display, but it clearly verifies 90,969.
Included:
registereddomains=500,000
Added
9 made-up factoids, each with {{citation needed}}
4 unhelpful empty sections, each with {{empty section}}
Included
sponsor = PH Domain Foundation, http://www.nic.net.ph/ Philippine Network information Center
but that URL shows a "This domain may be available" parked domain with text unrelated to domains.
Included
registereddomains = 690,000
Included:
Registered domains 69,000,000 (June 27, 2017){{citation needed}}
Added (this example shows that more than ccTLD articles are subject to nonsense):
-Turkish{{citation needed}}