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RE: The Owner of Snopes.com - 'Truth' and 'Fact Checking' Website (Used by Facebook and Paid Off by Monsanto) Is In Court + Could Be Shut Down For Lying.
I experienced an identical result with editing wikipedia for the definition for 'world peace' of all things. They stated that world peace was impossible, so it should have been an uncontroversial edit to simply say that world peace is possible, provided the right decisions are made (I wrote in more detail than that). Within a few minutes the change was removed again. Another time I added a new page for a particular 'personality' that was accurate and well received by people who like him.. Wikipedia editors removed it and then in the discussion area made pretty clear that they weren't interested in the truth outside of what they decide to be allowed as 'truth'.
Based on these examples, I don't even know how anyone will become a "credible source" there... :D
Do you know the TV series called Mr. Robot?
(It's storyline: "Follows Elliot, a young programmer working as a cyber-security engineer by day, and a vigilante hacker by night.")
There was a short scene in it where they could get into a guarded building by putting a fake article about the main protagonist onto Wikipedia.(as a tech genius, a young millionaire/billionaire if I remember well) A friend of his was a credible source, so he could put there absolutely anything. He simply said his name, the people there Googled him, found the article "oh crap, this guy is the real deal" and let him in. Back in the day when I watched it I had no idea how Wikipedia works and I was like, no way! But it seems it is a totally possible scenario.
Note to self: Hire a few Wikipedia editors in the future.
This stuff is fascinating to think about. There's a great book on the topic,
The Art of Deception: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Deception-Controlling-Element-Security/dp/076454280X - written by a guy who used to be one of the most notorious hackers in the world who basically went clean and revealed all of his secrets to help people protect themselves.
He gives examples of calling a bank three different times, getting a few seemingly innocent pieces of info each time, then making a final call where he can easily manipulate the company into giving him valuable customer information.