What is conflict of interest editing on Wikipedia?

Conflict-of-interest (COI) editing on Wikipedia is editing an article in which the editor has a financial, personal, professional, or legal interest in the subject. Wikipedia defines this broadly: it covers writing about yourself, your family, your clients, your employer, or any financial or other relationship you hold.

Who has a conflict of interest

Employees

Anyone writing about their own employer.

Paid PR consultants and agencies

Anyone compensated to edit on a client’s behalf.

Executives and company representatives

Anyone editing the article about their own organization.

Self, family, and own organization

Individuals editing articles about themselves, their family members, or organizations they are affiliated with.

What Wikipedia requires

Wikipedia’s terms of use require editors who are paid for their contributions to disclose their employer, client, and any relevant affiliation. Beyond disclosure, the community policy strongly discourages COI editors from editing the affected article directly, even when the relationship has been disclosed.

The accepted path

The compliant route for COI work is to propose changes on the article’s Talk page rather than editing the article yourself:

1. Disclose the paid or affiliated relationship publicly (for example, on your user page).
2. Post a Talk-page edit request that identifies the proposed wording and the reliable, independent sources that support it.
3. Let independent community editors review the proposal and decide whether and how to implement it.

Five Blocks works exclusively through this disclosed COI process for client engagements, which is why our edits hold up rather than getting reverted.