Wikipedia puts Congress in time out, blocks editing
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An IP address from a staff member in the U.S. House of Representatives has been temporarily blocked from making edits to Wikipedia articles after some of its changes were deemed disruptive.
The Twitter bot @congressedits was created earlier this month to track what changes were coming out of congress and, well, it found some pretty interesting edits coming from an IP address for House staff.
An anonymous user from the House edited the page for "moon landing conspiracy theories" to say the Cuban government was behind spreading rumors that 1969's moon landing was a hoax. (ViaNASA)
For Wikipedia's article on the Nevada Test and Training Range, a House staff computer included that, "In spite of allegations to the contrary, the claims that extraterrestials are housed in this facility are completely unsubstantiated." (Via U.S. Air Force / CC BY-NC 2.0)
And they added this note to the bio on controversial radio host Alex Jones: "Following his appearances on Russia Today, there were allegations that he was a disinformation agent with ties to the Kremlin." (The Alex Jones Show)
It should be pointed out that the user could be anyone working within the House of Representatives — staff member or elected official. (Via Getty Images)
When Mediaite published an article on the questionable edits, it speculated the culprit was a "an intern with questionable judgment" and asserted the editor was a man, which apparently he or she did not like.
Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales was not exactly grateful to @congressedits for pointing out the changes. He told the BBC it's counter productive and it actually provokes people into further disruptive edits.
The idea of tracking Congress's edits is far from original. There are dozens of twitter bots that tweet edits to Wikipedia pages from government agencies such as the CIA, European Parliament, NATO and NSA.
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