US Senate staff mucking with Wikipedia entries
Rating: 5/5 | Comments: 2
Print 02.08.2006 @01:37 PM
Contributed by Simon
Edited by Simon

US Senate staff members have edited Wikipedia entries, including removing facts, according to a Wikinews-led investigation examining IP addresses.

Wikinews reports:

Using the public history of edits on Wikipedia, Wikinews reporters collected every Senate IP which had ever edited on Wikipedia as of February 3 and examined where the IPs came from, what they edited, and of what those edits consisted. IP, or Internet Protocol, addresses are unique numbers electronic devices use to communicate with each other on an individual basis.

The Wikinews report examines several instances where Senate staff appeared to have painted Senators in a more favorable light. It notes:

Wikinews reporters also discovered that a handful of miscellaneous vandalism edits had been made to some Senators' articles. Vandalized articles included those of Tom Coburn and Harry Reid. The edits to Reid's were made three times, while the Coburn vandalism was made two times, after it had been restored to a prior version. An edit to an article about a controversy over Senator Rick Santorum's statements about Constitutional rights to privacy with regards to sexual acts, seemingly coming from Rick Santorum's staff members, removed a reference to an effort to redefine Santorum's last name as a neologism meaning "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex."

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Hacking? Can't anybody change a wikipedia entry? Isn't that the point of wikipedia?

Quoted: Hacking? Can't anybody change a wikipedia entry? Isn't that the point of wikipedia?

Yup.

I don't understand what the problem is.

It's not exactly "hacking" to just go in and make some changes. Thought that was the whole point of wikipedia.

I hope they're not surprised or upset by this.

I mean REALLY! The very thought!

Quoted: It's not exactly "hacking" to just go in and make some changes. Thought that was the whole point of wikipedia.

Yeah.. it is.

However, when information that is posted on the Senator (and its factual/true) shows him/her in a bad light... the staffers go in and remove that information even though its 100% correct.

Quoted: Yeah.. it is.

No.....it isn't.

On a webiste that exists specifically to allow anyone add anything they want as a definition, the term "hacking" cannot be applied to editing information found there.

Quoted: Quoted: Yeah.. it is. No.....it isn't. On a webiste that exists specifically to allow anyone add anything they want as a definition, the term "hacking" cannot be applied to editing information found there.

I think VooDoo's "it is" statement referred to the previous question regarding the purpose of Wikipedia, not the definition of hacking.

Quoted: Quoted: Yeah.. it is. No.....it isn't. On a webiste that exists specifically to allow anyone add anything they want as a definition, the term "hacking" cannot be applied to editing information found there.

I meant "Yeah it is" to your comment; "Thought that was the whole point of wikipedia."