Wikipedia Bans Congress for a Week After ‘Disruptive’ Edits
Skull and Bones Wikipedia article edited anonymously from US House of Representatives http://t.co/KTH88lZlUd
— congress-edits (@congressedits) July 23, 2014
Wikipedia, the online open source encyclopedia that allows users to edit, has banned an IP Address connected to members and staffers from the US House of Representatives for 10 days following a series of edits that followed the creation of @congressedits which posts edits made to Wikipedia coming from an IP address associated with Congress.
The 10 day ban follows a one day ban that happened earlier in the month and appears to have come as a result of transgressive edits following the rise of the Congress Edits Twitter account.
The user-generated Web encyclopedia on Thursday suspended an Internet Protocol (IP) address connected to the House. The block could affect thousands of House staffers who do not have accounts with Wikipedia and are identifiable only through the IP address.
The suspension follows the recent launch of a Twitter account that automatically tweets when edits to Wikipedia pages are made from congressional IP addresses. The account rapidly gained popularity in recent weeks, and now has more than 23,000 followers. Apparently in reaction to the account, House staffers made a series of tongue-in-cheek edits, knowing they would show up on Twitter.
The ban only applies to anonymous accounts, if a staffer or member of Congress registers for an actual account they can still edit Wikipedia, though given the track record of the anonymous edits it doesn’t seem much of a loss.
And, of course, now that members of Congress and their staff have less time to screw with Wikipedia perhaps they could, you know, get some work done?
Wikipedia Bans Congress For A Week After ‘Disruptive’ Edits
Skull and Bones Wikipedia article edited anonymously from US House of Representatives http://t.co/KTH88lZlUd
— congress-edits (@congressedits) July 23, 2014
Wikipedia, the online open source encyclopedia that allows users to edit, has banned an IP Address connected to members and staffers from the US House of Representatives for 10 days following a series of edits that followed the creation of @congressedits which posts edits made to Wikipedia coming from an IP address associated with Congress.
The 10 day ban follows a one day ban that happened earlier in the month and appears to have come as a result of transgressive edits following the rise of the Congress Edits Twitter account.
The user-generated Web encyclopedia on Thursday suspended an Internet Protocol (IP) address connected to the House. The block could affect thousands of House staffers who do not have accounts with Wikipedia and are identifiable only through the IP address.
The suspension follows the recent launch of a Twitter account that automatically tweets when edits to Wikipedia pages are made from congressional IP addresses. The account rapidly gained popularity in recent weeks, and now has more than 23,000 followers. Apparently in reaction to the account, House staffers made a series of tongue-in-cheek edits, knowing they would show up on Twitter.
The ban only applies to anonymous accounts, if a staffer or member of Congress registers for an actual account they can still edit Wikipedia, though given the track record of the anonymous edits it doesn’t seem much of a loss.
And, of course, now that members of Congress and their staff have less time to screw with Wikipedia perhaps they could, you know, get some work done?
