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Del Mastro said none of his staff had made the subsequent edits of the page that reversed the objectionable changes.

“I have never considered Wikipedia to be one of the social media platforms of the office. I can confirm that none of my staff have added, deleted or edited any content on the Wikipedia page.”

Wikipedia recorded the edits about Del Mastro’s profession as coming from the Internet Protocol (IP) address 192.197.82.203, which is in a block of addresses registered to the House of Commons, according to domain registrations.

A Wikipedia user with the screen name Altamel, who reversed one of Tuesday’s edits to Del Mastro’s page,confronted the person using the House of Commons IP address through a chat function on the site that allows editors to discuss their work, saying changes made to pages needed to be cited with reliable sources.

The person using the House of Commons IP address responded by asking Altamel, “Do you know the difference between a reputable Auto Dealer (like Open Road Mazda) and a shady used car salesman like Dean Del Mastro Motors?”

Altamel repeated the need to cite changes made to pages with reliable sources and said Wikipedia pages must remain neutral in tone. Minutes later, a House of Commons user responded: “We are the government. We are the only source.”

Since 2004, computers using this House of Commons IP address have made more than 1,000 edits to Wikipedia pages. Twice, the IP address has had editor privileges temporarily revoked because someone made sweeping, unsourced changes to articles. In June 2007, Wikipedia blocked the IP address for “persistent vandalism” to pages, mostly for repeatedly removing the “Controversy over Air India connection” section from the page of then-Liberal MP Navdeep Singh Bains.

The IP used for the Del Mastro edits does not correspond to any one person on the Hill. It could have been temporarily assigned to any one of the thousands of people who have access to computers on the House of Commons network, a group that includes MPs and their staff, House administrators, parliamentary librarians and even journalists who work in the parliamentary press gallery’s shared office space in the Centre Block.

To track the Wikipedia post to a specific computer on Parliament Hill, Speaker Andrew Scheer would have to ask House of Commons IT officials to check internal server logs to see which computer used that address at the time changes were made.

Scheer launched a similar investigation in 2012, when then-Public Safety Minister Vic Toews claimed his privilege as a member of Parliament had been violated by the “Vikileaks” Twitter postings about his divorce, also made from a House of Commons IP address. The Citizen had traced the Wikileaks account to a Commons IP address.

Before the investigation was completed, Adam Carroll, a researcher working for the Liberals, came forward to admit he had posted excerpts of Toews’s divorce pleadings via Vikileaks. Carroll resigned his job on the Hill but was later rehired by the party.

Wikipedia postings made from Parliament Hill were highlighted by a Twitter account created last week that scrutinizes edits made to pages by computers using government IP addresses.