By

21st Century Wire

A worrying trend is currently emerging where governments are anonymously editing the Wikipedia entries for certain events. The emergence and explosion of electronic media has facilitated such actions, and the complete rewriting of history is now possible. Free and anonymous edits allow people to rapidly exchange and collate information, but also for nefarious forces to commit acts of deception from the shadows.

Edits to Wikipedia articles, from IP addresses located in the US Congress, have been occurring so often that the website recently banned edits from all Congressional IP addresses. The rise in edits was spotted by a Twitter account bot, which uses software to notify followers whenever a Wikipedia page is edited from a Congressional IP address. What is most notable about the edits is the kind of pages that are being edited, such as Wikipedia’s page on moon landing conspiracy theories; many of which hold the US government in a negative light (Stephen, 2014). Whether the theories are true, or not, does not matter as much as the fact that they are damaging to the legitimacy of the US government. This legitimacy already lies in tatters with Congressional approval ratings sitting at 14%, which might explain why edits to these pages originate from within the halls of Congress (Murray, 2014).

However, the US government isn’t the only culprit here, as it has recently come to light that the British government has been responsible for far more reprehensible edits to Wikipedia articles. British government computers were used to apply ‘sickening revisions’ to the Hillsborough Disaster page on Wikipedia, an event where 96 people were killed in a human crush at an English football stadium. The phrases ‘blame Liverpool fans’ and ‘you’ll never walk again’ were among those inserted from government IP addresses. A spokeswoman for the Cabinet Office said ‘no one should be in any doubt of the government’s position regarding the Hillsborough disaster’ (Duggan, 2014). Yet, it is strikingly obvious that certain individuals, either acting alone or potentially under instruction, do hold a very different position on the disaster. It appears to be being used to push an agenda that enables infighting, amongst the general public, to distract from failing British government policies that are leading to societal degradation.

But, as outrageous as those revelations are, the British government has not stopped there. A critical section from the Jean Charles de Menezes case’s article, detailing how the Independent Police Complaints Commission was failing to provide answers, was entirely erased from a user sitting at a government computer. A further edit was added that slandered the victim as a drug user. The high profile Damilola Taylor murder case also had its Wikipedia entry altered, as a user of a government computer changed a sentence that stated the young boy ‘was murdered’ to instead simply say that he had ‘died’. Also, the Lee Rigby murder was said to be ‘not notable enough’, to be included in an article regarding terrorism (RT UK, 2014). This is a case that has many more questions than answers, as you’ll read in my 2013 article for 21st Century Wire.

What these government edits to Wikipedia pages represent, is an attempt at both the censorship and suppression of failure and conspiracy. Failure and conspiracy cannot under any circumstances be allowed to go unchecked, when they originate from governments that allege themselves to be legitimate, of the people and democratic in nature. It is the very exposure of failure and conspiracy that allows a free people to select a new leadership, while its censorship allows only for subjugation and swindling.

References

Duggan, O. (2014) ‘Exclusive: Shocking Hillsborough insults added on Wikipedia from Government computers’ on LiverpoolEcho.co.uk, Liverpool: Trinity Mirror Merseyside.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hillsborough-wikipedia-insults-added-government-7029881 (Accessed 12/08/14)

Murray, M. (2014) ‘America’s Fed Up: Obama Approval Rating Hits All-Time Low, Poll Shows’ on NBCNews.com, New York: NBC News.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/americas-fed-obama-approval-rating-hits-all-time-low-poll-n173271 (Accessed 12/08/14)

RT UK (2014) ‘’History is a human right’: UK govt. Wikipedia edits obscure high profile killings’ on RT.com, London: Russia Today.

http://rt.com/uk/178652-internet-censorship-police-uk/ (Accessed 12/08/14)

Stephen, B. (2014) ‘Congress Gets Banned from Editing Wikipedia’ – on Time.com, New York: Time Inc.

http://time.com/3040483/congress-wikipedia/ (Accessed 12/08/14)

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