US Government Caught Manipulating Wikipedia

surfi writes "As The Inquirer points out, someone with a House of Representatives IP address has been feeding propaganda into the 'invasion of Iraq' article on Wikipedia." Well at least they are in good company with trustworthy institutions like the CIA and the Vatican.

Oh, you wikiophiles

[Neil Blender]

You and your precious online encyclopedia. The one that can be edited by anyone. The one that contains absolutely no bias. It's so cute.

And you're surprised because...?

[sm62704]

From a blagh entry from two years ago [mcgrew.info]:

In 1979, the US Copyright Office granted a world wide copyright to the late Mr. Adams, who thought he still had plenty of time left. The copyright will not expire until you, too, are long late. The copyright was on a wholly remarkable book based on that radio play.

I never heard of the book. Indeed, nobody outside Islington (at least, nobody important) heard of it, either.

Also unheard of by anybody that matters is another book, called "Whackapedia". In many of the nerdier civilizations in the outer eastern rim of the internet, Whackapedia has already displaced the great Encyclopedia Britannica as the standard repository of all knowlege and wisdom, for though it has many ommissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects.

First, it's free, and second, it has the words "FOO BAR" in large, friendly letters on its cover.

-mcgrew [slashdot.org] (latest blagh)

Re:They're not that stupid

[Otter Escaping North]

I know "US Government Caught Manipulating Wikipedia" is a cool title, but seriously, does anyone think the US government, the CIA or the Vatican would be stupid enough to get caught if they actually wanted to influence a wikipedia article?

This US government? Abso-fraking-lutely.

Re:They're not that stupid

[BUL2294]

AOL still has enough money to give out free CDs???

Re:They're not that stupid

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Stupid? It must have been one of Ted Steven's [wikipedia.org] congressional aides/pages.

"Series of tubes!" SNORT! That sound's like a congressman's view of his page staff.

Our business in life is not to succeed but to continue to fail in high spirits.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson

One consolation here....

[zappepcs]

The edits were spelled correctly and the grammar was tolerable... I guess the culprit is not from the Oval Office.

Line 42

[sporkme]

It is alledged by some that there is no evidence that there is a government policy to screw with Wikipedia. Claiming that the US government is manipulating Wikipedia due to some IP numbers matching vandals is believed by some to be like claiming that the University of Washington is manipulating Wikipedia for the same reason. This of course does not disprove a relationship aimed at bringing harm to the United States.

There, the house of representatives fixed that for ya.

I would also like to point out the date on the edit linked in the article:
Revision as of 17:49, 12 August 2005

solution

[192939495969798999]

only unbiased contributions should be allowed to edit Wikipedia. That's a simple rule to implement, right?

Re:They're not that stupid

[ZeroFactorial]

Indeeed, I thought the title should read "Government caught with their pants down"
Unfortunately, Bill Clinton ensured that this phrase would never carry shock value ever again.

Re:They're not that stupid

[mfnickster]

The whole point of wikipedia is that it is constantly peer reviewed. If things are incorrect, people will eventually correct them - I fail to see how that's Orwellian.

Easy! The previous entry said "The U.S. has never been at war with Iraq."

The current entry says "The U.S. has always been at war with Iraq."

This is a required Government Power

[wtansill]

If the Government cannot edit Wikipedia as it sees fit, then the terrorists have already won!!! </sarcasm>

Re:So you subscribe to the "stupidity" theory?

[ChameleonDave]

Comprehendo?

No, you don't.

Re:So you subscribe to the "stupidity" theory?

[Tony Hoyle]

So we're really just talking about a few retards with an internet connection.

I've never heard wikipedia described so succinctly... I think I just found my new sig!