from the wanton-wiki-warpage-warrants-weekplus-wait dept.
Wikipedians have been warning editors from the House of Representatives since March 2012, and moved to block the address for one day earlier this month. Wikipedia has now blocked anonymous edits by addresses in the IP range assigned to the US House of Representatives for 10 days, due to "persistent disruptive edits".
One of the acts highlighted was an alteration to the page on the assassination of John F Kennedy, which was changed to say that Lee Harvey Oswald was acting "on behalf of the regime of Fidel Castro". An entry on the moon landing conspiracy theories was changed to say they were "promoted by the Cuban government". The biography of former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld was revised, describing him as an "alien lizard who eats Mexican babies".
Edits from computers using the IP address belonging to the House of Representatives have been banned before, following similar acts of vandalism. One staffer said they were being banned for the "actions of two or three".
The latest block comes after rogue edits were brought to light by a Twitter feed, @congressedits, which posts every change made from the government-owned address.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 26 2014, @10:11AM
Why not let Congress vote by proxy too?! What a concept.
(Score: 4, Funny) by kaszz on Saturday July 26 2014, @12:13PM
Next month congress will outlaw IP-bans. Problem solved..
The vandalism might also be used to block others in congress from editing anonymously.
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Saturday July 26 2014, @12:22PM
(I know it is not very serious, but still)
That would be a "shoot foot" decision ecause that would also prevent them from establishing an IP block on, for example, the pirate bay.
If they still would go forward with such an obviously flawed concept, then I think I need to block their IPs on my webserver, just to make a point. But then again, the internet generally routes around problems...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Leebert on Saturday July 26 2014, @01:21PM
Right. Because lawmakers NEVER exclude themselves and the government from laws.
(Score: 3, Funny) by BsAtHome on Saturday July 26 2014, @04:32PM
So,... the lawmakers are the only one with access to TPB. That'll make good for their reputation.
I knew it, government == pirates.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday July 26 2014, @11:17PM
The most important mafia is the one called government .. :P
(Score: 1) by FlatPepsi on Sunday July 27 2014, @01:28AM
OK, so some bored staffer does some troll edits. I've seen no evidence that this user's trolling is in any way remarkable - other then being from a government IP.
That twitter monitor bot gave the troll an audience, and he got slightly creative with the whole "eats babies" post. Only then some folks get into a lather over this.
I don't see the story here. If you want to address the fact that this IP is associated with 5 years of trolling without getting banned, that's worth talking about. The fact that this is from a government IP does not make the trolling newsworthy.