Chris Henning wrote a humorous piece last week speculating on Wikipedia edit wars between the staff of John Howard and Peter Costello.
This week we find that parliamentary staff from the PM’s Department actually have been editing articles of interest to the Government on Wikipedia.
It’s not just the staffers of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet:
WikiScanner also identifies employees of another department, Defence, as the most prolific Wikipedia contributors in Australia.
[…]
The only Australian organisations responsible for more edits than Defence were internet service providers. But their numbers are inflated because they include edits made by the providers’ thousands of users, in addition to staff members.
That really is quite mindboggling, and the Department of Defence is moving swiftly to block access to Wikipedia from the Department’s computers.
Other curious – though apparently non-political – edits by [the Prime Minister’s] department employees include adding sentences on various sites, including the additions “Freemasonry is the work of Satan”, “Mormonism is the work of Satan” and “Jesus is god”.
Although most of the edits made by employees of Defence and Prime Minister and Cabinet were legitimate additions to articles that did not involve the Government, a Defence spokeswoman said action was needed because the edits could be interpreted as official comments.
Indeed.
This sort of revelation and reaction is exactly what the creator of WikiScanner hoped for when he created the site.
WikiScanner removes much of the anonymity Wikipedia contributors have long enjoyed by tracing the unique digital fingerprint left by everybody who uses Wikipedia. It has helped uncover self-serving contributions from hundreds of sources, including the CIA, the Vatican, the Republican Party, the United Nations, the US Senate and the US Democratic Party’s congressional campaign committee.
“My intention was to create a massive fireworks display of public relations disasters for all the world to sit back and enjoy,” WikiScanner’s creator, Virgil Griffith, told the Herald.
I’m certainly enjoying the show.
Categories: culture wars, Politics
Elections #AusPol 2019 Thread 
Media Circus: Parliament Resumes Edition 
So today I learnt a new acronym 
Hoyden About Town 
I always loved and admired Emma Peel. I am a 60 yo eldest son, brother to three sisters. Also, in this happy relationship 7 years.
So, my comment is that there still aren’t people who take the responsibility to tell pompous idiots to go and get some real personal responsibility!
That means, for example, that no one needs to scream out loud to the whole internet their lack of vocabulary or debating skills.
Just because they are losers, doesn’t permit them to kick weaker critters. You keep up you blog, and let’s encourage more men and women to speak up, in a civilized manner!