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Congress Gets Banned from Editing Wikipedia

1 minute read

If you—like me—use Twitter religiously, you’ve probably noticed a new account popping up in and around your mentions: Congress Edits, a recently-created bot that tweets anonymous edits made from Congressional IP addresses. It’s a significant service, one that’s managed to throw a little more light onto the murky workings of government.

The folks at Wikipedia have noticed the editing and decided to put a 10-day ban on edits coming from offices within the U.S. House of Representatives, the BBC reports.

Among the edits that have originated from Congressional IP addresses in recent days are changes to everything from the Choco Taco Wikipedia page to a page on conspiracy theories about the original moon landing.

According to its own Wikipedia page, the bot, created by software developer Ed Summers, has been called a “watchdog” by NBC News. Hard to disagree.

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Write to Bijan Stephen at bijan.stephen@gmail.com