--- title: Wikipedia Bans Congressional IP Addresses From Editing Articles description: A bot watchdog keeps Congressional staffers honest. canonical: https://time.com/3040483/congress-wikipedia/ author: Bijan Stephen article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-26T18:28:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:11:57.020Z og:title: Wikipedia Bans Congressional IP Addresses From Editing Articles og:description: A bot watchdog keeps Congressional staffers honest. og:url: https://time.com/3040483/congress-wikipedia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc77905913c662aa9/69869d5b169ab0c0cf27a7d9/133457141.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: As Deadline On Debt Reduction Impasse Looms, Super Committee Meets Over Weekend og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Wikipedia Bans Congressional IP Addresses From Editing Articles twitter:description: A bot watchdog keeps Congressional staffers honest. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc77905913c662aa9/69869d5b169ab0c0cf27a7d9/133457141.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Congress Gets Banned from Editing Wikipedia > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen Jul 26, 2014 6:28 PM UTC  WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 19: The U.S. Capitol is seen on November 19, 2011 in Washington, DC. The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or super committee, which faces a Wednesday deadline to reach a deficit reduction agreement, planned to meet over the weekend. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images) WASHINGTON - NOVEMBER 19: The U.S. Capitol is seen on November 19, 2011 in Washington, DC. The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, or super committee, which faces a Wednesday deadline to reach a deficit reduction agreement, planned to meet over the weekend. (Photo by Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images) Brendan Hoffman—Getty Images by [Bijan Stephen](https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/) ## Bijan Stephen Jul 26, 2014 6:28 PM UTC If you—like me—use Twitter religiously, you’ve probably noticed a new account popping up in and around your mentions: [Congress Edits](https://twitter.com/congressedits), a [recently-created bot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CongressEdits) 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](http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28481876). [Among the edits](http://www.fastcompany.com/3033581/fast-feed/wikipedia-bans-congress-from-editing-pages-for-10-days) 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CongressEdits), the bot, created by software developer Ed Summers, has been called a “watchdog” by NBC News. Hard to disagree. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3040483/congress-wikipedia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3040483/congress-wikipedia/"},"headline":"Congress Gets Banned from Editing Wikipedia","datePublished":"2014-07-26T18:28:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:11:57.020Z","description":"A bot watchdog keeps Congressional staffers honest.","url":"https://time.com/3040483/congress-wikipedia/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Congress","Wikipedia"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc77905913c662aa9/69869d5b169ab0c0cf27a7d9/133457141.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Bijan Stephen","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/bijan-stephen/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc77905913c662aa9/69869d5b169ab0c0cf27a7d9/133457141.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"As Deadline On Debt Reduction Impasse Looms, Super Committee Meets Over Weekend","caption":"As Deadline On Debt Reduction Impasse Looms, Super Committee Meets Over Weekend","creditText":"Brendan Hoffman—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3040483/congress-wikipedia/","name":"Congress Gets Banned from Editing Wikipedia"}}]}] ```