--- 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Congress Gets Banned from Editing Wikipedia 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"}}]}] ```