British Politicians Delete Negative Wikipedia Descriptions Before Election

EwanPalmer writes: The Wikipedia pages of dozens of UK politicians had references to sex scandals, fraud and opposition to same sex marriage removed in the run up to the UK general election. Dozens of MPs had negative aspects of their online biographies removed or altered prior to the election in a bid to make them more electable. The changes include several instances of MPs' expense claim scandals being removed, as well as details of arrests and the use of 'chauffeur-driven cars.' The edits were made using computers with IP addresses registered from inside Parliament.

Comments

Surprised those edits weren't reverted

[rockout]

I've noticed in the past that most of those white-washing edits, especially when they're done by anonymous IPs, tend to get reverted by registered editors, so that the white-washing isn't that much of an issue.

Re:Surprised those edits weren't reverted

[MickyTheIdiot]

Politicians are in such a bubble these days and are so self-righteous and self-involved I wonder if the actual office holder even has Wikipedia on their map. Here in the US we have politicians that proudly say they don't use email or have never used the web. It wouldn't surprise me if many staffers receive no guidelines at all about their online usage, and if they do it might come ignorance of how the Internet works.

Re:Surprised those edits weren't reverted

[mwvdlee]

It's an issue in that these politicians are wasting the precious time of honest, taxpaying volunteers.

Re:Surprised those edits weren't reverted

[RDW]

Me, if I were a politician, I'd tell my staff to have NOTHING to do with any Wikipedia pages

Personally, I'd have my staff whitewash my opponent's page, then leak that somebody had done this...

Re:bunch of naggers

[MightyMartian]

The alternative being a weak Labour government with its balls firmly in the Nats hands.

If there was ever an election that was a choice of the lesser evil, the 2015 UK general election was it.