A report conducted by British broadsheet The Daily Telegraph has alleged that pages relating to UK Members of Parliament, on the popular Internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia, were edited favourably by computers located on the premises of Westminster. The Palace of Westminster is the UK’s official parliament building, home to the formal processes of government and host to the state offices of MP’s.
A catalogue of changes were made to the Wikipedia entries of politicians from the main parties – Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat – over a period of several months prior to the UK general election on May 7th.
Information detailing a wide range of controversies – the abuse of parliamentary expenses, sex scandals, extra marital affairs, opposition to same sex marriage, arrests, allegations of electoral fraud, assaults and profligate use of chauffeur driven cars – vanished from the biographies of relevant sitting MP’s.
More than a dozen pages were amended, and these amendments were made on the keyboards and screens of computers that had IP addresses registered to the Houses of Parliament. All changes made to wikipedia entries, and the IP addreses of computers from which these changes are made, are logged.
The pages of MP’s were also embellished with positive additions such as references to newspaper articles that cited political accomplishments. One Conservative MP’s biography was boosted by a 121 word appraisal of his role in improving broadband connections within his constituency, and a Liberal Democrat MP’s page was revised to include a 298 word “record of delivery”.
A simliar investigation in 2012 by the Independent revealed that MP’s and their staff were responsible for approximately 10,000 edits to Wikipedia, and nearly one in six politicians amended their pages from inside parliament.
Spokesmen for the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats all declined to comment.
