Governments Caught Wiki Watching

Don't you just love the new WikiScanner, it's really showing the world how petty and pathetic our governmental departments really are. The C.I.A have been caught out changing inconvenient details in the U.S:

'WikiScanner showed CIA computers were used to edit an entry on the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A graphic on casualties was changed to say many figures were estimates and were not broken down by class.'

'Another entry on former CIA chief William Colby was edited by CIA computers to expand his career history and discuss the merits of a Vietnam War program he headed.'

And now it's been revealed that staff in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet have dabbled in some Wikipedia editing to improve the government's Wikipedia image:

'A new website, WikiScanner, which traces the digital fingerprints of those who make changes to entries in the online encylopedia, points to the department as the source of 126 edits on subjects ranging from the "children overboard affair" to the Treasurer, Peter Costello.

On June 28, an employee of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet modified Mr Costello's entry to remove a reference to the nickname "Captain Smirk".

WikiScanner also identifies employees of another federal department, Defence, as the most prolific Wikipedia contributors in Australia. Defence computers were found to have made more than 5000 edits to Wikipedia, including the Australian Defence Force Academy and even Vietnam-era Pentagon Papers.

In the Prime Minister's office last year, an employee edited the entry on "Mandatory detention in Australia" to add "allegedly" to a sentence claiming immigration detainees were subject to "inhumane conditions".

Modifications were also made to claims that mandatory detention of asylum seekers helped John Howard win the 2001 election.'

What little people they must be to bother making these alterations. That last one is particularly troubling considering the fact that we all know that the Howard Government's demonising of asylum seekers was a huge contributing factor to his 2001 victory. You only need to look at the polls prior to, and after, the Tampa incident to realise how influential it actually was.

Grow up people.

UPDATE:

Denials. Were assured that the changes were made made by another customer of their ISP. So it's simply a matter of some loyal Australian citizen making sure the Gov looks squeeky clean.