Wikipedia edits adding Muslim insults came from Government computers

The Independent reports on the BBC’s discovery of more than a hundred instances of vandalism on Wikipedia, of inappropriate and insulting edits and deletions, allegedly made from Government computers.

It has emerged that the insults include a change made to the entry for “veil” in October 2006 which added “”It should be noted that the word Veil, when the letters rearraged [sic], spells evil.

“Since the Veil is mostly worn by Muslims, and all Muslims are terrorists (with the argument for this being that all terrorists have been Muslim), this fact should be dually [sic] noted by all.”

The comment was removed by a Wikipedia volunteer six minutes later.

As changes made to Wikipedia pages leave a trace through the users’ IP address, the BBC was able to track the anti-Muslim edits to two IP addresses known to be on the Government Secure Intranet (GSI). The GSI is used by government machines to connect to the internet securely.

The Cabinet Office condemned the amendments as “sickening” adding that “The behaviour is in complete contravention of the Civil Service Code. It is entirely unacceptable.

“The Civil Service Code applies at all times, and we take breaches very seriously. We have already announced an investigation to examine offensive edits to Wikipedia, and will look at other concerns raised.”

However, the BBC notes that the Cabinet Office has admitted that “due to the nature of its computer network, it would be almost impossible to track down who is responsible for the offensive remarks”.

Stevie Benton, from Wikipedia UK, described the vandalism as “appalling”. He said “Edits of this nature are removed very quickly by the volunteers who write and edit Wikipedia, often in a matter of minutes.”