Wikipedia Editor Traced to U.S. Senate Changes Snowden's Bio to 'Traitor'

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By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai2013-08-06 19:29:31 UTC

Edward Snowden's bio on his Wikipedia page changed from "dissident" to "traitor" on Friday.

The IP address of the sleuthing Wikipedia editor was traced back to to the United States Senate. But another Wikipedia user nicknamed Ginsuloft reverted the edit after just one minute, arguing the change didn't reflect a neutral point of view.

See also: Edward Snowden Already Has Job Offers and Fangirls

"Wikipedia is written by people who have a wide diversity of opinions, but we try hard to make sure articles have a neutral point of view," he wrote on the Wikipedia talk page of the anonymous U.S. Senate user. "Your recent edit to Edward Snowden seemed less than neutral to me, so I removed it for now."

The Daily Dot first reported the edit after the website Wikipediocracy identified the change.

The individual behind the attempted edit remains unknown, however, as the IP address registered to the U.S. Senate may be shared by multiple computers and multiple users.

As Techdirt pointed out, this is not the first time someone on Capitol Hill has edited a Wikipedia page. An entire Wikipedia page called "U.S. Congressional staff edits to Wikipedia" is solely dedicated to recapping some of the most controversial edits, which now also includes the Snowden edit.

Another Wikipedia user added that an edit to a high-profile Wikipedia page like Snowden's has the potential to backfire.

"As an experienced wikipedian and a site administrator, I can tell you that such things have happened in the past, and all they accomplished was to embarrass the person or persons behind the edits," wrote a user nicknamed Beeblebrox.

Do you think Snowden should be identified as a dissident or a traitor? Let us know in the comments.

Image: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Topics: edward snowden, NSA, Politics, Senate, U.S., US & World, wikipedia