Republished from Voices on the Square by permission because I wrote it.
Usually the only wiki we associate with Edward Snowden is WikiLeaks. However, in a hilarious turn of events, an IP address linked to the United States Senate was caught defacing
Edward Snowden's Wikipedia article last evening. The "less than neutral" edit was to
change the lead sentence from this:
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American dissident who leaked details of several top-secret United States and British government mass surveillance programs to the press.
to this:
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American traitor who leaked details of several top-secret United States and British government mass surveillance programs to the press.
When this was discovered by Wikipedia staffers, it was quickly edited back, but the fact that a United States Senate staffer has the time to deface Wikipedia entries does not bode well for our democracy. Get back to work, Government, and stop spying on us when you should be doing your real jobs.