A new Twitter account has been set up with the handle @CongressEdits that shows when Wikipedia articles have been edited by IP addresses associated with the US House of Representatives and Senate. The account is a bot, meaning that the tweets are automatically sent out when the software notices an edit. The account was set up on July 8, but sent out its first edit tweet on July 9. At the time of writing, sixteen tweets have been sent out and the account had about 4,500 followers. Many of the edits have been slight, such as a change in word choice in an article about the movie, Step Up 3D. Among the other edits, one added Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) to the “Notable people” list for Corpus Christi, Texas. That edit was then followed by another edit because the first edit had a coding error. Wikipedia has often been used by politicians to make themselves look better or their opponents worse. In 2012, Wikipedia articles for potential Republican vice presidential candidates due to a report that said that a VP candidate’s page is often changed shortly before he or she is announced as the pick.
