Wikipedia has blocked a user account on suspicions that it is being used by the Conservative party chairman, Grant Shapps, “or someone acting on his behalf”, to edit his own page and those of Tory rivals and political opponents. The online encylopedia, where pages are edited and created by readers, has tracked the changes made by a user called “Contribsx”, who has systematically removed embarrassing references on Shapps’ Wikipedia page about his business activities as Michael Green, the self-styled millionaire web marketer.
An investigation by The Guardian found that approximately a third of the contributions made by this user were to Shapps’ own Wikipedia entry, with the rest largely consisting of unflattering changes to the online pages of senior political figures – including prominent figures in the Tory party such as Philip Hammond, Justine Greening and Lynton Crosby.
Wikipedia has stated that “sock-puppetry” – creating a fake online identity “for an improper purpose, such as to mislead other editors, disrupt discussions, distort consensus or avoid sanctions” – is not permitted. The site’s administrators, selected Wikipedia volunteers who patrol the site, believe that the account Contribsx is a sockpuppet of Grant Shapps’ previous accounts on Wikipedia, and that it is either run by Shapps directly or by someone else – an assistant or a PR agency – but under his clear direction.
When The Guardian first approached Shapps about the closure of this user account, a spokesman for the Conservative party said: “This story is completely false and defamatory. It is nonsense from start to finish.” However, when Shapps was sent a detailed exposition of the changes made by Contribsx, he did not respond.
Wikipedia, which is visited by nearly 500 million unique users every month, relies on about 70,000 people to edit the articles for a worldwide readership. Some of the posts made by Contribsx, which was created in the summer of 2013, highlighted Conservative divisions, particularly over the issue of gay marriage – a policy that remains controversial, with traditionalists targeting liberal Tories in this election.
Tensions between the Conservative Party and its MPs began in May 2013, when 134 Tory MPs voted against the government’s proposed same-sex marriage bill. One of those MPs was Grant Shapps, who had supported the leadership’s view that the country was ready for the change. In the months that followed, an anonymous Wikipedia user, “Contribsx”, highlighted those in the cabinet who had rebelled. In September 2013, they edited the Wikipedia page of then Defence Secretary Philip Hammond to note his criticism of the Prime Minister’s approach to the bill, as well as that of Attorney General Dominic Grieve, who had abstained in the May 2013 vote.
Contribsx also added extensive information about cabinet minister Justine Greening, who was reshuffled out of her job shortly after signalling support for a third runway at Heathrow, which went against party policy at the time. They later summarised her fall from grace with a note that she had failed to vote in a critical parliamentary division about military action in Syria.
In March and August of 2014, Contribsx edited the Wikipedia page of Grant Shapps, painting him as an unfairly maligned figure in the wake of a PR disaster that had been caused by election strategist Lynton Crosby and Chancellor George Osborne. They also targeted Labour MPs who had raised concerns about Shapps’ conduct, adding details about their parliamentary expenses and Commons investigations to their Wikipedia pages. On Easter Sunday this year, Contribsx changed the Wikipedia page of Shadow Attorney General Karl Turner, who had called on the Prime Minister to investigate Shapps.
The Times reports that an anonymous Wikipedia user, “Contribsx”, has highlighted the actions of Conservative MPs in the wake of the 2013 same-sex marriage bill. Their edits to the Wikipedia pages of cabinet ministers, including Philip Hammond and Justine Greening, as well as Grant Shapps and Labour MPs, have drawn attention to the political tensions that arose from the bill. The user’s most recent edit was to the page of Shadow Attorney General Karl Turner, who had called for an investigation into Shapps’ conduct.
Suspicions that Grant Shapps had connections to the anonymous Wikipedia editor Contribsx have resurfaced this year. Contribsx had posted on the page of Labour MP Turner that the MP had “admitted breaking House of Commons rules”, a claim which was later dismissed by the parliamentary commissioner for standards. In November 2013, doubts were raised about Contribsx’s connections to Shapps after a flurry of edits to the Wikipedia entry of Afzal Amin, the Tory prospective parliamentary candidate in Dudley North. Contribsx attempted to set up a page for Amin’s successor, a little-known local councillor, who was selected by Shapps. However, this was rebuffed by Wikipedia’s editors.
Contribsx’s user page claims to be “a floater” who has voted for all three main parties at different times. However, Wikipedia tracked a range of IP addresses used by Contribsx to a web hosting service regularly employed by internet spammers. The same service had been used by an anonymous user in 2013 to remove material from Wikipedia to do with How To Corp, Michael Green and Shapps’ previous sockpuppetry.
In summer 2013, three longstanding editors of Wikipedia had complained about the edits made to Shapps’ Wikipedia page and the site blocked it from being changed by “unregistered” users. Later that day, the username Contribsx was created and contacted these three Wikipedians to assure them he would be taking a “neutral point of view” over Shapps’ page.
Wikimedia UK, the UK charity that supports Wikipedia, has commented that “anyone who tries to deceive our volunteers and readers in order to further their own ends should think very carefully about the morality of what they’re doing”. It appears that the anonymous Wikipedia editor Contribsx may have violated the website’s terms of use by misrepresenting their affiliation.
