UK: Government computer used to label Canadian author a ‘homophobe’ on Wikipedia
A government computer was used to vandalise author David Gilmour’s Wikipedia entry and call him a homophobe.
It emerged earlier this week that government computers had been used to make several disruptive edits on Wikipedia, posting offensive statements on articles about Glasgow, the Hillsbrough Disaster, and Barry Mannilow, among others.
Today, it has come to light that a computer using a Government Secure Intranet (GSI) IP was also used last September to vandalise an article about Canadian author David Gilmour, branding him a “misogynist, homophobe, racist”.
Gilmour, who teaches at the University of Toronto, came under fire in September for stating he didn’t teach any works by women or gay men.
He said at the time: “What I teach is guys. Serious heterosexual guys.
“I’m not interested in teaching books by women.
“When I was given this job I said I would only teach the people that I truly, truly love.
“Unfortunately, none of those happen to be Chinese, or women.”
A government spokesperson said that Wikipedia vandalism from government-owned computers was “in complete contravention of the Civil Service Code”.
As GSI IP addresses are shared across thousands of users, making it difficult to track down the authors of any of the edits.
