As if working with the government in the justice ministry isn’t enough, the good people in the Dutch justice system perform their citizenly duties of…editing Wikipedia entries on the clock. The only problem with that is that the justice department doesn’t (at this time) particularly want a team of Wikipedia scholars.

As a result, the Dutch justice system has cut off access to the open-editing information site to its employees.  Apparently, more than 800 articles were edited by its employees on government computer, and more importantly, time, according to the Guardian.

Though it would be nice to think people are spending their lunch hours contributing to the knowledge database that is Wikipedia instead of Facebooking, the truth is a little more disappointing.  Though some were positive, there were some that involved obscenities, changing parties’ positions, or even editing the profiles of criminal cases.

Others were simply cruel and pointless; one entry changed the text documenting a member of Dutch nobility’s speeding ticket citation by adding, “as is typical in such cases,” to, “her driving license was not revoked.”

This crazed desire to edit public information isn’t limited to the justice ministry; other departments participated, but not with as much vigor as the workers in the justice ministry.

One good thing about this whole debacle is that the Dutch government has a documented team of individuals on hand ready to either work up slander or accumulate meaningless knowledge at a moment’s notice; now if only they will use their encyclopedic powers for good, not evil, the world (or at least Wikipedia) will be a better place.

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Entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 6:25 pm under Crime, Internet.

Read more entries by Triston McIntyre.
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