5 ms·

Twitter bot that tweets Wikipedia edits made from IP addresses of Congress

128 points by frostmatthew 12y ago

m52go 12y ago
This is genius.
tlo 12y ago
Nice one: https://twitter.com/congressedits/status/486895711402070016 https://twitter.com/congressedits/status/486895711402070016
- diminoten 12y ago
  I like this one, personally: https://twitter.com/congressedits/status/487338666357174272 https://twitter.com/congressedits/status/487338666357174272
adamnemecek 12y ago
Some of these are pretty funny https://twitter.com/congressedits/status/487338666357174272 https://twitter.com/congressedits/status/487338666357174272 which links to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=616433636&oldid=614980617 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=616433636&oldid=614...
DanBC 12y ago
It'd be brilliant if there was something similar for UK politicians.
- mutagen 12y ago
  There is! https://twitter.com/parliamentedits https://twitter.com/parliamentedits Nothing tweeted yet except mention of the US Congress one, corresponding accounts also for Canada and Sweden and a mention of IFTTT and code at https://github.com/edsu/anon https://github.com/edsu/anon
- fishtopher 12y ago
  There is, although it's a lot quieter: https://twitter.com/parliamentedits https://twitter.com/parliamentedits (linked from the first tweet by @congressedits)
evv 12y ago
This feels like christmas morning. And because it's wikipedia, we can harvest this data all the way back in time!
webXL 12y ago
Not sure what the benefit is. As LTE-enabled tablets and personal hotspots proliferate, it will be very easy to cover-up who made the anonymous edits. What would really be interesting are edits made from known Tor endpoints.
- funkyy 12y ago
  Its not about who exactly made edits imo, more like from which circle it came from. It is interesting to see which edits folks from congress make. Same would be with presidential and pentagon circles.
- jstanek 12y ago
  Tor endpoints are forbidden from making anonymous edits to Wikipedia.
  - araneae 12y ago
    Lots of proxy servers (mine included) are banned as well.
coretx 12y ago
Ohai! PirateParty dude here. Can we copy the code so that we can easily monitor other parliaments and senates around the world ?
- wluu 12y ago
  According to https://twitter.com/parliamentedits https://twitter.com/parliamentedits, it looks like the source is here - https://github.com/edsu/anon https://github.com/edsu/anon Have fun :)
TrainedMonkey 12y ago
I think there is a logical continuation. There are plenty of IP addresses owned by private companies that have mentions in wikipedia. Link changes done from those IP ranges with edits of articles that mention entity IP ranges belong to. Why stop at Congress when we can have similar data sets for Google, BP, Yahoo, Apple, etc.
AustinDizzy 12y ago
It'd also be interesting to see what IPs from the FCC and NSA's ranges edit.
Sami_Lehtinen 12y ago
What about other countries (Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Singapore, China, India) or organizations (Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Apple, Tata, Baidu, So, Pfizer)? Is there generic platform where information about IP ranges can be entered? Or are this 'one off' projects? Why not to make generic solution?
- edsu 12y ago
  If you can identify the IP ranges you can configure anon https://github.com/edsu/anon https://github.com/edsu/anon to listen for edits from them, and announce them using a particular Twitter account. Honestly, I just put anon together in a few hours, and didn't put a great deal of thought into it. It might make sense to do what you suggest, and create a more generic webapp to deploy on Wikimedia labs, which manages the IP ranges, and Twitter accounts to post to.
Neoinr 12y ago
I've just used the open source code to make one for the Australian Parliament, @AussieParlEdits
irfan 12y ago
Just launched @PakistanEdits Unfortunately IP addresses of Govt. owned institutes are not available but its fun to see what is being edited from the whole country :-)

128 points by frostmatthew 12y ago

m52go 12y ago

This is genius.

tlo 12y ago

Nice one: https://twitter.com/congressedits/status/486895711402070016 https://twitter.com/congressedits/status/486895711402070016

diminoten 12y ago
I like this one, personally: https://twitter.com/congressedits/status/487338666357174272 https://twitter.com/congressedits/status/487338666357174272

adamnemecek 12y ago

Some of these are pretty funny https://twitter.com/congressedits/status/487338666357174272 https://twitter.com/congressedits/status/487338666357174272 which links to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=616433636&oldid=614980617 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=616433636&oldid=614...

DanBC 12y ago

It'd be brilliant if there was something similar for UK politicians.

mutagen 12y ago
There is! https://twitter.com/parliamentedits https://twitter.com/parliamentedits Nothing tweeted yet except mention of the US Congress one, corresponding accounts also for Canada and Sweden and a mention of IFTTT and code at https://github.com/edsu/anon https://github.com/edsu/anon
fishtopher 12y ago
There is, although it's a lot quieter: https://twitter.com/parliamentedits https://twitter.com/parliamentedits (linked from the first tweet by @congressedits)

evv 12y ago

This feels like christmas morning. And because it's wikipedia, we can harvest this data all the way back in time!

webXL 12y ago

Not sure what the benefit is. As LTE-enabled tablets and personal hotspots proliferate, it will be very easy to cover-up who made the anonymous edits. What would really be interesting are edits made from known Tor endpoints.

funkyy 12y ago
Its not about who exactly made edits imo, more like from which circle it came from. It is interesting to see which edits folks from congress make. Same would be with presidential and pentagon circles.
jstanek 12y ago
Tor endpoints are forbidden from making anonymous edits to Wikipedia.
- araneae 12y ago
  Lots of proxy servers (mine included) are banned as well.

coretx 12y ago

Ohai! PirateParty dude here. Can we copy the code so that we can easily monitor other parliaments and senates around the world ?

wluu 12y ago
According to https://twitter.com/parliamentedits https://twitter.com/parliamentedits, it looks like the source is here - https://github.com/edsu/anon https://github.com/edsu/anon Have fun :)

TrainedMonkey 12y ago

I think there is a logical continuation. There are plenty of IP addresses owned by private companies that have mentions in wikipedia. Link changes done from those IP ranges with edits of articles that mention entity IP ranges belong to. Why stop at Congress when we can have similar data sets for Google, BP, Yahoo, Apple, etc.

AustinDizzy 12y ago

It'd also be interesting to see what IPs from the FCC and NSA's ranges edit.

Sami_Lehtinen 12y ago

What about other countries (Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Singapore, China, India) or organizations (Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Apple, Tata, Baidu, So, Pfizer)? Is there generic platform where information about IP ranges can be entered? Or are this 'one off' projects? Why not to make generic solution?

edsu 12y ago
If you can identify the IP ranges you can configure anon https://github.com/edsu/anon https://github.com/edsu/anon to listen for edits from them, and announce them using a particular Twitter account. Honestly, I just put anon together in a few hours, and didn't put a great deal of thought into it. It might make sense to do what you suggest, and create a more generic webapp to deploy on Wikimedia labs, which manages the IP ranges, and Twitter accounts to post to.

Neoinr 12y ago

I've just used the open source code to make one for the Australian Parliament, @AussieParlEdits

irfan 12y ago

Just launched @PakistanEdits Unfortunately IP addresses of Govt. owned institutes are not available but its fun to see what is being edited from the whole country :-)