Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Grant Shapps' continuing problems with the internet

In 2012 I blogged about "Grant Shapps' problems with the internet". Judging by this afternoon's Guardian story, those problems continue:
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 along with the entries of Tory rivals and political opponents. 
The online encyclopedia, 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 the Tory chairman’s business activities as Michael Green, the self-styled millionaire web marketer. 
A Guardian investigation found about a third of the contributions made by this user were to Shapps’ own Wikipedia entry while the rest are made up largely of unflattering changes to the online pages to senior political figures – including prominent figures in the Tory party such as Philip Hammond, Justine Greening and Lynton Crosby.
I suspect it is the suspicion that he has been doing down his internal party rivals that will prove more damaging.

I should add that Mr Shapps denies knowing anything about Contribsx, but then he has denied things "over firmly" in the past.

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