Revealed: Wikipedia’s panic over Shapps fiasco
During the election campaign a cloud hung over Grant Shapps, the then chairman of the Conservative party. In April, he was accused of editing his own Wikipedia profile and those of other politicians by Richard Symonds, a Wikipedia member of staff and Lib Dem activist. Symonds claimed that Shapps ‘or someone acting on his behalf’ used an anonymous account ‘Contribsx’ to make edits that appeared to be to Shapps’ benefit. But there has been no hard evidence Shapps edited the pages and Symonds has been censured by Wikipedia for his actions. Now, it transpires that Wikipedia may not have been acting neutrally. Coffee House has been passed an email that was sent around the board of Wikimedia UK,
