Hillsborough Wikipedia posts

The Hillsborough disaster Wikipedia posts refers to vandalism edits on various Wikipedia articles, yet mostly the Hillsborough disaster article, via the use of British Government computers, causing a British Government scandal. On the 24 April 2014, Oliver Duggan, in the ''Liverpool Echo'', reported that users of computers that used IP addresses registered to the Government Secure Intranet (which is used by many of the United Kingdom's government departments) had added derogatory and offensive material to Wikipedia articles, particularly the article about the Hillsborough disaster. The vandalism was quickly re-reported by other media, and subsequent reports highlighted other acts of vandalism, on various articles, originated by computers using those IP addresses. After an investigation by ''The Daily Telegraph'' and Wikipediocracy, the person behind the edits was identified as a "junior civil servant" within the UK government and was dismissed.

Hillsborough disaster

The issue first emerged when it was reported that the entry about the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 people were killed at a football match at the Hillsborough Stadium in 1989, had been altered, briefly, in 2009, with a similar alteration to the Anfield article in 2012. The report suggested that the edits could have been made from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Her Majesty's Treasury or the Office of the Solicitor General since those departments use the Government Secure Intranet. However, the Cabinet Office has stated that "At this time, we have no reason to suspect that the Hillsborough edits involve any particular department, nor more than one or two individuals in 2009 and 2012."

The details of the two IP addresses (62.25.106.209 and 195.92.40.49) used by computers on the Government Secure Intranet came from then-Treasury minister Angela Eagle in a reply to a parliamentary question in 2008. The edits, which were made in 2009 (on the disaster's 20th anniversary) and 2012, included the addition of "Blame Liverpool Fans" to the Hillsborough disaster page and adding the phrases " You'll Never Walk Again" and "yet nothing for the victims of the Heysel Stadium disaster" to mentions of the Hillsborough memorial in the Anfield article.

The Cabinet Office responded to the news by saying that they were making "urgent inquiries" into these reports, and that the claims made in them were being treated with "the utmost seriousness". The office also warned, however, that it might not be possible to determine exactly who used the government's computers to make the edits, saying, "As the first incident happened five years ago and there are hundreds of thousands of people on the government's network, it may prove challenging to identify who was involved, but we are exhausting every option." The inquiry was scheduled to be overseen, but not led, by Andy Burnham. On 20 May, Burnham said the investigation had identified "strong leads" into determining who made the edits.

In 2016, after the second verdict of the Hillsborough inquiry proved unlawful killing of the 96 dead due to gross negligence, the ''Liverpool Echo'' reported that edits from an IP associated with Warwickshire County Council (WCC) added the phrase " You'll never walk again" eight times in the lead of the Hillsborough disaster page. A WCC spokesperson told the newspaper: "WCC IP addresses also include our publicly used machines in libraries that can be used by members of the public. The information has been passed onto the head of our IT team and we are going to be investigating."

Other articles

On 26 April, the '' Belfast Telegraph'' reported that one of the edits made via a government IP address (to the Wikipedia entry for Howick Falls) had mentioned "killing or enslaving" black people and suggested that they believe "hearsay and myth".

''The Daily Telegraph'' reported on 27 April that government computers had been used to maliciously alter articles about prominent people, including falsifying the death of television sports presenter Des Lynam. Other public figures targeted include Michael Grade and Chris Evans. On the same day, '' The Herald'' in Glasgow reported that the articles for Clydebank and Barlanark, had been vandalized by government computers. Also that day, the ''National Post'' reported that a government computer had also targeted the page about Canadian author David Gilmour, which was vandalized to describe him as a "misogynist, homophobe ndracist".

On 29 April, the BBC
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