Mitt Romney Wikipedia page locked down over a comedian jokeAugust 10, 2012 - 21:44 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The Wikipedia pages of US presidential candidate Mitt Romney and other members of the Republican party who may run alongside him have been locked down, BBC News said. Wikipedia has put a silver padlock icon on the top right hand side of their entries. This means that anonymous users cannot make editorial changes to content relating to the politicians. The measures were taken after comedian Stephen Colbert suggested on US TV that viewers should edit the pages. Mitt Romney Mitt Romney recently received the support of Hollywood actor and director Clint Eastwood. Mr Colbert was following up on earlier media reports suggesting that the popularity of election candidates could be determined by the number of edits their entries on Wikipedia had received, volunteer media coordinator David Gerard told BBC News. As a result, more people started to tinker with the politicians' pages. They now have a partial lock, meaning that anonymous users and those without a Wikipedia account are currently unable to make changes to the pages of Mr Romney, Senators Rob Portman and Marco Rubio, Governor Chris Christie and others. "It's supposed to be an encyclopedia so a bit of amusement is fine but too much gets messy really," said Mr Gerard. We try to keep stuff as open as possible, so once it calms down they'll probably be open again." It is particularly important that entries about living people are editorially sound, Mr Gerard said. Not many pages are completely locked down. A Wikipedia page about the Virginia Tech massacre, in which 32 people were killed at an American college, is fully protected for sensitivity reasons, and an article about episodes of Disney children's programme Hannah Montana was completely restricted in 2011 following "persistent vandalism" said Mr Gerard. "A lot of people don't understand what to do if there's something terrible in their article," he said. "If you email us with a concern I promise a volunteer will take the problems seriously." Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia provides info about arrested Armenian ex-MP Russian law enforcement agencies have provided information about the arrest of Tigran Urikhanyan. Lemkin Institue slams Pashinyan's “cryptic engagement with Genocide denial” The Lemkin Institute is alarmed over Pashinyan’s statements “questioning Armenia's legal basis to pursue justice against Turkey”. 41 detained as antigovernment protests continue in Yerevan 41 people were detained in Yerevan as people demanding Pashinian’s resignation stage campaigns of civil disobedience. Armenia votes for UN resolution granting Palestine new rights The U.N. General Assembly voted by a wide margin on May 10 to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine. |