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A UK government computer is making hundreds of anonymous edits to Wikipedia pages every month.

The connection, understood to be owned by the Government's Public Services Network, made more than 500 edits to articles in a 30 day period in December and January.

While the edits themselves are harmless, the sheer scale makes scrutiny of government edits to Wikipedia - the kind that uncovered vandalisation of the entry for the Hillsborough disaster carried out by a civil servant - next to impossible.

The vast majority the edits were made during work hours and follow a pattern.

Wikipedia's community forums include a list of articles that need improving by adding 'factboxes' - sidebars containing at-a-glance information on the subject.

Since August, an anonymous user on a government connection has done so on an industrial scale, in alphabetical order - usually between 8.30am and 5pm on weekdays.

Just a few of the thousands of edits made from the same IP address

The factboxes have been added to pages ranging from the Aviation Security Act 1982 to the British Homeopathic Association.

On December 29th, the connection was used to make 95 edits in a single day.

The unusual activity was flagged up using a Twitter account called WhitehallEdits, set up by Channel 4 News to automatically tweet whenever a government owned IP address makes changes to Wikipedia.

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Hundreds of anonymous Wikipedia edits made every month by a Government computer