Edits to an online page on Donald Trump, calling him transgender and homosexual, were made using a computer with an IP address belonging to the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC).
The changes were made Mar. 16 to the Wikipedia page Political Positions of Donald Trump. The page lists his history and his views on everything from trade policy to abortion.
READ MORE: Donald Trump backtracks after saying abortions should be banned, women punished
Under LGBTQ issues, an edit was made to the line “Trump has stated that he supports traditional marriage” to say “Even though Trump has openly stated he is Homosexual” then revised again to “Even though Trump is open a Homosexual Transgender”.
The changes were quickly reverted to the original text.
A page showing the Wikipedia revisions made by the IP address lists hundreds of edits to pages on a variety of topics including firearms, football, a beer concoction called the michelada, gender dysphoria and the CSC’s own page.
READ MORE: Donald Trump becoming president a threat to the world, says Economist Intelligence Unit
This isn’t the first time Wikipedia revisions have been made by a computer with a federal agency’s IP address: Last year The Department of National Defence said it was conducting an investigation after changes were made to Rehtaeh Parsons’ Wikipedia page.
Parsons, a Nova Scotia teen, died after a suicide attempt following an alleged gang rape and bullying.
Two DND IP addresses were linked to changes made to the Rehtaeh Parsons’ page including changing mentions of rape to “consensual sex”, and omitting references to rapists and sexual assault.
A Canadian Forces member was later arrested and questioned by military police; the man behind the edits turned out to be the father of one of the teens convicted of child pornography for distributing a picture of Parsons’ being sexually assaulted.
The IP address behind the Trump changes also appears to have made questionable edits in the past.
In January 2015 a warning was posted that the IP address was being watched by the press and the CSC after it had been linked to “homophobic” Wikipedia contributions in an Ottawa Citizen article.
CSC officials told the Citizen whoever made the edits could face disciplinary measures for posting “offensive and inappropriate” comments.
Global News reached out to the CSC regarding the Trump page changes but did not receive official comment by time of publication.
With a file from Global News
Comments