TechPresident is reporting today that Wikipedia has put restrictions on editing the profiles of top contenders for Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick. Seems like a segment on The Colbert Report promoting viewers to edit all the profiles of VP potentials sparked the response.
We picked up on an earlier post by the blog pointing out how monitoring Wikipedia edits could possibly forecast the eventual VP selection. At least, it appeared to be the case in 2008 when then-Governor Sarah Palin was plucked out of relative obscurity.
Stephen Colbert picked up on the story via FOX News on last night's show, and as is typical, challenged his loyal audience to wreck havoc: "So, Nation, let your voice be heard in this history decision. Go on Wikipedia, and make as many edits as possible to your favorite VP contender."
TechPresident's Micah Sifry reports:
…as of last night, the Pawlenty page was locked to protect it from vandalism. In addition, the Portman and Rubio pages have been "semi-protected" by site administrators, which means they can only be edited by registered users. The same thing has been done to the pages for Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, and David Petraeus (who got a burst of attention yesterday because of an item on the Drudge Report). That means that only people who have already been on Wikipedia for at least four days and previously made ten edits to other unprotected pages can edit these pages.
So, looks like Veepstakes watchers are back to the Romney mobile app. Go Amercia!