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In the media

Anonymous Australian editing targets football player, shooting victim

Anonymous Australian editing targets football player, shooting victim

Sydney Swans Adam Goodes Presser.jpg
Adam Goodes

The Sydney Morning Herald reports (May 30) that the Wikipedia article of Australian rules football player Adam Goodes was the target of racist vandalism after he performed an Indigenous Australian war dance after scoring a goal during a May 29 game. The game was part of the Indigenous Round, an annual event celebrating the contributions of Indigenous football players, Goodes, whose mother is of Adnyamathanha and Narungga descent, said he was inspired by the Flying Boomerangs, the Indigenous under-16 AFL team, and it was "just a little bit of a tribute to those guys ... proud to be Aboriginal and represent." Despite this, many reacted negatively to the display. Goodes said: "Is this the lesson we want to teach our children, that when we don't understand something we get angry and put our back up against the wall [and decide] that's offensive?". Goodes, who has been in the AFL since the 1997 AFL draft, has previously been the target of racist remarks from fans and even other sports figures.

The Brisbane Times reports (June 1) that IP addresses assigned to the Victoria Police have edited the article Death of Tyler Cassidy 17 times. Cassidy was a teenager shot by the Victoria Police in 2008. The edits removed and altered material which appears to cast the Victoria Police in an unfavorable light, such as the sentence "The incident was blamed on a lack of training and information gathering performed by Victoria Police." A spokesperson initially denied the IP addresses belonged to the Police, but they later confirmed the edits were made from their IP addresses and said they were considering a policy regarding Wikipedia editing. In March, a news story revealed a similar pattern of editing from IP addresses belonging to the New York Police Department (see Signpost coverage).

In brief

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