Compared to the other troubles that have come up during freshman Florida Rep. David Rivera’s brief time in office, what’s a little Wikipedia vandalism?
Politico reports that a Wikipedia user with the handle “Lmveiga” — apparently the Republican’s press secretary, Leslie Veiga — twice tried to delete the entire “controversies” section from Rivera’s Wikipedia page last month. The section includes information about allegations that Rivera was named in a domestic violence case in 1994 (Rivera denies he was the David Rivera named), a strange mail truck collision from 2002, a controversy about Rivera’s work for USAID and an investigation into payments made from the owners of a dog track to a company tied to Rivera. The section has been restored to the page by Wikipedia editors.
“Lmveiga” also tried to add a list of “Rivera’s Legislative Accomplishments” taken from the Congressman’s campaign website.
Veiga, who also goes by Lmveiga on Twitter, admitted to Politico that she had made edits on Rivera’s page.
“My only interaction with Wikipedia editing, which has been personal interaction on my own personal time, has been to add factual, documented information and remove false, undocumented allegations,” Veiga said. “The information I added was well sourced and linked to legislation on the Florida House website that the congressman sponsored during his time in the state Legislature, as well as current information about his committee assignments and subcommittee assignments in the U.S. House.”
Rivera’s office did not immediately return TPM’s request for comment.
Read the rest here.
Eric Lach
Eric Lach is a reporter for TPM. From 2010 to 2011, he was a news writer in charge of the website’s front page. He has previously written for The Daily, NewYorker.com, GlobalPost and other publications. He can be reached at ericl(at)talkingpointsmemo.com
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