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‘VikiLeaks’ account linked to House of Commons IP address
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Canada Politics
The VikiLeaks30 story has taken a strange twist.
According to the Ottawa Citizen, the Twitter stunt that revealed sleazy details about the personal life of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews appears to have emanated from the House of Commons.
In a sneaky, yet clever investigation, the newspaper sent an email to the writer of the Vikileaks30 Twitter account, containing a link to a website. The website was monitored by The Citizen and only the author of Vikileaks30 had the address of the website.
About 15 minutes after the email was sent, Vikileaks30 opened the link and visited the page, leaving behind an IP address that belongs to the House of Commons.
"IP addresses are like fingerprints on the Internet," Vito Pilieci of the Ottawa Citizen wrote.
"Each Internet account has its own unique IP address. The Citizen used three separate Internet services that track and identify IP addresses to confirm the location of the address. All the services identified the address as belonging to the Government of Canada and specifically the House of Commons.
"Aside from being used to administer the Vikileaks30 Twitter feed, the address has been frequently used to update Wikipedia articles often giving them what appears to be a pro-NDP bias."
Pilieci notes that its impossible to say who is actually the using the address without a full-scale investigation undertaken by the House of Commons. He add that such an investigation could only happen at the request of a MP.
Vikileaks30, with the motto "Vic wants to know about you. Let's get to know about Vic," began tweeting Tuesday night in response to controversial Internet surveillance legislation — tabled by Toews.
As of Thursday night, the account had almost 8,500 followers.
So, to recap: Vic Toews introduced legislation that some felt would infringe on Canadians' 'privacy' rights. In turn, an individual or individual(s) started Vikileaks30 to invade Vic Toews' 'privacy.' The Ottawa Citizen then compromised Vikileaks30's 'privacy' by disclosing who they were.
In 2012, it seems 'privacy' is ever so elusive.
UPDATE:
According to the National Post, The House of Commons has launched an investigation into who is behind the Twitter account.
During a heated debate in the House of Commons, Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird called tVikiLeaks30 a "nasty, dirty, Internet trick," which he blamed on the NDP. Baird also called for the party to support an investigation.
"It is a little bit rich for a New Democratic Party member of Parliament to stand in this place and talk about attacks and talk about personal information," Baird said according to the Post.
"Not only have they stooped to the lowest of the lows, but they have been running this nasty Internet dirty-trick campaign with taxpayers' money."
The NDP and Liberals both denied their parties were involved.
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