Congressman banned for editing personal page

Wikipedia agreed to unblock U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler’s username on July 12 after the House member, whose district includes Philipstown, agreed to stop editing his page, which violates the site’s conflict-of-interest guidelines.

Lawler’s office confirmed to The Daily Beast that the username Michaelvlawer belonged to the first-term representative, who narrowly defeated Sean Patrick Maloney in the 2022 general election.

Wikipedia agreed to unban that username after Lawler wrote: “I am Michael Lawler and the edits previously made were strictly biographical and done to populate the page when it was first started over two years ago. I won’t be using the account to update the page.”

Wikipedia asks that people “avoid editing or creating articles about yourself, your family, friends, colleagues, company, organization or competitors.”

Behind The Story

Type: News

News: Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.

Articles attributed to "staff" are written by the editor or a senior editor. This is typically because they are brief items based on a single source, such as a press release, or there are multiple contributors, such as a collection of photos.