The controversies surrounding the crash of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 continue as a new development has started a wave of outrage across the internet today. Following the tragic incident, many people pointed their fingers towards Russia and accused them of providing Ukranian separatists with the very same missiles that were used to down the aircraft. The Telegraph reports that the Russian government modified Wikipedia entries relating to flight MH17 to absolve them of any involvement and to put the blame on Ukraine instead. This was reportedly noticed by a Twitter bot tasked with monitoring changes made to Wikipedia from Russian government IPs. The person who made the changes belongs to the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK). He edited the page to read “The plane [flight MH17] was shot down by Ukrainian soldiers.”
The page previously said that the plane was downed “by terrorists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic with Buk system missiles, which the terrorists received from the Russian Federation.” While not 100% confirmed, this is what most believe to have actually happened. The Telegraph mentions that the RUGovEdits Twitter bot sent the following message earlier: “Wikipedia article List of aircraft accidents in civil aviation has been edited by RTR [another name for VGTRK]”. They also add that a similar bot called congress-edits monitors edits done by the US Congress.
Malaysian Airlines lost flight MH17 on Thursday when the plane crashed over the Donetsk region in Eastern Ukraine. The Boeing-777 was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur and was reportedly carrying 298 passengers, none of whom survived the crash. The Ukranian government, Ukranian separatists, and Russian government all deny any responsibility. However, Vladimir Putin suggests that “certainly, the government over whose territory it occurred is responsible for this terrible tragedy.” Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also denies any involvement, stating that “We stress that the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not take action against any airborne targets.”
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Meanwhile, the separatists are unsurprisingly blaming Ukraine for the tragic fate of flight MH 17. A spokesman for the Donetsk People’s Republic said in a statement that they don’t have antiaircraft weaponry capable of taking down planes at that altitude. “Our MANPADS can shoot 3,000-4,000 meters (9,000-13,000 feet), but Boeing planes fly much higher than that,” he explained. President Barrack Obama stated that the US will not take any action before knowing all the facts, but he seems to suspect that Russia did sent missiles to the separatists.