Advertisement

French MP copy-pastes Wikipedia for new bill

The Local Italy
The Local Italy - [email protected]
French MP copy-pastes Wikipedia for new bill
MP Valérie Boyer in 2013. Photo: AFP

A French MP has been ridiculed after she was found to have copy-pasted large chunks of text from Wikipedia in her proposal for a new law. The bungling deputy even left in the index numbers.

Advertisement

Wikipedia, the online haven of free information, has left a French MP extremely red faced this week.
 
Valérie Boyer of the opposition UMP party used the online encyclopedia to back up her research for a proposal she was writing about how France should officially recognize the Assyrian genocide in 1915, which (according to Wikipedia) "refers to the mass slaughter of the Assyrian population of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War".
 
But instead of finding inspiration, the MP figured the Wiki facts were good enough and she copy pasted large chunks directly into her document. 
 
The proposed bill (here), is in parts an almost direct mirror of the Wikipedia  page, (here). 
 
To make matters worse, the MP initially left in all the index numbers and links dotted throughout the text, reported newspaper Le Figaro, although these were removed by Tuesday morning. 
 
The MP's assistant told Le Figaro that Boyer had lifted the passages because "there was very little information on the subject available", adding that all details were checked for accuracy.
 
Boyer has been slammed by French social media users for her research efforts, many turning to Twitter to share details of the story.
 
The tweet below points out that Boyer didn't remove the links from her document, with the user adding the the hashtag EpicFail.
 
 
An unnamed source at the French National Assembly told the paper that it was unsurprising that there were mistakes being made, considering the heavy workload that MPs take on.
 

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also