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Don't Deface Wikipedia Pages, Justin Bieber People. It's Not Dignified.

Singer Justin Bieber performs onstage during the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night.
Kevin Winter
/
Getty Images
Singer Justin Bieber performs onstage during the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night.

You may have heard that last night, after Esperanza Spalding won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, her Wikipedia page was defaced by what certainly appeared to be disgruntled Justin Bieber fans.

Assuming they are the ones who would have the motivation to write things like, "She won the Best New Artist Grammy Award by stealing it from Justin Bieber." Wikipedia lets you look at old edits, so you can see these yourself. There's also this one: "JUSTIN BIEBER DESERVED IT GO DIE IN A HOLE. WHO THE HECK ARE YOU ANYWAY?" Or the multiple-unusually spelled "BIBER 4 LYFE!" There was also, it should be noted, a showing for "GRAMMY YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEAEAEAAAAEAH! BIEBER GO DIE."

It happened to Album Of The Year winners Arcade Fire, too ("...Album of the Year, which it won in what is being called total bulls—t.") But not quite as much. And at least that person could spell.

Now, look: This is no way for fans to behave. This makes you look dopey. This makes you look foolish. This degrades the good name of Bieber Fever. Scribble-scrabbling all over somebody's Wikipedia page — especially when she's not the one who gave herself the Grammy, geniuses — does nothing to make people think you're ... you know, very dignified. Don't do that.

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Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.