12-year-old schoolboy topples Malcolm Turnbull, becomes Australian PM after editing Wikipedia

While his friends may just be dreaming about going to politics someday, a 12-year-old boy went one step ahead and declared himself as the 30^th prime minister of Australia, at least on Wikipedia.

Orley Fenelon, who hails from Brisbane, got his five seconds of fame when he inserted his name in the list of Australian PMs found at the crowd-sourced online encyclopaedia. The Wikipedia entry, which has since been deleted, cited Fenelon as the youngest person to assume the office after toppling PM Malcolm Turnbull on April 9.

The young boy savoured the position briefly for two days, before the only evidence of his appointment was pulled down. However, his infamous act did not go unnoticed. After seeing the edited list, Canberra Times reporter Tom McIlroy called attention to the Wikipedia entry by sharing it on Twitter. McIlroy took a screenshot of the entry and wrote, “Congratulations Orley Fenelon, Australia’s 30^th prime minister since the weekend.”

Fenelon edited the list of Australian PMs under the user names “Orleyfpm” and “Orleyforprimeminister2017.” These user names have been blocked because of his “stated intention to vandalise Wikipedia.” Fenelon shared this news on his Twitter account, commenting, “[S]omebody isn't too keen on Prime Minister Orley...”

Amid all the media attention he’s been getting, Fenelon coined the hashtag #OrleyForPM2017. While some social media users were amused with the incident, saying that the 12-year-old could possibly do a much better job, others are taking it seriously.

Wikipedia describes itself as a free-access, free-content Internet encyclopaedia, wherein entries can be edited by those who have access to the site. Because of this unique feature, Wikipedia has been branded as an unreliable site, despite its popularity among online searches.