Reference website Wikipedia was briefly targetted by a vandal and hacked on Monday. A number of users reported that on opening Wikipedia of certain people, the page showed huge Swastika signs – Nazi flag – with a red background.

However, the problem only occurred for a few minutes and it returned back to normal. The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, described the incident as “particularly vile.” It further added that the vandalism was identified and reversed by volunteer administrators within five minutes.

Later, the volunteers made changes to the template and ensured that it was protected from further vandalism.

“In the spirit of open editing and assuming good faith, this is a step rarely taken with any areas of Wikipedia unless an incident such as this warrants it,” CNET quoted a Wikimedia spokesperson as saying.

Currently, the account that was responsible for the vandalism has been blocked for violating a number of Wikipedia’s policies. They said that the hack will further be investigated and see if any other action is required or not.

“This type of behavior is unacceptable on Wikipedia and violates a number of Wikipedia’s policies. Volunteer administrators have already fixed the vandalism, blocked the account responsible and will further evaluate the situation to see if additional recourse is needed,” Mashable quoted a representative as saying.

Wikipedia, due to its open source nature, has been a target of many inflammatory vandalisms. Talking about it the spokesperson said, “Over the years, a number of tools and processes have been developed to quickly spot and revert vandalism on the site.”

This comes in the background of the increased use of swastikas online amid increasing incidents of antisemitism. According to reports, the American government said that they were witnessing swift increases in the amount of antisemitic incidents.

In July, a swastika was found inside a State Department building.

Pages defaced included actors Johnny Depp, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. As for politicians, US Vice President Kamala Harris’s page and Canadian Prime Minister’s page was also targetted.