Wikipedia and Propaganda

IN FOCUS, 18 Dec 2023

Swiss Policy Research - TRANSCEND Media Service

Is Wikipedia an open encyclopedia or a covert propaganda platform?

The Basics

Dec 2023 – As the seventh most visited website in the world and the most popular online encyclopedia, Wikipedia exerts great influence on the knowledge and worldview of many people.

While Wikipedia is generally thought of as an open, transparent, and mostly reliable community project, upon closer inspection, this turns out not to be the case.

In fact, the English Wikipedia with its 7 billion worldwide pageviews per month is governed by just 500 active administrators, whose real identity in many cases remains unknown.

Furthermore, studies have shown that 80% of all Wikipedia content is written by just 1% of all Wikipedia editors, which again amounts to just a few hundred mostly unknown people.

Corporate influence

Obviously, such a non-transparent and hierarchical structure is susceptible to corruption and manipulation, the notorious “paid editors” hired by corporations being just one aspect.

In 2015, for instance, a German Wikipedia administrator was exposed as a project manager at pharma­ceu­tical company Merck who was whitewashing Wikipedia articles on Merck’s history and products. Yet despite the exposure, the manager remained a Wikipedia administrator.

In another case, a German journalist and PR consultant used several pseudonymous Wikipedia accounts to protect French pharmaceutical corporation Sanofi-Aventis against negative reports.

In 2014, a study revealed how German airline Lufthansa removed data on aircraft noise from Wikipedia, how vehicle manufacturer MAN deleted information on its tank production during World War II, how car producer Daimler removed information on political lobbying, and how pharma­ceutical company Boehringer excised information on its production of “Agent Orange”.

More recently, employees of Indian commodity trading billionaire Gautam Adani were caught using over 40 fake accounts and paid editors, including an influential Wikipedia reviewer, to manipulate Wikipedia articles related to the Adani Group and its founder.

Some of these actions are detected by Wikipedia editors themselves, others are uncovered by external researchers, and still others remain unnoticed.

Nevertheless, this murky corporate influence on Wikipedia is just the tip of the iceberg, as the covert and systematic manipulation of Wikipedia reaches much deeper than that.

Intelligence services

Already in 2007, researchers found that one of the most active and influential English Wikipedia administrators, called “Slim Virgin”, was in fact a former British intelligence informer who had moved to Canada and lived there under a false identity.

Encouraged by this discovery, independent researchers using the newly developed WikiScanner tool found that CIA and FBI employees were secretly editing Wikipedia articles on controversial topics, including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo military prison.

More recently, another highly prolific Wikipedia editor, going by the name of “Philip Cross”, turned out to be linked to British intelligence and several British establishment journalists. Among other things, “Philip Cross” targeted journalists and academics who opposed British military interventions.

In 2023, investigators found that the government of Saudi Arabia managed to install sixteen agents as Wikipedia administrators; the agents not only controlled articles on political topics, but revealed the identities of two independent administrators to Saudi authorities – who put them in jail.

Even in Switzerland, unidentified government employees were caught whitewashing Wikipedia entries about the Swiss secret service just prior to a public referendum about the agency.

“Zionist editing of Wikipedia”

In addition to some Western countries, Israel is one of the most active and influential state actors on Wikipedia.

The Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy, founded in 2006, has long been known to coordinate pro-Israeli activists in various countries who assiduously edit Wikipedia and other online platforms according to Israeli interests. To this end, the Israeli ministry even developed an app, called Act.IL, to quickly define and assign various tasks.

Israeli efforts to shape Wikipedia articles have been supported by some high-profile individuals. For instance, IT entrepreneur, IDF commander and later Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennet, previously organized courses in “Zionist editing” of Wikipedia.

In Germany, one of the most aggressive Wikipedia editors was exposed, after a two-year legal battle, as a political operative formerly serving in the Israeli army as a foreign volunteer. The operative used the pseudonym “Feliks” – a reference to Feliks Dzerzhinsky, the architect of the early Soviet “Red Terror” campaign – and manipulated hundreds of articles.

In 2021, it was revealed that the American-Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL) had an entire team of nine staff dedicated to editing Wikipedia and working ADL sources into Wikipedia articles. The ADL had previously been caught in several illegal spying operations and was exposed as an Israeli intelligence front by Mossad whistleblower Victor Ostrovsky.

Wikipedia itself was founded in 2001 by two American-Jewish IT entrepreneurs, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. While Larry Sanger has since abandoned and criticized the platform (see below), Jimmy Wales remains a board member of the Wikimedia Foundation and in 2015 received the $1 million Israeli Dan David prize for technological accomplishments.

Private intelligence firms

In addition to state intelligence services, private intelligence firms also manipulate Wikipedia articles as part of covert PR or smear campaigns on behalf of their corporate or government clients.

In 2022, for instance, the leaked Abu Dhabi Files exposed how a Swiss private intelligence firm called Alp Services secretly manipulated Wikipedia articles in several languages on behalf of the rulers of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The purpose of this multi-million dollar operation was to discredit or destroy people and organizations deemed unfriendly by the UAE.

To this end, Alp Services first planted defamatory articles about the targeted people in several media outlets and then “requested the assistance of friendly moderators” to add this negative information to their Wikipedia articles and block any attempted corrections. Finally, Alp Services ensured that the negative information ranked highly in Google internet searches.

The campaign on behalf of the UAE – just one of several such operations conducted by Alp Services – led to the bankruptcy of at least one energy trading company and damaged the reputation of a UN human-rights expert, who later described Wikipedia as “a monster”.

“One of the most dangerous websites on the internet”

Many Wikipedia manipulators are editing articles almost all day and every day, indicating that they are either highly dedicated individuals, or perhaps operated by a group of people.

Moreover, articles edited by these personae cannot easily be revised, since the above-mentioned administrators can always revert changes or simply block disagreeing users altogether.

Many of these covert campaigns attempt to promote establishment and industry positions and destroy the reputation of critics. Because of its influence, German watchdog group WikiRadar described Wikipedia as “one of the most dangerous websites on the internet”.

Particularly affected by this kind of systematic and covert manipulation are Wikipedia articles about political and geopolitical, commercial, societal, medical and some historical topics as well as biographies of non-compliant academics, journalists, and politicians.

In some cases, relentless defamation campaigns on Wikipedia drove victims into suicide.

The “Skeptics” movement

In addition to PR firms and state actors, several activist groups also play an important role in editing and manipulating Wikipedia articles.

One of the most influential but least known activist groups on Wikipedia are the so-called “Skeptics”, an obscure and cult-like organization whose members are “skeptical” not of official establishment positions, but of people challenging such positions. Thus, the “Skeptics” essentially serve as “cyber warriors” for political and corporate interests.

The “Skeptics” originally focused on esoteric topics such as UFOs, homeopathy and parapsychology (hence the name “Skeptics”) but have since expanded their online and offline activities into far more complex political, medical and scientific fields.

Although most “Skeptics” aren’t professional scientists themselves, they often defend an alleged scientific “consensus” or “authority” and vilify critics of an official position as “cranks” or “conspiracy theorists”. Typical examples include debates on medical and pharmaceutical questions, global climate change, or intelligence operations.

One the one hand, “Skeptics” keep real and sometimes dangerous quackery off of Wikipedia, but on the other hand, they also suppress legitimate debates on complex issues.

In 2010, the “Skeptics” launched an initiative called “Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia” (GSOW) to train their members in aggressive Wikipedia editing. Their global Wikipedia activities have since been coordinated on a dedicated “Project Skepticism” website.

In a 2019 comment on nutrition studies, a British member of the “Skeptics” confidently declared that “the Skeptics will always run Wikipedia”.

During the coronavirus pandemic (2020-2022), too, members of the “Skeptics” movement played a central role on Wikipedia by asserting official but mostly false positions and by defaming dissident researchers, doctors and journalists. Thus, to name but two examples, a lab origin of the virus was dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” and vaccine protection was greatly exaggerated.

In 2022, an anonymous Wikipedia editor and “Skeptic” was exposed as a Texas-based FBI informant specializing in “online marketing” and working for the “InfraGard” program. This might indicate that some members of the “Skeptics” movement do in fact act on behalf of intelligence services.

Other activist groups

Another activist group that is very active in editing and manipulating various social and political topics on Wikipedia is the so-called “Antifa” movement. Although “anti-fascist”, the modern “Antifa” movement is generally supportive of Western military interventions.

In Germany, a months-long investigation revealed that many Wikipedia articles on political and historical topics were written by the same main author: a piano teacher and “Antifa” member who used different usernames and spent several hours per day editing Wikipedia.

On the complex topic of global climate change, too, various activists try to assert the official view and vilify dissenting scientists. Some of this activity is sponsored by governments, such as the “project for improving communication of climate change knowledge through Wikipedia”.

In 2019, investigators found that German Wikipedia articles on global warming, climate change, climate change denial, science denial, wind energy, solar energy, and Greta Thunberg, all had the same lead author: a member of the Green Party and the “Skeptics” organization.

Wikipedia and the WEF

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has repeatedly defended the current architecture and operation of Wikipedia. Wales is a friend of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair – in 2012, Wales even married Blair’s former diary secretary – and a “Young Global Leader” of the Davos World Economic Forum.

Speaking of Davos, Wikimedia has itself amassed a fortune of more than $160 million, donated in large part not by lazy students, but by major US corporations and influential foundations, a situation that has given rise to some significant conflicts of interest.

Former Wikimedia CEO Katherine Maher (2016-2021) previously worked at the influential US Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as well as at a subgroup of the US National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a CIA front organization specialized in global influence operations and regime changes.

Katherine Maher is also a WEF Young Global Leader, a Senior Fellow at the NATO-linked Atlantic Council, and a member of the US State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. In 2016, a Tunisian politician suspected that Maher may in fact be a US intelligence asset.

Geopolitical aspects

The fact that Wikipedia is influenced by Western and Israeli intelligence services may help explain why articles on geopolitical topics, such as Russia and Iran, are usually aligned with Western geopolitical interests.

Moreover, many leading authors of the Russian Wikipedia are located not in Russia, but in Ukraine, Germany, and the United States. Similarly, many leading authors of the Persian Wikipedia are located not in Iran, but in the United States, Canada, France, and Germany.

In 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Wikimedia and the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs started a collaborative campaign “to create and improve articles about the culture and people of Ukraine in as many language editions of Wikipedia as possible.”

The lack of control over Wikipedia editors may also explain why some non-Western countries decided to block access to Wikipedia altogether. Even Nato member Turkey blocked access to Wikipedia between 2017 and 2020 to “protect national security”, after political links to a terrorist group were mentioned on the platform.

Finally, US search engines and social media platforms increasingly refer to Wikipedia to classify or suppress “controversial topics”. The revelations discussed above may help explain why.

“I no longer trust the website I created”

In a 2021 interview, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger revealed that he no longer trusted the website he had created. In particular, Sanger noted that any topic or controversy that didn’t appear in the “center-left mainstream media” wouldn’t appear on Wikipedia.

Indeed, Wikipedia accepts almost only establishment media outlets as “reliable sources”, while independent media outlets, regardless of their quality, remain largely excluded. Even some conservative establishment media outlets have been banned as “unreliable sources”.

In a 2023 interview with US journalist Glenn Greenwald, Sanger argued that Wikipedia had become an “instrument of control” in the hands of the American establishment and intelligence services, adding that “no encyclopedia has ever been as biased as Wikipedia”.

Sanger emphasized that “a great part of intelligence and information warfare is conducted online, on websites like Wikipedia”, and that intelligence services “had learned the Wikipedia game and push what they want to say with their own people”.

Sanger has since helped launch two alternatives to Wikipedia, Justapedia and the Encyclosphere, both of which strive for objectivity, neutrality, and civility. Other Wikipedia alternatives include WikiSpooks (deep politics), Scholarpedia (scientific topics), and Metapedia (conservative).

Conclusion: WikiWho?

As detailed in this article, Wikipedia may have started as a community project and open encyclopedia two decades ago, but it has since increasingly become a covert propaganda platform influenced by corporations, state actors, and activist groups.

To add at least some degree of transparency, German researchers have developed a free web browser extension called WikiWho that lets readers color code just who edited what in Wikipedia. In many cases, the result looks as discomforting as one might expect.

Figure: Editors of the Wikipedia article on the “war on terror” (WikiWho)

Who edited what? (WikiWho)

Annex

Videos

Literature

General

Skeptics

Wikipedia Alternatives

Tools

Wikipedia about SPR

In May 2020, two months after the first publication of the above analysis, a Wikipedia article about Swiss Policy Research was created that tries to misrepresent SPR as a “fake news website”. Most of the English version was written, anonymously, by one Mason Pelt, an FBI informant (InfraGard) and “Skeptic” from Dallas, Texas, who specializes in “online marketing”.

Additional input was provided by Thibaut Laurent Payet, a long-time Wikipedia administrator who used a fake account (“OKTalker”) to add defamatory statements about SPR. Payet lives in Geneva, Switzerland, and has been linked to a private intelligence firm specializing in online defamation campaigns on behalf of governments and corporations.

Other authors include a US political activist (“Gobonobo”), an English missionary (“Anna795bc”), and a Hungarian “Skeptic” (“MrFringilla”). The German Wikipedia article about SPR was written by well-known political activists like “Ghormon”, “KurtR” and “Anidaat”.

See also:

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Swiss Policy Research, founded in 2016, is an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit research group investigating geopolitical propaganda in Swiss and international media. SPR is composed of independent academics that for personal and professional reasons prefer to protect their identities, and receives no external funding; there are no financial sponsors or backers. Our articles have been published or shared by numerous independent media outlets and journalists, among them Julian Assange, and have been translated into more than two dozen languages.

Go to Original – swprs.org


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