Wikipedia

Disinformation

false or misleading information that is spread deliberately to deceive and manipulate

Disinformation refers to false information spread intentionally[1] to make a targeted audience believe something that is not based on facts.[1] Disinformation may include the distribution of forged documents, manuscripts and photographs, or the promotion of harmful rumors, conspiracy theories and fake intelligence.[2][3]

Conspiracy theories

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Front page of Edouard Drumont's La Libre Parole (1893) with a caricature of a Jew grabbing the globe, implying their alleged desire to control the world. Caption: "Their Homeland".
 
The International Jew: The World's Problem published in Henry Ford's newspaper The Dearborn Independent (1920),[4] an offshoot of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion giving rise to the ZOG conspiracy theory.
 
A propaganda poster made by the Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI) implying that Black and Native Americans are the "real" descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The BHI allege that the said peoples have been "wrongfully" classified by White imperialists into different ethnic groups across the Western hemisphere.

A major form of disinformation is conspiracy theories. Examples of conspiracy theories include but not limited to:

Online disinformation

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Disinformation is particularly common on the most visited websites worldwide,[21] including Wikipedia,[22][23] Reddit[24] and Instagram.[25][26] On January 23, 2025, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) said in a press release that a UNESCO study found 16% of all Holocaust-related content across social media to be denying or distorting.[27][28]

Wikipedia

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Croatian Wikipedia

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See the main article: Croatian Wikipedia

Between 2009 and 2021, Croatian Wikipedia was controlled by a group of far-right administrators who promoted Holocaust denial by censoring[22] the war crimes of the pro-Nazi Ustaše-ruled Independent State of Croatia (NDH)[29] and blocking dozens of rule-abiding users for trying to remove the false content.[22]

Željko Jovanović, the Minister of Science of Croatia back then, also advised against the use of the Croatian Wikipedia.[30] The most serious violation by the far-right administrators was their anti-historical designation of the Jasenovac concentration camp, in which 77,000–99,000 were killed,[31] as a "collection camp".[22] Their Holocaust denial was condemned by scholars, officials, advocacy groups and media critics.[22]

Following a year-long investigation (2020–21) by the Wikimedia Foundation, several complicit users and administrators were either banned or demoted, with one of the administrators found to have consolidated his or her power with 80 sockpuppet accounts.[32]

English Wikipedia

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See the main article: English Wikipedia
 
The Feb. 2007 removal of an anti-Jewish critique of the NGO War on Want, in Wikipedia, with the new version on the right.
 
Excerpt from a 2013 review that rejects "Good Article" status for The Holocaust article, cited by PFanzelter (2015).
 
Serial erasure of content taking place in a Jewish history article.

English Wikipedia was criticized for condoning the systematic whitewashing of Nazi war criminals on the platform.[33] For instance, Arthur Nebe (a senior SS official who invented mobile gas chambers to kill Jews) was portrayed as a savior of Jews by users who distorted a cited source that actually said the opposite.[33] SS units responsible for the Holocaust were either depicted as brave fighters or described in passive voice to make their atrocities look normal.[33]

Those who corrected the false content had also faced persistent harassment from pro-Nazi users, some of whom were found to have repeatedly cited materials from Holocaust-denying sources (e.g. Journal of Historical Review, Nation Europa and Franz Kurowski[33]), misrepresented them as academic consensus and gamed the rules to prevent the false content from being removed.[33] The violations continued for years with limited administrative intervention,[33] which mainstreamed Nazi sympathy among young readers and hurt efforts to preserve the Holocaust's historical truth.[33] German military historian Jens Westemeier commented on the issue,[33]

The English Wikipedia pages are far more sympathetic towards the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS than the German ones [. ...] Wikipedia and Amazon are the worst distributors of pro-Nazi perspectives and the ["clean"] Wehrmacht myth.

In 2023, Holocaust historians Prof. Jan Grabowski and Dr. Shira Klein published a 57-page article titled Wikipedia’s Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust[34] in The Journal of Holocaust Research in which they said to have found widespread distortion of the Polish Holocaust history on English Wikipedia,[23][34] which involved the exaggeration[23][34] of Jewish collaboration with Nazi/Soviet occupiers, invention of Jewish "atrocities" against Poles, downplaying of Polish collaboration with Nazi/Soviet occupiers and blaming Jews for their own suffering.[23][34]

Prof. Grabowski and Dr. Klein also criticized English Wikipedia's administrators and Wikimedia Foundation's lack of will to handle,[23][34] leaving the site vulnerable to state-sponsored disinformation:

Wikipedia’s administrators have largely failed to uphold Wikipedia’s policies [. ...] unable to deal with the issue of persistent distortion [...] Wikipedia’s articles [...] have become a hub of misinformation and antisemitic canards.

On another occasion, Prof. Grabowski said,[23]

As a historian, I was aware [...] of various distortions [...] of the Holocaust on Wikipedia. What I found shocking, was the sheer scale [...] and the small number of individuals needed to distort the history of one of the greatest tragedies in the history of humanity.

Some misconceptions about the Holocaust in Poland are summarized as follows:

In 2024, independent investigations uncovered a large-scale off-site canvassing campaign to rewrite Jewish history and reshape the narrative surrounding the Israel–Palestine conflict, which involved 40 accounts having made as many as 2,000,000 edits to around 10,000 Jewish-related articles.[53]

The off-site canvassing campaign was coordinated by an 8,000-member Tech for Palestine Discord channel,[53] where the organizers provided the participants in-depth training (e.g. strategy planning sessions, group audio "office hour" chats)[53] on getting used to Wikipedia's site operation, assigning participants (in groups of 2~3) to edit hundreds of articles in rotation,[53] and gaming the rules to block others from correcting them.[53]

Reported examples of their revisionist[54] edits include[53]

On 12 December 2024, English Wikipedia's arbitration committee announced that two editors[57] had been site-banned indefinitely for off-site canvassing[53][57] and "encouraging other users to game the extended confirmed restriction and engage in disruptive editing."[57] Another three editors have also been sanctioned for similar reasons.[57] On January 17, 2025, English Wikipedia's arbitration committee further voted to impose indefinite topic-bans on multiple longtime editors associated with the organized campaign.[58] ADL's CEO Jonathan Greenblatt commented,[58]

[I]t is now imperative for Wikipedia to [...] undo the harm caused by these rogue but prolific editors who [...] wreaked havoc across the platform [. ...] a systemic problem [...] that needs immediate action.

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Learning Disinformation". The British Library Board. Archived from the original on 25 October 2007. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Sachar, Howard Morley (1993). A History of the Jews in America. Vintage Books. p. 311. ISBN 0679745300.
  5. ↑
  6. ↑
  7. ↑
  8. ↑
  9. ↑
  10. ↑
  11. ↑
  12. ↑
  13. ↑
  14. ↑
  15. ↑
  16. ↑
  17. ↑
  18. ↑ "Congresswoman Luna and the JFK Files: How Antisemitic Conspiracy Theorists Hijack History to Spread Hate". Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM). February 19, 2025. Retrieved February 26, 2025.
  19. ↑
  20. ↑
  21. ↑ "Most Visited Websites in Worldwide 2024 | Open .Trends". Semrush. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4 23.5
  24. ↑
  25. ↑
  26. ↑ "Gay club accused of being 'poisoned with antisemitism' changes tune". Jewish News. August 9, 2024. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
  27. ↑ "International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance issues urgent Holocaust distortion warning". International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). January 23, 2025.
  28. ↑ "Social media feeds Holocaust denial and distortion, finds UN report". United Nations (UN). Retrieved January 23, 2025.
  29. ↑ "The Holocaust in Croatia". Yad Vashem. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
  30. ↑ "Jovanović: Djeco, ne baratajte hrvatskom Wikipedijom jer su sadržaji falsificirani" [Jovanović: "Children, do not use the Croatian Wikipedia because its contents are forgeries"]. Novi list (in Croatian). September 13, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  31. ↑
  32. ↑ "Croatian Wikipedia Disinformation Assessment-2021 – Meta". Meta Wikimedia. Retrieved 2021-06-14. Many articles created and edited by the members of this group present the views that match political and socio-cultural positions advocated by a loosely connected group of Croatian radical right political parties and ultra-conservative populist movements. The group has been using its positions of power to attract new like-minded contributors, silence and ban dissenters, manipulate community elections and subvert Wikipedia's and the broader movement's native conflict resolution mechanisms.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 33.4 33.5 33.6 33.7
  34. ↑ 34.00 34.01 34.02 34.03 34.04 34.05 34.06 34.07 34.08 34.09 34.10 34.11 34.12 34.13 34.14 34.15 34.16 34.17 34.18 34.19 34.20 34.21 34.22 Grabowski, Jan; Klein, Shira (February 9, 2023). "Wikipedia's Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust". The Journal of Holocaust Research. 37 (2): 133–190. doi:10.1080/25785648.2023.2168939. Retrieved October 24, 2024.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 35.3 35.4 Wikipedia article, “Rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust,” Wikipedia, revision from 8:06, May 24, 2022,
  36. ↑ Karyn Ball and Per Anders Rudling, “The Underbelly of Canadian Multiculturalism: Holocaust Obfuscation and Envy in the Debate about the Canadian Museum for Human Rights,” Holocaust Studies, vol. 20, no. 3 (2014): pp. 33–80.
  37. ↑ C. Łuczak, “Szanse i trudności bilansu demograficznego Polski w latach 1939–1945,” Dzieje Najnowsze 2 (1994): pp. 9–15.
  38. ↑ Ryszard Walczak et al. (eds.), Those Who Helped: Polish Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust (Warszawa: IPN, 1997).
  39. ↑ Martyna Grądzka-Rejak and Aleksandra Namysło, (eds.), Represje za pomoc Żydom na okupowanych ziemiach polskich w czasie II wojny światowej, vol. 1 (Warsaw: IPN, 2019), p. 464.
  40. ↑ Richard C. Lukas[broken anchor], Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1989), p. 15.
  41. ↑
  42. ↑ Natalia Sawka, “Antysemita Leszek Żebrowski poprowadzi wykład o ‘żołnierzach wyklętych,’” Gazeta Wyborcza, March 1, 2016
  43. ↑ The “Israeli War Crimes Commission” statistics seem to originate from an essay from the 1960s by one Leo Heiman, which provides no footnote. Leo Heiman, “Ukrainians and the Jews,” in Ukrainians and Jews, Articles, Testimonies, Letters and Official Documents Dealing with Interrelations of Ukrainians and Jews in the Past and Present: A Symposium (New York: The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, 1966), p. 60.
  44. ↑ Machcewicz and Persak, (eds.), Wokół Jedwabnego; Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking, (eds.), Dalej jest noc: losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski (Night Without End: The Fate of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland), 2 vols. (Warsaw: Polish Center for Holocaust Research, 2018).
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 45.2 Engelking and Grabowski, (eds.), Dalej jest noc; Grzegorz Rossolinski-Liebe, “Polnische Bürgermeister und der Holocaust im Generalgouvernement Besatzung, Kollaboration und Handlungsmöglichkeiten,” Bulletin des Fritz Bauer Instituts, (2021), pp. 26–35.
  46. ↑
  47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 Andrzej Żbikowski, Polacy i Zydzi pod okupacja niemiecką, 1939-1945: Studia i Materiały (Warsaw: IPN, 2006), pp. 482–84.
  48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 48.2 The Third Decree of General Governor Hans Frank concerning restrictions on residency in the Generalgouvernement and introducing the death penalty for aid rendered to Jews, October 15, 1941; Verordnungsblatt für das Generalgouvernement. Dziennik Rozporządzeń dla Generalnego Gubernatorstwa, Cracow, October 25, 1941, p. 595.
  49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 49.2 49.3 49.4 Adam Puławski, “Revisiting Jan Karski’s Final Mission,” Israeli Journal of Foreign Affairs, vol. 15, no. 2 (2021): pp. 289–97; Adam Puławski, Wobec niespotykanego w dziejach mordu. Rząd RP na uchodźstwie, Delegatura Rządu RP na Kraj, AK a eksterminacja ludności żydowskiej od wielkiej akcji do powstania w getcie warszawskim (Chełm: Stowarzyszenie Rocznik Chełmski, 2018).
  50. ↑ Wikipedia article, “Nazi Crimes Against the Polish Nation,” Wikipedia, revision from 14:14, June 15, 2022,
  51. ↑ Geoffrey P. Megargee, ed., Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, vol. 1: Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA) (Washington: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2009), p. 692.
  52. ↑ "Omer Bartov and Joanna Tokarska-Bakir Were Awarded with the 2019 Yad Vashem International Book Prize". Yad Vashem. December 8, 2019. Retrieved March 5, 2025.
  53. ↑ 53.0 53.1 53.2 53.3 53.4 53.5 53.6
  54. ↑
  55. ↑
  56. ↑
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 57.2 57.3
  58. ↑ 58.0 58.1


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