Project 2025's Creators Want to Dox Wikipedia Editors. The Tool They're Using Is Horrifying.

[justaprogressive]

Last month, the Jewish-American news site Forward reported a shocking scoop: The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, is planning to “identify and target” Wikipedia editors. Through analyzing text patterns, usernames, and technical data and employing social-engineering tactics, Heritage aimed to reveal the identities of anonymous Wikipedia editors it believes are “abusing their position” on the platform.

In the culture of Wikipedia editing, it is common for individuals to use pseudonyms to protect their privacy and avoid personal threats. Revealing an editor’s personal information without their consent, a practice known as doxing, is a form of harassment that can result in a user’s being permanently banned from the site. Although this behavior is strictly prohibited by Wikipedia’s rules, Heritage has endorsed these scorched-earth tactics in response to what it perceives as antisemitism among certain editors covering the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on Wikipedia.

Let’s be clear: Wikipedia’s handling of this topic area is incredibly contentious. Many Wikipedians deliberately avoid pages like “Gaza War,” “Zionism,” and even the meta-entry on Wikipedia’s own coverage of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. These pages are under extended confirmed protection, meaning that only experienced editors—those who have been on Wikipedia for at least 30 days and have made at least 500 edits—can make changes to them.

But even with these restrictions in place, tensions continue to run high. One side accuses the Tech for Palestine coalition of trying to hijack Wikipedia with Palestinian propaganda, while the other points out that Israel’s government seems to be mobilizing its own citizens to write about the conflict from their perspective. Although founder Jimmy Wales insists the Wikipedia community aims for neutrality, the editors don’t always succeed.

https://slate.com/technology/2025/02/wikipedia-project-2025-heritage-foundation-doxing-editors-antisemitism.html

[yardwork]

1. They won't stop with the I/P editors.

Their goal is to eliminate all information. They want our population to be uninformed. DeSantis used this approach to COVID surveillance data - he just took it all down, so nobody knew how many people were dying of COVID. Trump has said the same. "Just don't report the numbers."

Imagine a country where we don't know about the fires in California or the floods from Hurricane Helene. We don't know about the measles epidemic caused by RFK, Jr's vaccine elimination. Imagine a country where all the news is censored and people are distracted and entertained with state-sponsored media. There are countries like this in the world and we are very close to becoming one.

He's going to eliminate NPR, PBS, and all federal data agencies. He's shutting down communications from the CDC, FDA, every agency that reports data. He will order remaining agencies to report false data. Watch unemployment magically drop, inflation drop, etc. People will say, "but the prices are still high" and they'll be told it's a temporary necessity and they're being selfish. People who complain a lot will disappear. They won't be in local jails where their families can visit and get them lawyers. They'll be in Gitmo or prisons in El Salvador.

The dictatorship is here.

[mwmisses4289]

2. They do realize it works both ways?

They, too, can be doxed.