A new Anti-Defamation League report warns that Wikipedia continues to display edits made by banned anti-Israel activists, allowing their influence to persist long after the accounts responsible were removed.

The report, titled “Damage Done” and published by the ADL’s Center for Technology and Society, found that 91% of one permanently banned editor’s changes remained intact across six key articles, including entries on Hamas, the Gaza war, and Zionism.

According to the ADL, restrictions imposed on six editors and complete bans against three others were not followed by a systematic review or reversal of their work. The organization warned that the disputed material continues to reach readers through Wikipedia, search engines, and artificial intelligence tools.

Among the examples cited was the removal of approximately 24,400 characters from the Gaza war article in November 2023. The deleted material included forensic documentation of October 7 atrocities, including victims who were bound and burned, sexual violence, and an attempted beheading. According to the report, the article now contains only a brief reference describing terrorists’ involvement in those acts as reported claims.

In another case, an editor moved much of the Hamas article’s material about human shields and human rights abuses into a separate entry titled “Criticism of Hamas,” the ADL said.

The researchers also identified a network of 19 accounts — eight established accounts and 11 newer ones — using subtler editing methods, including reversing other users’ changes and softening statements. Across 229 Israel-related articles examined, accounts in that group were responsible for the most recent edit on approximately 60% of the pages.

One account made 543 edits to the Zionism article, the second-highest total by an editor in the entry’s 24-year history. The ADL said those changes helped shape language describing Zionism as having achieved its goals “through colonization.”

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt warned that pages read by millions and used by AI systems still bear the marks of what the organization describes as a systematic disinformation campaign. Daniel Kelley, a senior director at the ADL’s technology center, said the findings point to a systemic problem in how Wikimedia allows the platform to operate.

The ADL urged the Wikimedia Foundation to verify the identities of editors working on sensitive subjects, end anonymous editing, and establish a dedicated team to address antisemitic bias. It also called on AI developers to explicitly disclose when their answers rely on Wikipedia.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)