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By Josh Feldberg —

WikiCredCon 2025: Building Credible Knowledge in an Era of Data Suppression and Disinformation

WikiCredCon 2025: Building Credible Knowledge in an Era of Data Suppression and Disinformation

Summary

  • Purpose & Context
    • Gathered experts at the Internet Archive to address at WikiCredCon 2025 credibility within Wikimedia projects.
    • Timed amidst renewed federal data suppression (notably on climate and public health) and a rise in AI-driven misinformation.
  • Key Themes
    • Data Preservation: Urgent concern over government removal of climate and health datasets; calls for proactive archiving using Internet Archive, FABLE, and other tools.
    • Combatting Disinformation: Recognition that campaigns exploit emotional topics (e.g., vaccines, trans rights) to sow distrust across science and politics.
    • Citation Reliability: Projects (InternetArchiveBot, FABLE, Robust Links) help counter link rot; broader push to integrate open-access resources via Wikipedia Library.
    • Equity & Representation: Need to close content gaps (women, LGBTQ+, Global South) and protect editors who face harassment when covering controversial topics.
    • AI Opportunities & Risks: Potential for real-time fact-checking (e.g. Factiverse) balanced against growing threats from AI-powered misinformation.
  • Speakers & Projects
    • Data Archiving Leaders: Michael Nelson, Sawood Alam, and Harsha Madhyastha emphasized robust links, automated broken-link fixes, and future-proof references.
    • Community Organizers: Nevin Thompson, Kevin Payravi, and others highlighted solutions to strengthen journalist–Wikimedia alliances and scale up training.
    • Advocates for Representation: Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, WikiPortraits, and Wikimedia Argentina focused on bridging gender and regional content gaps.
    • Editor Safety Voices: Lane Rasberry, Jamie Flood underscored the chilling effect of coordinated harassment and the ongoing removal of publicly funded data.
  • Immediate Needs
    • Archive at-risk federal materials before further deletion.
    • Strengthen editor safety and harassment-reporting protocols.
    • Scale up credibility tools (Trust Indicators, AI fact-checking) and broader collaboration with libraries/journals.
    • Adopt “save on addition” practices for references, ensuring links are preserved from the start.

Through these collective efforts—archiving threatened data, improving citation systems, and building alliances with journalists and technologists—WikiCredCon 2025 seeks to preserve core public knowledge, uphold factual accuracy, and safeguard Wikipedia’s role as a reliable resource worldwide.

1. Background of the Conference

  • Event: WikiCredCon 2025
  • Dates & Location: February 14–16, 2025, at the Internet Archive headquarters in San Francisco
  • Purpose: Strengthen information credibility across Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, with a particular focus on disinformation, data preservation, reliable citations, and community safety.
  • Historical Note: Builds upon the inaugural 2019 WikiCredCon at MIT (alongside WikiConference North America). This is the first large-scale, in-person WikiCredCon since then.

The 2025 edition of WikiCredCon arrives at a critical juncture, given:

  • New U.S. federal government interventions: The Trump administration’s return to power in 2025 has led to the removal or archiving of numerous federal datasets (including climate and public health data).
  • Escalating misinformation challenges: Technological advances (AI-driven bots, large-scale coordinated harassment) heighten misinformation in climate science, elections, vaccine safety, and more.

For more context, see the official event page:

2. Main Topics & Themes

Below are the core themes repeatedly addressed across the interviews and sessions:

  1. Data Preservation & Government Censorship
    • Risks: Speakers reported increasing suppression or outright deletion of information from government websites, especially on climate, public health, and social services.
    • Responses: Reliance on archival tools such as the Wayback Machine, proactive “save early/save often” practices, and community-led efforts (e.g., USDA archives, congressional record archives).
  2. Combatting Disinformation
    • Nature of Disinformation: Not limited to false statements; it’s often systemic—flooding the information ecosystem to sow distrust in government, science, and reputable media.
    • Focus Areas: Vaccine safety, trans rights, climate change, and conspiracy theories are frequently targeted.
    • Wider Implications: Disinformation exploits emotional triggers, creating a wedge that can push individuals from one domain of distrust (e.g., medicine) into broader anti-science and anti-democratic thinking.
  3. Reliability & Citation Infrastructure
    • Link Rot: A chronic threat; references go dead over time, undermining Wikipedia’s verifiability.
    • Tools and Projects:
      • InternetArchiveBot: Has patched over 23 million broken links by automatically adding archived copies.
      • FABLE (Finding Aliases for Broken Links Efficiently): Identifies identical content at new URLs when no archived copy exists.
      • Robust Links: Embeds extra HTML attributes so references persist in the long term.
  4. Representation & Equity
    • Content Gaps: Many communities remain underrepresented, including non-English speakers, women, LGBTQ+ populations, and the Global South.
    • Initiatives:
      • WikiPortraits: Taking high-quality photos (at film festivals, literary events, etc.) of notable individuals to ensure representation.
      • Local Uploads: Encouraging open licensing of event photography to fill visual gaps on Wikipedia.
    • Editor Harassment: Editors who focus on controversial topics (e.g., climate, trans rights) report frequent harassment. Lack of safety can deter volunteers from contributing.
  5. AI Opportunities and Risks
    • Opportunities: Automated or semi-automated fact-checking (e.g. Factiverse) can scan political statements in real time, searching credible sources (including Wikipedia).
    • Risks: AI can also accelerate misinformation—fake websites, generated conspiracies, or mass-produced propaganda.

3. Who Spoke & Key Contributions

Below is a concise list of individuals interviewed or presenting, along with their main focus or project.

  1. Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight (User: RosieStep)
    • Focus: Translating Wikipedia articles (especially on gender gap topics) and relying on the Wayback Machine to verify sources.
  2. Robin Isidora Brown
    • Background: Scientist, researcher, trans woman, LGBTQ+ advocate.
    • Key Message: Emphasized collaborative defense against misinformation; metaphorically used bird murmurations as an example of collective action.
  3. Mary Mark Ockerbloom
    • Focus: Documenting science disinformation strategies—how they erode trust in institutions.
    • Highlights: Warned that transphobic disinformation is a “thin wedge” tactic that can metastasize to undermine broader democratic norms.
  4. Harsha (Haran) Madhyastha (USC)
    • Project: FABLE (Finding Aliases for Broken Links Efficiently).
    • Contribution: Fixing “permanently dead” links by discovering identical content at new URLs.
  5. Nevin Thompson (Hacks/Hackers & Credibility Coalition)
    • Role: Co-organized WikiCredCon 2025.
    • Efforts: Convening journalists and technologists to improve online information reliability.
  6. Maximilian Klein (User: Cyberpower678)
    • Innovation: Developer of InternetArchiveBot, which has rescued over 23 million broken links.
    • Ongoing Work: Scaling the bot to global Wikipedia language editions.
  7. Lane Rasberry (User: Bluerasberry)
    • Themes: Freedom of expression, digital rights advocacy, bridging Wikipedia with open science.
    • Concerns: Increasing editor harassment, particularly for those covering contentious topics or controversies.
  8. Kevin Payravi (User: SuperHamster)
    • Project: Co-founder of WikiPortraits, improving biographical photos on Wikipedia.
    • Conference Role: Organizer of sessions focusing on citation and reliability.
  9. Jamie Flood
    • Experience: Former senior Wikipedian at the USDA.
    • Context: Lost her job after government agencies started removing or censoring data. Urged vigilance in archiving federally funded research and public records.
  10. Michael Nelson & Dr. Sawood Alam (Old Dominion University / Internet Archive)
    • Project: Robust Links & Turn All References Blue (TARB).
    • Impact: Creating stable referencing systems to mitigate link rot.
  11. Fabian Garcia
    • Contribution: Promotes open licensing of community event photos, encouraging broader representation on Commons.
  12. Sally Lehrman (Trust Project)
    • Focus: The “8 Trust Indicators” used by news organizations to enhance transparency.
    • Relevance: Encourages Wikipedia to use these indicators to help editors and readers gauge reliability.
  13. Dina Larson
    • Background: Electronic literature pioneer; fosters the niche field’s representation on Wikipedia.
    • Perspective: Balancing credibility with flexible approaches for self-published or less mainstream works.
  14. Netha Hussain (Wikimedians of Kerala)
    • Focus: Health misinformation, bridging knowledge gaps in medical articles, especially in non-English contexts.
  15. “Big Fro” / Wikimedia Argentina
    • Topic: Working with journalists to combat disinformation in Argentina; sees synergy between local media and Wikipedia.
  16. Kwell (Factiverse)
    • Product: Real-time fact-checking aggregator pulling data from news sites, Wikipedia, etc.
    • Goal: Provide quick references to support or refute claims in live streams and political events.
  17. Vijen (Wikimedia Foundation – Wikipedia Library)
    • Role: Expanding the Wikipedia Library, which gives experienced editors free access to paywalled resources.
    • Aim: Improve citation quality and coverage by offering reliable secondary sources.
  18. Fil MAA (SimPeople)
    • Work: Digital trust, focusing on online content production and audience impact.
    • Interventions: Training programs (in India and elsewhere) to tackle misinformation in low-literacy communities.
  19. Quincy
    • Field: Climate science and carbon dioxide removal.
    • Concern: Climate inaction tied to orchestrated disinformation; sees robust factual coverage as essential to policy.
  20. B (editor / Poets & Writers)
    • Volunteer Editor: Focus on cultural and historical articles.
    • Observations: Noted rise of politically motivated vandalism and need for stronger editorial support.

4. Context: Government Data Removal & Climate Issues

A heightened sense of urgency was palpable at WikiCredCon 2025 due to:

  • Trump Administration 2025 Policies: Participants described the systematic removal of climate and public health data from federal websites (e.g., USDA, EPA), often with minimal public notice.
  • Broader Pattern: Speakers worried similar clampdowns would affect data on social justice, educational programs, and more.
  • Real-World Example:
    • Jamie Flood’s Firing: After championing open access at USDA, she witnessed entire pages, outreach materials, and datasets wiped. She highlighted the crucial role of private and public archives to preserve that now-vanishing work.

Climate Dimension:

  • Misinformation campaigns heavily target climate science to undermine public support for emissions reductions and carbon removal initiatives.
  • Archiving vital climate research data is central not only for Wikipedia references but also for scholarly work worldwide.

5. Immediate & Urgent Needs

  1. Prioritize Archiving of At-Risk Data
    • Proactive Approach: Before agencies purge or obscure content, archivists and volunteer editors must capture it with the Wayback Machine or similar tools.
    • Call to Action: Librarians, digital activists, and wikipedians can coordinate “Archive-a-thons” focusing on federal, state, or municipal websites known to be threatened.
  2. Expand Tools Against Link Rot
    • Systemic Solutions: Tools like InternetArchiveBot, FABLE, and Robust Links should roll out globally, covering all major Wikipedia language editions.
    • Automatic Archiving: Emphasize archiving references the moment editors add them, rather than waiting for a URL to fail.
  3. Strengthen Editor Support & Safety
    • Harassment Reporting: Encourage the Wikimedia Foundation to improve channels for reporting doxxing, threats, and intimidation—especially for editors covering politicized topics.
    • Community Training: Develop better documentation for new editors on personal data safety and dealing with coordinated attacks.
  4. Enhance Media Fluency
    • Integration with “8 Trust Indicators”: Provide an on-wiki method for editors to quickly assess source credibility using frameworks like the Trust Project.
    • Targeted Outreach: Train both new and experienced editors to distinguish reliable from questionable publications, especially in fast-changing areas like climate or COVID-19.
  5. Leverage AI for Verification, Not Just Content Creation
    • Responsible AI Use: Factiverse and similar tools show promise in scanning real-time transcripts (e.g., political speeches, news reports) and comparing them against known authoritative sources or well-sourced Wikipedia articles.
    • Watch for AI-Generated Misinformation: Wikipedia must develop robust protocols to detect mass insertion of false info from AI-boosted campaigns.
  6. Expand Library Partnerships
    • Wikipedia Library: Extend more partnerships with paywalled journals for free editor access, ensuring that real-time research data on climate, health, and social topics is widely reachable.
    • Global Tools: Build out local programs (e.g., in Argentina, India) to train new contributors, bridging knowledge gaps in multiple languages.

6. Conclusion

WikiCredCon 2025 brought together a broad coalition of researchers, archivists, editors, activists, and journalists. Against the backdrop of widespread government data removals—particularly in climate and public health—attendees shared practical solutions for:

  • Preserving crucial public datasets
  • Improving Wikipedia’s citation durability
  • Confronting disinformation with advanced AI and strong community practices
  • Encouraging a safe, inclusive environment for editors facing harassment

From real-time fact-checking tools to proactive archiving sprints, participants agreed on one overarching imperative: Wikipedia’s reliability is inseparable from the integrity of the broader information ecosystem. By fortifying citation practices and safeguarding data from political interference, the WikiCredCon community aims to keep Wikipedia robust, accurate, and accessible for all.

References

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