Following the assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, Wikipedia editors made malicious edits about him, even as his page was locked to inexperienced editors with former members of Wikipedia’s “Supreme Court” and co-founder Jimmy Wales monitoring Kirk’s page. This included mocking Kirk’s last words and accusing him of targeted harassment campaigns, the latter staying in the page’s introduction for days.
Wikipedia editors have added denigrating smears about Kirk to articles about him since the assassination. Pages about Kirk and the assassination were locked early on to prevent malicious edits by new or less experienced editors, but efforts to smear Kirk have continued regardless. This came amid thousands of edits being made to both Kirk’s page, viewed nearly 40 million times since his death, and the assassination page, viewed nearly 8 million times. Kirk’s assassination was mentioned prominently on Wikipedia’s front page in its “In the news” section for five days with his image being up for over a day, focusing considerably more attention on both articles.
Policy on Wikipedia regarding how to handle claims about living people extends its more stringent requirements and expectations to edits regarding those who have recently died. Of relevant note, the policy states it “would apply particularly to contentious or questionable material about the subject that has implications for” the individual’s “living relatives and friends, such as in the case of a . . . particularly gruesome crime.” This protection is stated as applying anywhere from six months to two years after a person has died. Many edits since Kirk’s death that have remained up for extended periods of time appear to be in flagrant violation. Vandals celebrated Kirk’s assassination, though such edits were often caught quickly and removed, which Wikipedia advocates cited to defend against criticism.
Kirk’s last words
Before being shot, Kirk was in an exchange regarding mass shootings, particularly the phenomenon of transgender mass-shooters, such as the person allegedly responsible for the mass-shooting at Annunciation Catholic School last month. When he was asked if he knew how many mass-shootings there had been, Kirk asked whether gang shootings would be counted, which often inflates such statistics. Many on the left criticized those last words or mocked the fact he uttered them on a school campus just prior to being shot. Editors on Wikipedia also rushed to include his apparent last words on a Wikipedia page for listing notable people’s final words from the current century.
Other editors also added these words to Wikipedia’s general page listing last words, specifically a section for “ironic” last words. An editor from the Miami area was first to add his words to the “ironic last words” list, noting he was shot shortly after uttering them. Another editor from the San Francisco Bay area added it again, but the addition was undone as a duplicate. One person editing from the Knoxville campus of the University of Tennessee labeled the line a “racist dog whistle” in an edit that was quickly undone.
Neither source provided in either addition appears to characterize the statement as “ironic” as required under Wikipedia’s verifiability policy. Despite multiple established editors editing the page and the entry over the past two weeks, the article seeing thousands of views in that time, the listing of Kirk’s comment in the “ironic last words” section remains with one established editor only suggesting its removal a couple days after the assassination on the grounds it is unclear if they were his last words. No editors have responded to the discussion since the suggestion was raised.
In another instance, editor David Roberts created a redirect page to the assassination article using Kirk’s last words. Roberts, identified on his profile page as a Democrat who edits as “CrowbarCatalyst” on Wikipedia, created the redirect after repeatedly trying to insert video of Kirk’s assassination to the article on the shooting. The redirect was created after a decision to exclude the video. Another editor later nominated the redirect for deletion with editors noting the words are not in the assassination article, some suggesting the redirect go to Kirk’s page where they are included.
Kirk’s last words before being shot were added to his page by editor “GlowingLava” stating Kirk was “arguing with a student” about mass-shootings, harsher phrasing than either cited source used. The same editor made negatively-slanted edits about Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Another editor moderated the phrasing over an hour later. The content’s inclusion was disputed as “snark” by one editor, prompting a rare comment from site co-founder Wales supporting the mention. Wales previously possessed significant site privileges, but surrendered them after falsely accusing a former member of the site’s Arbitration Committee, often likened to a Supreme Court, of undisclosed paid editing. He remains on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.
Professor Watchlist
Half a day before Wales commented and hours after Kirk’s page was locked so only experienced editors could contribute, editor Thomas Andrew Nimmo added material to the first sentence of the introduction’s third paragraph about TPUSA’s Professor Watchlist documenting far-left college professors. The addition claimed as fact that the watchlist “sought to fire or silence professors for sharing opinions” they opposed and said critics labeled it “McCarthyism” in reference to 1950’s anti-communist investigations often criticized as excessive or paranoid. Nimmo has also made edits maligning conservative figures, including Trump, and added content to the assassination article criticizing Trump lowering flags for Kirk, but not Minnesota state legislators assassinated earlier this year.
Wikipedia’s neutrality policy requires that potentially contentious claims and opinions should not be presented as facts. Under Wikipedia policy, such policy violations about recently-deceased individuals are considered especially egregious. Furthermore, no source was cited for Nimmo’s addition about the Professor Watchlist, despite policy regarding claims about the recently-deceased requiring any contentious material be backed by a source deemed reliable on Wikipedia or be removed on sight. Although Wikipedia guidelines do not require sources to be cited in the introduction, this is with the understanding that the intro will only summarize the article’s most important contents.
The page’s only mention of the Professor Watchlist at the time merely noted its existence with none of the intro’s criticism even present in the line’s cited source. Reviewing Turning Point USA’s page, the section about the watchlist contains no mention of the claims Nimmo added, but notes a director of TPUSA emphasizing they do not oppose professors speaking their views. Wikipedia’s article about the Professor Watchlist, despite being overwhelmingly negative, only referred to “silencing” as an allegation in an open letter. McCarthyism is mentioned by two listed professors and one academic who called the list “right-wing populist propaganda” in a response to the left-wing Guardian.
Despite numerous edits to the introduction, such as more favorable details being removed as not important enough to include and an editor linking the McCarthyism Wikipedia article from the line following an edit request, it was half a day before the McCarthyism line was removed. The editor removing it only mentioned it being given too much weight, while claiming to retain “well-sourced material” otherwise. Although the remaining material about the watchlist was not sourced at all, established editors continued making changes to the intro without touching the line, even removing other material for not being mentioned in the article.
Shortly before Wales commented on the discussion page for Kirk’s article, the intro was also edited by admin and former member of the Arbitration Committee Molly White, who had made numerous edits to the article already. Less than an hour later, editor “Monk of Monk Hall” added material about alleged harassment of people on the watchlist to the article and then added such material to the intro, without otherwise changing the line itself, thus rendering it even more negative.
Consequently, Kirk’s page prominently stated the Professor Watchlist sought to silence people “through targeted harassment campaigns” despite the cited CNN article not making that claim, instead noting the watchlist and similar websites covered controversial statements by professors who were harassed after going viral on social media with some professors blaming sites, such as the watchlist, for highlighting their comments. Kirk states in the piece that they do not seek to silence or fire anyone, nor condone harassment, but to highlight academia’s bias. His statement was not included on Wikipedia’s page. Mention of the watchlist temporarily going offline was included, citing Right Wing Watch, which editors generally discourage citing.
Hours later, “MaximusEditor” criticized the introduction’s line on the discussion page for Kirk’s article as violating policy and suggested removing the “harassment” and “silencing” claims. MaximusEditor further suggested adding Kirk’s statements opposing harassment in the article body. Nearly a day later, admin Steve Pereira, who edits as “SilkTork” on Wikipedia and served on the Arbitration Committee, mockingly commented that Kirk would naturally deny harassment, only editing the intro to attribute the claim to “critics” and insisted it was now neutral and accurate, despite not reflecting what the article stated. He suggested adding Kirk’s denials, but did not do it himself.
The line was removed entirely from the introduction over a day after Pereira’s edit by an editor arguing it was “niche critique” that did not belong in the introduction. However, it was restored nearly a day later, though the claims about harassment were removed minutes afterwards, and the entire line finally removed again after a few more hours. Kirk’s page had been viewed nearly 20 million times during the period where the line was included at the top of his page. Claims in the article body mentioning harassment remain, but still do not mention Kirk’s statement opposing harassment.
Vandals and trolls celebrate death
Immediately after news of the shooting and his death was widely publicized, left-wing critics of Kirk engaged in disparaging and often false attacks on Kirk with some going so far as to celebrate his assassination, suggesting other right-wing figures and critics of transgenderism should be next. On Wikipedia, similar comments were made by vandals and trolls in the aftermath. Edits to the Utah Valley University page include one stating “not sorry btw” next to mention of his assassination and another stated he was shot “rightfully” by the assassin. The page was repeatedly locked so only more experienced editors could contribute.
Many comments were removed quickly and hidden from public view by regular editors and admins. Some edits could still be found in Wikipedia’s logs, such as comments by “Thispageneedsahero” celebrating him being shot and suggesting if he survived both he and his young daughter should be killed. Another celebratory comment called Kirk a “pig” and added “fascist down rip bozo” at the end of the comment. An account called “John Antifa” suspected to be an experienced editor using a new account, made repeated comments branding Kirk racist and calling the assassin’s rifle a “freedom-securer” in one comment. While that account was banned, the comments currently remain live.
Left-wing Wikipedia advocates defended site
Left-wing Slate characterized criticism of Wikipedia’s Kirk articles as portraying Wikipedia editors as “a cabal of ideologues working around the clock to tarnish Kirk’s memory and memory-hole his grieving family.” Slate author Stephen Harrison favorably cites White’s defense of Wikipedia and comments from former Arbitration Committee member Anne Clin, who edits as “Risker” on the site, to portray editors as caring and well-intentioned and lamenting right-wing media not mentioning it. Harrison says editors “protected” Kirk’s page from troll edits, stating they “deleted this bile within a few minutes or seconds of it being posted.”
Harrison’s piece, which also criticizes right-wing media coverage of the attempt to delete the article on Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska’s murder, suggests this criticism is all a bad faith attempt at “undermining [Wikipedia]’s effort to archive facts using reliable sources” claiming Wikipedia is “an independent repository of facts that has (at least historically) been insulated from political interference.” This is the latest piece this year from left-wing media maligning such criticism, including the Verge earlier this month misrepresenting Breitbart News reporting the deletion effort against an article on Iranian calls for Israel’s destruction, which Breitbart subsequently reported resulted in content merging to a section buried in another article.
Left-wing media have raised alarms due to efforts by U.S. government officials to investigate bias on Wikipedia. This includes information requests from then-acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin (who was the subject of retaliation from editors), bipartisan members of Congress, and the House Oversight Committee. Such investigations have focused on anti-Israeli editing, the latest example being editors declaring Israel is committing genocide and promoting the claim on Wikipedia’s front page. Wikipedia’s handling of Zarutska’s murder and Kirk’s assassination has also drawn attention from members of Congress, while other outlets have reported Wikipedia’s actual and potential influence over attacks on Kirk following his death.
(Disclosure: The author has been involved in disputes with several of the parties mentioned in the article)
T. D. Adler edited Wikipedia as The Devil’s Advocate. He was banned after privately reporting conflict of interest editing by one of the site’s administrators. Due to previous witch-hunts led by mainstream Wikipedians against their critics, Adler writes under an alias.
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