Scoop: Heritage Foundation plans to ‘identify and target’ Wikipedia editors

[Ognistysztorm]

I think this is a step too far. Instead of hacking, they should've just go to Eric Barbour and ask him for his database of Wikipedia affairs which he collected through legitimate means.

https://forward.com/news/686797/heritag ... isemitism/

Although, one user has pointed out that the document might be fabricated:

This almost certainly a fabrication:

• The file naming does not match any of Heritage's other documents

• It used Canva to create these 5 slides, where Heritage tends to use InDesign on a Mac

• The PDF was not flattened, and the watermark was inserted in the middle layer, suggesting it was created at the same time as the text

• The text used a canva fontface not used by any other Heritage documents I could find

• The logo and branding don't match any heritage documents I've seen

• There do not appear to be any corroborating sources, and forward.com does not appear to be a highly credible source

At least one other sub has taken this down as a likely fabrication and I'd suggest in 2025 that people be a little more discerning about what they blindly trust.

https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/commen ... l/m64cc7z/

The rabbit hole gets deeper.

Obviously someone at this publication had to edit the PDF to insert their watermark-- which they did by sliding it into the middle layer. The PDF wasn't flattened and the watermark was indistinguishable to me from the other text and graphics, which is pretty unusual.

And because of the metadata, it seems clear that they did that edit in Canva. Except, that doesn't explain why the text uses a fontface literally called Canva, unless the whole document was created at the same time, watermark and content.

https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/commen ... l/m630ht9/

Everything about it is wierd. Heritage is not a commercial entity, who are they pitching this to? Upper executives? Then why is it such a crummy deck done on web-based software?

And why would it reuse the project name and email address of the OverwatchOversight Project which has nothing to do with Wikipedia?

And why does the watermark appear (to my poor PDF detective skills) to be underneath some of the other elements, with the whole thing not flattened?

They absolutely edited this-- the question is to what extent. And you might say, "well maybe they used canva to add the watermark"-- but then why does the text use Canva fontfaces?

The whole thing suggests that it is a fake by Forward.com. There's no plausible world in which a Heritage Foundation document was created outside of Canva with Canva fontfaces, or that this outlet just happened to add their watermark with the exact same software as Heritage.

[Strelnikov]

I think this is a step too far. Instead of hacking, they should've just go to Eric Barbour and ask him for his database of Wikipedia affairs which he collected through legitimate means.

Most of it has little to do with Israel, antisemitism, anti-Zionism and other topics the Heritage Foundation wants to play white knight over. Scientology was a bigger topic when the Barbour-Peter Damien private Wiki was first compiled, but that said, Israel-Palastine was part of the general pattern of edit wars during the early hot years of Wikipedia, before 'bot gnoming became dirt common.

[ericbarbour]

Most of it has little to do with Israel, antisemitism, anti-Zionism and other topics the Heritage Foundation wants to play white knight over. Scientology was a bigger topic when the Barbour-Peter Damien private Wiki was first compiled, but that said, Israel-Palastine was part of the general pattern of edit wars during the early hot years of Wikipedia, before 'bot gnoming became dirt common.

Even if the Heritage Foundation contacted me and I gave them the notes, they would likely find the material unusable. Because it shows that for most of WP's history, it was being very aggressively controlled by PRO-Israel editors, including some prominent Israelis, not to mention at least two Israeli government employees....and I haven't even mentioned the CAMERA group, or that total raging violence-prone lunatic David "Appletree" Brotsky of the comical "Jewish Internet Defense Force". The stuff I would tell them would make them cringe.

Read this shitshow for a little background. If you have the patience.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia ... y_campaign

And besides, I'm not inclined to help the Heritage Foundation. Their "Agenda 2025" appears to be a twisted laundry list for a nutcase billionaire who wants to literally drag the United States back into the 17th century socially. They started as a general conservative pseudo-academic pressure group, bitching and whining about gay people and abortion, but in the Trump era they've become the most extreme pseudo-religious monarchist cranks possible. (It's risible because Trump unquestionably sees them as just another gang of suckers to manipulate, on his way to becoming King of the World or what have you.) Their pro-Israel bias is actually what one expects from evangelical Christians who want Israel to bring about Armageddon or whatever it is this week. THEY will rise up to heaven and the rest of us will burn in hellfire. I have my doubts. There's nothing waiting for Bob Mercer but a dark hole in the ground, like everyone else.

As famed Jewish writer Franz Kafka said: "Hell is other people".

The Netanyahu goverment, Hamas and Hezbollah are really not all that different, they all see civilians as "pawns" in a sick little game of Murder Chess. And if American conservatives want to pick sides in a war that has no heroes, no "right" or "wrong", and only victims, that will be on their heads.

[Ognistysztorm]

More are expressing the belief that Wikipedia will be subjected to congressional investigations one day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... 1268427869

[boredbird]

I'd be happy to help.

[Ognistysztorm]

Longtime Wikipedia contributor with 30k edits received doxxing threats from French journalist Erwan Seznec from Le Point.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3% ... C3%A9voles