{"id":915,"date":"2026-07-15T13:08:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T13:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=915"},"modified":"2026-07-15T13:08:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T13:08:00","slug":"lawsuit-wikipedia-shields-online-trolls-pushing-malicious-smear-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=915","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit: Wikipedia Shields Online ‘Trolls’ Pushing Malicious Smear Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Decorated film producer Ryan Kavanaugh is suing Wikimedia Foundation for allegedly protecting two \u201ctrolls\u201d who were paid to wage an online smear campaign that Kavanaugh claims cost him more than $1 billion.<\/p>\n

Read more Netflix\u2019s Little House On The Prairie Is A Betrayal<\/a><\/p>\n

Wikipedia is already facing renewed scrutiny after it banned its own founder for protesting the site\u2019s allowance of \u201cideologically motivated bullies\u201d and anti-free speech policies. Kavanaugh\u2019s lawsuit, filed in February, accuses the organization of allowing paid bullies to attack a man with false or misleading information while operating under the guise of being a \u201ctrustworthy\u201d source.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to know the truth about Mr. Kavanaugh, do not read his Wikipedia page,\u201d Kavanaugh\u2019s legal filing claims. \u201cIt does not contain the truth. Instead, it has been vandalized by online trolls, who worked for years as Wikipedia \u2018editors\u2019 to reshape Kavanaugh\u2019s page.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2021, a YouTuber named Ethan Klein falsely believed that Kavanaugh was financing a copyright lawsuit against him. In what Klein referred to as a successful \u201clargescale concerted effort to destroy his Wikipedia,\u201d he paid two Wikipedia editors to \u201cvandalize\u201d Ryan Kavanaugh\u2019s personal Wikipedia page, the lawsuit says. Their edits \u201cfocused specifically on inserting, amplifying, or emphasizing negative content.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kavanaugh claims this vandalism lost him several major financial opportunities, costing him more than $1 billion in potential earnings.<\/p>\n

In a declaration made under oath, Klein admitted that these changes \u201cwere not based on fact,\u201d and \u201cwere done with the intent to harm, defame, discredit, and mislead readers about Mr. Kavanaugh.\u201d The lawsuit alleges this meets the criteria for \u201cvandalism,\u201d which Wikimedia defines as \u201cfalse information as well as misleading information published solely to cause injury to a subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

The filing identifies one of the paid trolls, known online as \u201cPopoki35,\u201d as Sara Katheleen Smith, a woman who has received \u201cno formal education\u201d and \u201clives on a commune\u201d in California. Her edits to Kavanaugh\u2019s Wikipedia page allegedly promoted false sexual misconduct allegations and echoed accusations made by Klein.<\/p>\n

The crux of the case is Kavanaugh\u2019s contention that Wikimedia\u2019s donation page includes the promise that \u201cvolunteers work together to create and verify the pages you rely on, supported by tools that undo vandalism within minutes, ensuring the information you seek is trustworthy.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWikimedia advertises Wikipedia as a source of accurate information,\u201d the complaint reads. \u201cIts promise to remove vandalism is essential to that representation. Kavanaugh did exactly what Wikimedia tells people to do. But Wikimedia ignored Kavanaugh\u2019s request. It did not undo the vandalism, as it promised to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Dems\u2019 Star Witness For AG Hearing Pushed Clemency For \u2018Rapists, Child Molesters, And Murderers\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Wikipedia\u2019s anti-vandalism rules include a policy banning \u201cundisclosed paid editing\u201d and \u201cstrongly discourag[ing]\u201d \u201cconflict of interest (COI) editing,\u201d so that individuals or organizations cannot bribe editors to manipulate the website to promote themselves or defame their rivals. Klein\u2019s official statement admits that he and the editors he collaborated with violated this policy, and yet Wikimedia has allegedly allowed those paid editors to continue editing Kavanaugh\u2019s page and blocked Kavanaugh\u2019s efforts to correct the vandalism.<\/p>\n

In April, Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, responded to the lawsuit by claiming protection as an online platform under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which has been used in the past to protect Big Tech censorship of conservative speech.<\/p>\n

While Section 230 was designed to ensure that online platforms are not liable for the speech of third-party users, Wikimedia contends that it cannot be penalized for allowing and protecting an alleged violation of its own paid editing policy because it was done by a third party.<\/p>\n

\u201cFundamentally, users, not Wikimedia, are responsible for their contributions to Wikipedia. Kavanaugh can seek (and has sought) to hold the authors<\/em> of content he dislikes liable. \u2026 But Section 230 prohibits imposing platforms with liability for user-generated content.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kavanaugh\u2019s legal filing specifically notes that the case is not about the content posted by third-party users, but \u201cWikimedia\u2019s own <\/em>actions, its failure to uphold its promise to undo vandalism, and its deceptive practices.\u201d Thus, he claims Section 230 does not apply.<\/p>\n

Wikimedia also suggests that while it hopes that the information on its website will be accurate, the organization does not make any guarantee of accuracy and warns that pages \u201cmay be incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading due to unconstructive edits or good faith errors, biases, and varying perspectives amongst contributors.\u201d<\/p>\n

While an online platform like X will contain false information posted by third-party users, Wikipedia, a self-proclaimed \u201ctrustworthy\u201d information site, has positioned itself as an authoritative source rather than an open-forum free-for-all. As Kavanaugh points out, businesses, lawyers, and judges cite Wikipedia to make real-world decisions, and Google suggests Wikipedia search results and \u201crelies heavily\u201d on Wikipedia pages for its artificial intelligence product Gemini.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit could challenge Wikipedia\u2019s Section 230 immunity and will be argued before a Los Angeles court in August. <\/p>\n

Read more Docs: Democrat Special Counsel Jack Smith Spied On, Lied To Congress<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film producer Ryan Kavanaugh is suing Wikimedia for allegedly shielding ‘trolls’ paid to wage a smear campaign that cost him over $1 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[126],"tags":[357,2901,365,2667,627,651,2902,2903,2904,446,2905,2906,2668,2669],"class_list":["post-915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law","tag-censorship","tag-ethan-klein","tag-free-speech","tag-larry-sanger","tag-lawsuit","tag-los-angeles","tag-online-platforms","tag-ryan-kavanaugh","tag-section-230","tag-smear-campaign","tag-troll","tag-vandalism","tag-wikimedia","tag-wikipedia"],"yoast_head":"\nLawsuit: Wikipedia Shields Online ‘Trolls’ Pushing Malicious Smear Campaign - Property Transition Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=915\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lawsuit: Wikipedia Shields Online ‘Trolls’ Pushing Malicious Smear Campaign - 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