Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2023-07-17/In the media: Difference between revisions
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'''Optional:''' Give a short [[WP:LEAD]]-like introduction statement here. |
'''Optional:''' Give a short [[WP:LEAD]]-like introduction statement here. |
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=== Agency's leaked emails provide rare glimpse into use of Wikipedia in a "smear campaign" financed by the ruler of the United Arab Emirates === |
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An investigative article in [[The New Yorker]], titled "[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/04/03/the-dirty-secrets-of-a-smear-campaign The Dirty Secrets of a Smear Campaign]", describing how "[[Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed]], the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, paid a Swiss private intelligence firm millions of dollars to taint perceived enemies". Most of the lengthy article (estimated reading time: 1 hour and 13 minutes) isn't about Wikipedia, but there are several paragraphs about how the firm ("Alp Services", founded by an investigator named Mario Brero) used it for their purposes alongside many other interesting tools (such illegitimately obtaining phone call records or tax records of their targets, and planting stories in various news outlets), |
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The first part is about an American oil trader named Hazim Nada, founder of a company called Lord Energy: |
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{{tqb|On January 5, 2018, Sylvain Besson, a journalist who had written a book purporting to tie [Hazim Nada's father] [[Youssef Nada]] to a supposed Islamist conspiracy, published an article, in the Geneva newspaper [[Le Temps]], claiming that Lord Energy was a cover for a [[Muslim Brotherhood]] cell. “The children of the historical leaders of the organization have recycled themselves in oil and gas,” Besson wrote. A new item in Africa Intelligence hinted darkly that Lord Energy employees had “been active in the political-religious sphere.” Headlines sprang up on Web sites, such as Medium, that had little editorial oversight: “Lord Energy: The Mysterious Company Linking Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood”; “Compliance: Muslim Brotherhood Trading Company Lord Energy Linked to Crédit Suisse.” A Wikipedia entry for Lord Energy [probably [[:fr:Lord Energy]], created by a [[WP:SPA|single-purpose account]] (SPA) in June 2018] suddenly included descriptions of alleged ties to terrorism.}} |
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This outside view from the victim's perspective is later matched to what the reporter learned from leaked/hacked internal emails of "Alp Services": |
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{{tqb|In February, 2018, [Brero] asked for more money to expand his operation against Nada, and proposed “to alert compliance databases and watchdogs, which are used by banks and multinationals, for example about Lord Energy’s real activities and links to terrorism.” His “objective,” he explained, was to block the company’s “bank accounts and business.” [...]<br> |
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Alp quickly put the Emiratis’ money to work. An Alp employee named Raihane Hassaine e-mailed drafts of damning Wikipedia entries. On an invoice dated May 31, 2018, the company paid Nina May, a freelance writer in London, six hundred and twenty-five pounds for five online articles, published under pseudonyms and based on notes supplied by Alp, that attacked Lord Energy for links to terrorism and extremism. (Hassaine did not respond to requests for comment. May told me that she had worked for Alp in the past but had signed a nondisclosure agreement.) }} |
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And: |
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{{tqb|1=Alp operatives bragged to the Emiratis that they had successfully thwarted Nada’s efforts to correct the disparaging Lord Energy entry on Wikipedia. “We requested the assistance of friendly moderators who countered the repeated attacks,” Brero wrote in an “urgent update” to the Emiratis in June, 2018. “The objective remains to paralyze the company.” To pressure others to shun Lord Energy, Alp added dubious allegations about the company to the Wikipedia entries for Credit Suisse [presumably corresponding to [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Credit_Suisse&diff=904664488&oldid=904016420&diffmode=source this July 2019 edit] by a SPA, subsequently [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Credit_Suisse&diff=1000303096&oldid=1000291285&diffmode=source removed] in January 2021] and for an Algerian oil monopoly [possibly [[Sonatrach]], referring to [https://guc.toolforge.org/?by=date&user=Bounableilalaw these edits] - which were [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sonatrach&diff=prev&oldid=1147611862&diffmode=source removed on English Wikipedia] after the publication of the New Yorker article].}} |
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And regarding another target: |
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{{tqb|Brero’s campaign sometimes involved secret retaliation. In a 2018 report, a U.N. panel of human-rights experts concluded that the U.A.E. may have committed war crimes in its military intervention in Yemen. The Emiratis commissioned Brero to investigate the panel’s members, especially its chairman, [[Kamel Jendoubi]], a widely admired French Tunisian human-rights advocate. [...] “Today, in both Google French and Google English, the reputation of Kamel Jendoubi is excellent,” Brero noted in a November, 2018, pitch to the Emiratis. “On both first pages, there is not a single critical article.” Within six months, Brero promised, Jendoubi’s image could be “reshaped” with “negative elements.” The cost: a hundred and fifty thousand euros.<br> |
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Rumors spread through Arab news outlets and European Web publications that Jendoubi was a tool of Qatar, a failed businessman, and tied to extremists. A French-language article posted on Medium suggested that he might be “an opportunist disguised as a human-rights hero.” An article in English asked, “Is UN-expert Kamel Jendoubi too close to Qatar?” Alp created or altered Wikipedia entries about Jendoubi, in various languages, by citing claims from unreliable, reactionary, or pro-government news outlets in Egypt and Tunisia.<br> |
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Jendoubi told me that he’d been perplexed by the flurry of slander that followed the war-crimes report. “Wikipedia is a monster!” he told me. He had managed to clean up the French entry, but the English-language page still stymied him. He said, “You speak English—can you help?”}} |
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On [[:fr:Kamel Jendoubi]], a "Controverses" section was added by a SPA [https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kamel_Jendoubi&diff=prev&oldid=155714122&diffmode=source in January 2019], and expanded by another SPA [https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kamel_Jendoubi&diff=prev&oldid=162052751&diffmode=source in August 2019]. Most of it was deleted in April/May 2021, by an account with only one earlier edit, and then [https://fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kamel_Jendoubi&diff=prev&oldid=182560105 by an experienced editor]. Around the same time, the English Wikipedia's article [[Kamel Jendoubi]] likewise saw an attempt to remove similar content, one by [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kamel_Jendoubi&diff=prev&oldid=1020503806 an IP editor] which was reverted as "Likely censorship of content"; although a [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kamel_Jendoubi&diff=prev&oldid=1096588426 July 2022] that provided a more detailed rationale for a more limited removal was successful. |
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=== Lead story 1 === |
=== Lead story 1 === |
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Revision as of 23:17, 15 July 2023
 Article display preview: | This is a draft of a potential Signpost article, and should not be interpreted as a finished piece. Its content is subject to review by the editorial team and ultimately by JPxG, the editor in chief. Please do not link to this draft as it is unfinished and the URL will change upon publication. If you would like to contribute and are familiar with the requirements of a Signpost article, feel free to be bold in making improvements!
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YOUR ARTICLE'S DESCRIPTIVE TITLE HERE
Optional: Give a short WP:LEAD-like introduction statement here.
Agency's leaked emails provide rare glimpse into use of Wikipedia in a "smear campaign" financed by the ruler of the United Arab Emirates
An investigative article in The New Yorker, titled "The Dirty Secrets of a Smear Campaign", describing how "Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, paid a Swiss private intelligence firm millions of dollars to taint perceived enemies". Most of the lengthy article (estimated reading time: 1 hour and 13 minutes) isn't about Wikipedia, but there are several paragraphs about how the firm ("Alp Services", founded by an investigator named Mario Brero) used it for their purposes alongside many other interesting tools (such illegitimately obtaining phone call records or tax records of their targets, and planting stories in various news outlets),
The first part is about an American oil trader named Hazim Nada, founder of a company called Lord Energy:
On January 5, 2018, Sylvain Besson, a journalist who had written a book purporting to tie [Hazim Nada's father] Youssef Nada to a supposed Islamist conspiracy, published an article, in the Geneva newspaper Le Temps, claiming that Lord Energy was a cover for a Muslim Brotherhood cell. “The children of the historical leaders of the organization have recycled themselves in oil and gas,” Besson wrote. A new item in Africa Intelligence hinted darkly that Lord Energy employees had “been active in the political-religious sphere.” Headlines sprang up on Web sites, such as Medium, that had little editorial oversight: “Lord Energy: The Mysterious Company Linking Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood”; “Compliance: Muslim Brotherhood Trading Company Lord Energy Linked to Crédit Suisse.” A Wikipedia entry for Lord Energy [probably fr:Lord Energy, created by a single-purpose account (SPA) in June 2018] suddenly included descriptions of alleged ties to terrorism.
This outside view from the victim's perspective is later matched to what the reporter learned from leaked/hacked internal emails of "Alp Services":
In February, 2018, [Brero] asked for more money to expand his operation against Nada, and proposed “to alert compliance databases and watchdogs, which are used by banks and multinationals, for example about Lord Energy’s real activities and links to terrorism.” His “objective,” he explained, was to block the company’s “bank accounts and business.” [...]
Alp quickly put the Emiratis’ money to work. An Alp employee named Raihane Hassaine e-mailed drafts of damning Wikipedia entries. On an invoice dated May 31, 2018, the company paid Nina May, a freelance writer in London, six hundred and twenty-five pounds for five online articles, published under pseudonyms and based on notes supplied by Alp, that attacked Lord Energy for links to terrorism and extremism. (Hassaine did not respond to requests for comment. May told me that she had worked for Alp in the past but had signed a nondisclosure agreement.)
And:
Alp operatives bragged to the Emiratis that they had successfully thwarted Nada’s efforts to correct the disparaging Lord Energy entry on Wikipedia. “We requested the assistance of friendly moderators who countered the repeated attacks,” Brero wrote in an “urgent update” to the Emiratis in June, 2018. “The objective remains to paralyze the company.” To pressure others to shun Lord Energy, Alp added dubious allegations about the company to the Wikipedia entries for Credit Suisse [presumably corresponding to this July 2019 edit by a SPA, subsequently removed in January 2021] and for an Algerian oil monopoly [possibly Sonatrach, referring to these edits - which were removed on English Wikipedia after the publication of the New Yorker article].
And regarding another target:
Brero’s campaign sometimes involved secret retaliation. In a 2018 report, a U.N. panel of human-rights experts concluded that the U.A.E. may have committed war crimes in its military intervention in Yemen. The Emiratis commissioned Brero to investigate the panel’s members, especially its chairman, Kamel Jendoubi, a widely admired French Tunisian human-rights advocate. [...] “Today, in both Google French and Google English, the reputation of Kamel Jendoubi is excellent,” Brero noted in a November, 2018, pitch to the Emiratis. “On both first pages, there is not a single critical article.” Within six months, Brero promised, Jendoubi’s image could be “reshaped” with “negative elements.” The cost: a hundred and fifty thousand euros.
Rumors spread through Arab news outlets and European Web publications that Jendoubi was a tool of Qatar, a failed businessman, and tied to extremists. A French-language article posted on Medium suggested that he might be “an opportunist disguised as a human-rights hero.” An article in English asked, “Is UN-expert Kamel Jendoubi too close to Qatar?” Alp created or altered Wikipedia entries about Jendoubi, in various languages, by citing claims from unreliable, reactionary, or pro-government news outlets in Egypt and Tunisia.
Jendoubi told me that he’d been perplexed by the flurry of slander that followed the war-crimes report. “Wikipedia is a monster!” he told me. He had managed to clean up the French entry, but the English-language page still stymied him. He said, “You speak English—can you help?”
On fr:Kamel Jendoubi, a "Controverses" section was added by a SPA in January 2019, and expanded by another SPA in August 2019. Most of it was deleted in April/May 2021, by an account with only one earlier edit, and then by an experienced editor. Around the same time, the English Wikipedia's article Kamel Jendoubi likewise saw an attempt to remove similar content, one by an IP editor which was reverted as "Likely censorship of content"; although a July 2022 that provided a more detailed rationale for a more limited removal was successful.
Lead story 1
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Lead story 2
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/07/12/russia-rival-wikipedia-censorship-crackdown-ruwiki/
In brief
- Wiki wars: A BBC radio programme presented by Lara Lewington tries to explain how the Wikipedia sausage is made, touching on hoaxes and Things Gone Wrong like the Croatian and Scots Wikipedias. The programme contains two gross errors – it claims that IP editors lost the ability to edit biographies of living people after the Seigenthaler incident (ahem) and that paid editors are forbidden from editing articles directly (they are only "very strongly discouraged" from doing so).
- TEDx talk: Annie Rauwerda (of Depths of Wikipedia) gave a TEDx talk titled "Why an encyclopedia is my favorite place on the Internet". Watch the recording to find out which encyclopedia it is.
- Jimmy Wales interview: The "co-founder of Wikipedia" was interviewed by Lex Fridman on his popular podcast (video, transcript), for three hours and 15 minutes. One user compiled some excerpts they found especially interesting from a Wikipedian perspective.
- Subtitle: Text text text.
- Subtitle: Text text text.
- Subtitle: Text text text.
- Subtitle: Text text text.
- Subtitle: Text text text.
This page is a draft for the next issue of the Signpost. Below is some helpful code that will help you write and format a Signpost draft. If it's blank, you can fill out a template by copy-pasting this in and pressing 'publish changes': {{subst:Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Templates/Story-preload}}
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