Is Wikipedia under influence?
A former marine's investigation in the cogs of the 7th most frequented website on the planet shows disturbing signs of manipulation.
Rob Heatherly, a US Marine veteran, retired structural and design engineer since his car accident in 2009, and co-host of the YouTube channel "Military Witnesses to UAP", is primarily interested in physics and ancient history. This has led him to explore the subject of UFOs and non-human intelligences, to which he has contributed by carrying out various investigations and research projects. It was after following the evolution of David Grusch's Wikipedia page that Rob Heatherly began an investigation that led him to discover the activities of the group Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW), whose activities consist precisely in controlling the information disseminated on Wikipedia relating to subjects considered, rightly or wrongly, to be pseudo-science, including the subject of UFOs.
Susan Gerbic has been a member of The Guerrilla Skeptics since 2000. In 2010 she founded a team of Wikipedia editors called GSoW. This team is part of the non-profit organisation About Time, which falls under federal tax code section 501(c)3. The YouTube channel Science, Technology & the Future posted a video of Susan Gerbic on 27 February 2020 (Susan Gerbic - Guerrilla Skepticism) in which she introduces herself and mentions an international team of 150 editors who have created or modified 1,230 Wikipedia pages. These generated 51 million visits in 2020. The group, which is always looking to recruit and train new editors, is linked to the activities of a non-profit organisation, Center For Inquiry (CFI). This publishes its own peer-reviewed magazine, the Skeptical Inquirer, and organises its own CSICon conferences. The CFI has a projected income of $5.57 million in 2022.
When David Grusch's testimony was made public in July 2023, Rob Heatherly noticed that a significant number of new people had expressed themselves on Twitter about UFOs, generating an increase in skeptical and negative discussions. He followed the evolution of the information contained on David Grusch's Wikipedia page from its creation to the present day. According to his analysis, the page was constantly changing. David Grusch's medical history was added, while references to his positive traits were constantly removed. He then regularly monitored edits to the text of David Grusch's Wikipedia page, as well as those of others such as Ross Coulthart, discovering that a significant number of pages were being altered by a group of eight editors.
Rob Heatherly recently appeared in January 2024 on the YouTube channel "The Good Trouble Show" hosted by Matt Ford, to explain his research in a lengthy five-hour video in two parts: UFO Coverup: The Wikipedia Secret Cabal (part 1, part 2). Using XTools, Wikipedia's statistical data-mining tool, Rob Heatherly and Matt Ford demonstrate how the information on pages relating to the UFO subject concerning whistleblowers, scientists and journalists is modified by this group of eight editors in order, in their view, to discredit the subject. Rob Heatherly is said to have identified nearly a hundred people targeted by this group.
The list of pages identified by Rob Heatherly and allegedly controlled by this group of editors is long: Pentagon UFO videos, Skinwalker Ranch, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, Ross Coulthart, George Knapp, David Grusch UFO whistleblower claims, Harold E. Puthoff, Linda Moulton Howe, Bob Lazar, Luis Elizondo, Garry Nolan, Leslie Kean, Ralph Blumenthal, etc. According to Rob Heatherly, LuckyLouie is the most active Wikipedia editor he has discovered, along with Sgerbic, RP2006, JoJo Anthrax, JJhake, Hob Gadling, Hemiauchenia, and Jusdafax. These editors all operate under pseudonyms and are said to communicate frequently with each other and with Sgerbic via internal Wikipedia messaging.Â
The changes made to Wikipedia pages are generally as follows: deletion of references to articles, interviews, videos and podcasts on UFO phenomena and testimonies, deletion of biographical information, addition of references to discredit the activities of individuals and UFO testimonies, addition of text and references to individuals linked to the organization Center For Inquiry (CFI), etc. Rob Heatherly points out that there is no specific, reliable procedure for people to request that their Wikipedia page be corrected. There is no telephone number, just the possibility of sending an email with no guarantee of a response.
Susan Gerbic wrote an article entitled "I blame the Australian Skeptics", which appeared online on 15/02/2024 in the Skeptical Inquirer magazine, partly in response to the YouTube videos by Matt Ford and Rob Heatherly. Although she confirms that her Wikipedia pseudonym is Sgerbic, that her profile and all her activities on Wikipedia are public, and that she always replies to her emails and messages, she makes no mention of the pseudonyms of the editors identified by Rob Heatherly. Susan Gerbic writes ironically: "In fact, all Wikipedia editors that have ever touched a UFO-related Wikipedia article with any skepticism must be GSoW!". Admittedly, not all of them do, but neither does she say how many belong to her group of 150 editors mentioned in her 2020 video.Â
Apart from Gerbic, who confirms that she works for GSoW under her pseudonym Sgerbic, the seven other anonymous editors identified by Rob Heatherly have never mentioned, either officially or through the messages he analyzed on the Wikipedia messaging system, any link with the GSoW group. According to Rob Heatherly, Lucky Louie's real identity is Mick West, but this was denied by Gerbic in her article.Â
Although Wikipedia editors are anonymous and act under a pseudonym for the vast majority of them, it is nevertheless possible for anyone to consult and verify the information presented by Matt Ford and Rob Heatherly using the XTools tool, and to monitor the activities of these editors or any other editors modifying Wikipedia pages. The number of pages controlled by the GSoW group is updated regularly on Susan Gerbic's (Sgerbic) Wikipedia account: 2201 pages created or modified as of 22 February 2024, with 160,091,251 views. 45% of these pages are in a language other than English.
A petition was launched on 6 February 2024 on change.org "Demand Wikipedia to Dismiss Editors Suppressing UAP Phenomenon Information" to take immediate action against the eight editors identified by Rob Heatherly. So far, on 2 April 2024, there have been 780 signatures out of a target of 1,000.
Translation by Kate Sellier
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0