The Anti-Defamation League says Wikipedia has not systematically reviewed and corrected a substantial number of edits it considers biased or antisemitic, despite actions taken against some contributors identified in a 2025 report. The organization’s findings and recommendations are set out in a new report, “Damage Done: Wikipedia Leaves Biased Edits Unchecked Despite Editor Bans.”
ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt told Fox News Digital that the group expected editors identified in its earlier investigation to be removed or restricted, and their changes to be reconsidered. He said the organization believes little of that follow-up has occurred.
The ADL’s 2025 report, “Editing for Hate,” described what it characterized as coordinated activity by at least 30 Wikipedia editors on Israel-, Palestine- and related subjects. It also alleged that Arabic-language material on those topics reflected pro-Hamas perspectives. According to the ADL, the group’s editors were at least twice as active as comparable groups.
Following that report, Wikipedia’s community barred some contributors from editing the relevant subject area and banned others from the site. The ADL says those sanctions did not lead to a systematic review of the contributors’ previous work. In its 2026 report, it examined seven articles, six of which it described as flagship pages, and reported that 91% of one banned editor’s edits remained in place.
The report uses the account Iskandar323 as a case study. The ADL says the account made 485 edits across six articles, with 225 occurring after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. The articles were “Israel,” “Gaza war,” “October 7 attacks,” “Hamas,” “Zionism” and “Jews.” The ADL characterized those pages as among the most visited English-language Wikipedia entries on the subject.
Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee discussed the account in public proceedings and found that it had engaged in disruptive, consistently non-neutral editing in the relevant topic area, according to the ADL. The organization says the account received a site ban after continuing to edit Israel- and Palestine-related topics while subject to a topic ban.
The ADL also describes specific changes to the “Hamas” and “Gaza war” pages. It says that shortly after the Oct. 7 attack, the account moved material about Hamas, including discussion of antisemitism, human shields, child combatants and human-rights abuses, from the main “Hamas” page to a separate page called “Criticism of Hamas.” The ADL argues that the information’s placement made it less visible to people reading the main article.
The report says that on Nov. 21, 2023, the account removed about 17,000 characters of text and citations from the “Gaza war” article, including a section concerning forensic evidence of violence during the Oct. 7 attack. Two days later, the ADL says, the account removed roughly another 7,400 characters, including witness accounts from Israeli soldiers and ZAKA, an Israeli first-responder organization. Greenblatt described the changes as intentional efforts to shape the narrative. These characterizations are the ADL’s account of the edits and their purpose.
The ADL says scrutiny by Congress and federal inquiries, along with Wikipedia enforcement after its first report, coincided with a decline in visible coordination among the original group. However, it cautions that reduced visibility does not establish that coordination ended. The 2026 report alleges that activity continues in less obvious forms, including undoing other contributors’ revisions and gradually changing articles.
In a July 2026 review, the ADL identified 19 accounts it said were active on Israel- and Palestine-related articles. Eight, according to the organization, had been included in its original group but avoided sanctions. The other 11 were newly identified by the ADL, although it says some had edited Wikipedia for years. Across 229 articles where the accounts’ work overlapped, the ADL reported that the 11 newly identified editors were more active recently and had made the latest edit on about six in 10 pages.
The ADL argues that concerns extend beyond Wikipedia because search engines often rank the encyclopedia highly and artificial-intelligence products may use its content. It recommends that the Wikimedia Foundation strengthen oversight of sensitive topics, consider a task force on antisemitic bias, and change how anonymous editing and disputes are handled. It also urges search and AI companies to disclose when Wikipedia informs their answers and to develop ways to assess potential bias.
The organization further calls for continued policymaker oversight and encourages journalists and the public to check sources and quotations in AI-generated responses. Fox News Digital said it contacted the Wikimedia Foundation for comment but had not received a response at publication time.
