Wikipedia Removes Links to Archive.today
Wikipedia editors have decided to cease linking to Archive.today, a web archiving service that has been referenced more than 695,000 times across the platform. Archive.today, which also operates under domains like archive.is and archive.ph, is frequently used to access content behind paywalls and serves as a valuable resource for Wikipedia citations. This decision, informed by ongoing discussions among editors and highlighted in Devignitor Insights, signals a significant shift in how the encyclopedia manages external links.
Reasons for the Blacklisting
According to internal Wikipedia discussions, there is a clear consensus to immediately deprecate Archive.today and remove all links pointing to it from the site. This action follows a previous blacklisting in 2013, from which the service was removed in 2016. The reversal is attributed to serious concerns that Archive.today may be involved in malicious activities, including directing Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Furthermore, evidence suggests that the operators of Archive.today have tampered with the content of archived pages, undermining its reliability as a source.
"Wikipedia should not direct its readers towards a website that hijacks users' computers to run a DDoS attack."
The Alleged DDoS Attack and Content Alteration
The DDoS attack in question was reportedly aimed at blogger Jani Patokallio. Patokallio detailed how users visiting Archive.today's CAPTCHA page were unknowingly executing JavaScript that sent search requests to his blog. This was seemingly an attempt to draw attention to his work and increase his hosting costs. Patokallio had previously published a blog post in 2023 examining Archive.today, describing its ownership as an opaque mystery, likely operated by a single, talented individual in Europe.
More recently, Patokallio reported that the webmaster of Archive.today requested he remove his post for a few months, citing concerns about media misrepresentation. When Patokallio refused, he claims the webmaster responded with threats. Wikipedia editors also noted instances where snapshots on Archive.today appeared to have been altered to include Patokallio's name, reinforcing the belief that the service has become unreliable.
New Guidelines and Alternatives
Wikipedia's updated guidance instructs editors to remove links to Archive.today and its associated domains. They are encouraged to replace these links with references to the original source or alternative archiving services such as the Wayback Machine. The owner of Archive.today, in a blog post, addressed the situation, suggesting the site's value to Wikipedia was primarily in handling copyright issues rather than bypassing paywalls. They indicated plans to reduce the scale of the alleged 'DDoS' activities and questioned why media outlets had not covered the events sooner.
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