Heritage Foundation Presentation Details Plans To Doxx And Target Wikipeda Editors It Claims Are ‘Abusing Their Position’
from the freedom-of-speech,-what’s-that? dept
Every day Donald Trump seems to implement yet another of the key schemes of Project 2025, despite claiming last summer that “I know nothing about Project 2025.” According to the Project 2025 Web site, it is organized by the Heritage Foundation, which is also working on what it calls its “Oversight Project”:
The Oversight Project works for government that is responsible and accountable to its citizens. We use Freedom of Information Act requests and other means to make government more transparent to the public and to allow Congress to use its oversight authorities with maximum effectiveness. The requests and analysis of information are informed by Heritage’s deep policy expertise. By its nature, the Oversight Project primarily engages in disseminating information to the public.
The site Forward.com has obtained a presentation put together by the Heritage Foundation as part of that Oversight Project, with the title “Wikipedia Editor Targeting” (pdf). According to the deck, its aim is to:
Identify and target Wikipedia editors abusing their position by analyzing text patterns, usernames, and technical data through data breach analysis, fingerprinting, HUMINT, and technical targeting.
That’s doxxing, something “considered unacceptable within the Wikimedia movement,” and subject to sanctions. Forward.com explains:
The Heritage Foundation sent the pitch deck outlining the Wikipedia initiative to Jewish foundations and other prospective supporters of Project Esther, its roadmap for fighting antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
Among the doxxing techniques listed on the presentation are “Fingerprinting”:
Text Analysis: Use NLP to identify writing style, repeated phrases, and content patterns.
Cross-Article Comparison: Detect similarities in multiple articles, focusing on propagandist themes.
“Username Analysis and Dataset Correlation”:
Reuse in Breached Data: Search breached datasets for reused names, emails, and online identities.
Cross-Platform Analysis: Identify connections between usernames and other online activities.
“Technical Fingerprinting (Controlled Domain Redirects)”:
Controlled Links: Use redirects to capture IP addresses, browser fingerprints, and device data through a combination of in browser fingerprinting scripts and HTML5 canvas techniques
Technical Data Collection: Track geolocation, ISP, and network details from clicked links
and “Online Human Intelligence (HUMINT)”:
Persona Engagement: Engage curated sock puppet accounts to reveal patterns and provoke reactions, information disclosure
Behavioral Manipulation: Push specific topics to expose more identity related details
Cross-Community Targeting: Interact across platforms to gather intelligence from other sources.
It’s an extremely comprehensive set that suggests this could be a major program, although there’s no indication yet whether it has managed to doxx anyone or has even begun to operate. Forward.com writes:
A Heritage Foundation spokesperson said she was not able to answer questions about the organization’s work related to Wikipedia, which editors it was seeking to identify or how it sought to “target” them. The Wikimedia Foundation, which provides the infrastructure for Wikipedia, declined to comment.
The methods outlined are potentially a serious threat to the freedom of speech of Wikipedia editors. Doxxing them would clearly open them up to the kind of online attacks that have become all-too common since Elon Musk bought Twitter. It would be quite understandable if doxxed editors stopped working on Wikipedia, for fear of real-world consequences for them and their families.
The Heritage Foundation claims that the aim of its Oversight Project is “to make government more transparent to the public and to allow Congress to use its oversight authorities with maximum effectiveness.” But doxxing and targeting volunteer editors on Wikipedia has nothing to do government transparency, and just looks like bullying to stifle viewpoints the Heritage Foundation disagrees with. That’s bad enough, but the worry has to be that if editors are successfully doxxed and stop writing as a result, others will adopt the same methodology to chill freedom of speech on Wikipedia more widely.
Follow me @glynmoody on Bluesky and on Mastodon.
Filed Under: breach data, cross platform, donald trump, doxxing, elon musk, fingerprints, geolocation, html5, humint, nlp, presentation, project 2025, sock puppets, transparency, wikipedia
Companies: forward.com, heritage foundation
Comments on “Heritage Foundation Presentation Details Plans To Doxx And Target Wikipeda Editors It Claims Are ‘Abusing Their Position’”
The Heritage Foundation probably has a reasonable explanation for why this isn’t an attack on the free speech rights of Wikipedia editors and The Wikimedia Foundation as a whole. It would have one tiny problem, though: That explanation would only be reasonable to them.
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All that destroys one’s enemies or aids ones allies is justified. There are no standards to be held to. The only war is total war.
It’s a regressive and apelike ideology.
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Well, to play HF’s advocate for a moment…
Free Speech rights are related to the government. Since HF isn’t technically a part of the government, its actions, which are likely to have a chilling effect on editors, doesn’t directly affect the editors’ rights.
Nah. Still not reasonable, even if it’s logical.
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I can’t wait to be told by fake centrists that the Heritage foundation wouldn’t really put their detailed action plan in to action, just like we were with Project 2025.
If you’re from the Heritage Foundation and you’re reading this: keep in mind that (a) Wikipedia is under our protection (b) we can return the favor (c) we’re way better at this than you are.
Sounds to me like its time to start doxxing Heritage Foundation members and anyone involved in Project 2025.
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What, like it’s hard? Most of them slapped their government-ass names on the damn thing.
Re: So what?
Doxxing is a lot more effective for exposing upright people to persecution by scum than for exposing scum to persecution by upright people.
Adopting the dirty weapons of your opponents will make you lose twice. For one thing, your opponents are more versed at wielding them. And for another, it doesn’t even matter whether you win or lose when you have become indistinguishable from your enemies.
Well, I didn’t have getting negatively polarized into becoming a Wikipedia editor on my bingo card, but here we are.
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Definition
False. Doxxing is the release of personal offline information, such as home address, phone number, or unrelated job. Connecting an author to a screen name through writing style is clearly not doxxing.
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But it would be doxxing if, by revealing that author’s real name, that author’s private information becomes spread across the Internet—and that author (and possibly their family) becomes the target of the kind of hateful sons of bitches that the Heritage Foundation is not-that-secretly hoping will target these editors. You not seeing the bigger picture of a situation is a problem you keep having.
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Hey Koby. You… know that your comment history is public here, right? And how you literally took a very different position just weeks ago on this article, right?
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/03/musk-shows-us-what-actual-government-censorship-on-social-media-looks-like/
Everyone can see that you only think it’s “doxxing” when it’s identifying people you agree with. When you’re fine with intimidation of people you don’t care about, then it’s just fine in your book.
This will come as no surprise to anyone who has watched you commenting here over the years, but it’s such a stark example that I figured we should call it out.
Koby’s position is not principled. It is entirely malleable based on “if this person is MAGA, then it’s okay. If they’re not, then it’s obviously wrong.”
It’s the position of someone with no principles at all, and only a sociopathic desire to destroy “the other team.”
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Hey, Koby: This is why the trolls post without an account. Congratulations—you played yourself.
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Hey koby,
Does having your own words thrown back at you, count as doxxing?
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I have a head of lettuce that’s lasted longer than Koby’s principles.
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Now now, that’s no way to talk about Liz Truss.
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Conveniently, you censored that other post from Feb 3 so that it was very inconvenient for anyone to go back and check what was actually said. So I’ll go back and do your homework for you.
Koby said:
Remember, they listed real life information with names, ages, and personal histories of the DOGE employees. Heritage made no mention of personal information, including names, just that the same sceenname identity may also be pushing death threats elsewhere, or is engaged in sock supporting.
So it’s the same position that I’ve consistently held. Linking actual quotes is not your strong suit, only overly broad generalizations, clouded by censorship.
Re: Re: Re:
So we can add “censored” to “doxxed” as words that have very flexible meanings in Kobyville.
And, yes, your comment absolutely contradicts your stated claims in the past. You are saying here, a plan to identify and target Wikipedia editors for their speech is no problem, but to publicly identify FEDERAL EMPLOYEES who work for the government, is somehow illegal. You are clearly so full of shit.
Remember, those are FEDERAL EMPLOYEES, whose information is required to be public by law, you fucking fool.
You’re fucking joking. They literally said “identify and target Wikipedia editors.”
Again, you seem to have a real inability to recognize that other people can actually read.
I get it. You are Baghdad Bob of the MAGA set and you will twist and lie and mislead. But everyone else can see you’re full of shit Koby. It’s no way to go through life.
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Re: Re: Re:2
I remember just the other week, you guys were crying that DOGE was getting access to OPM and the personnel records. If it’s okay for personal records to be publicly available, then it’s okay for the DOGE team to have it.
That’s your best argument– it may be legal to doxx. It’s scummy and unethical, but seemingly legal. This is why the media is continuing to lose credibility.
Re: Re: Re:3
Look, you ignorant child, there is a world of difference between (1) knowing who is employed by the government and (2) having full access to their OPM records.
Are you really that stupid? Or do you think that everyone here is.
My goodness you’re a stupid fucking person. That’s not the argument anyone here is making. The argument was that (1) knowing the names of government employees is NOT doxing. (2) Revealing volunteer wikipedia editors to target them, is very much doxxing.
I will note, as confirmation that you CANNOT respond to the points we raised, you failed to address them, and instead pretended to present an aha gotcha that literally everyone else here knows is bullshit.
Koby: you think you’re smart. You’re not. You’re the dumbest fucking person I think I’ve ever come across.
And we all know: you have no principles. You have no morality.
Your entire ethos is in service of some billionaires who would fuck you over and laugh at you if ever given the chance.
Pathetic little shit.
Re: Re: Re:4
Every accusation…
Re: Re: Re:5
… in this case is correct.
Thank you for your service.
<—– Exit is that way.
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lmao you think content moderation is censorship, what a fucking goof you are
The whole point of outing the real names of Wikipedia editors is to make their personal information easier to find and spread. Heritage won’t give a fuck if some whackjob with a gun goes hunting for a doxxed Wikipedia editor because Heritage’s hands will be (legally) clean. After all, they only supplied a name; what someone does with that information isn’t any of their business…even though their whole “anti-woke” schtick makes the intent of their “let’s out these woke motherfuckers” plan clear to anyone who thinks Heritage is a net positive force in this country. The whole point is to scare editors into stopping their work. Even if what Heritage does/is doing has no illegal component, that plan is every bit as heinous as the doxxing of those DOGE employees. If you can’t find it in yourself to see Heritage’s desire to dox people for editing Wikipedia in a way Heritage doesn’t like as a net negative for free speech and the continued success of Wikipedia, you may as well do that “Roman salute” that guys like Elon Musk are fond of doing these days.
Re: Re: Re:2
And for the record: While I’m okay with the listed info of those DOGE employees being outed because they’re supposed to be public employees, doxxing them beyond that barebones info is unacceptable no matter how I feel about DOGE (and Elon Musk). Even assholes deserve some privacy.
Re: Re: Re: Now go run away little man
For gods sake son, we can all see what you’ve wrote. Stop while you’re behind.
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“Remember, they listed real life information with names, ages, and personal histories of the DOGE employees.”
If you are making decisions that effect the life of every person in an entire fucking country you lose the right to hide.
Re: You could at least thank us bro
You know, most Doms charge for humiliating little sniveling bitches in public.
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Great…then share with us your real name if it’s not doxxxing or an issue…or will you continue to babble behind your anonymous Koby name?
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It’s almost like he thinks anyone who “hides behind” a screen name doesn’t deserve that privilege unless they’re a right-winger.
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Correct, it’s the kind of false equivalence the trolls here love to engage in.
The Heritage Foundation should be defunded, shut down and all of its ranking members arrested. No question.
No more nazi tolerance.
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Not for nothing, but I don’t see how those things can be accomplished when (A) Heritage is likely a privately funded organization whose funders won’t cower away from being called Nazis/fascists, (B) the Trump administration would sooner shut down the DNC that shut down Heritage, and (C) none of its ranking members, to the best of my knowledge, have done anything for which they could be arrested and prosecuted by federal authorities.
I agree that Heritage is a blight on this nation. I’d love to see it go belly-up. But until you have something other than the same negative feelings about those Christofascist motherfuckers that I do, demanding that the government take it apart for no reason other than those feelings feels like a page out of the Heritage playbook.
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I know you’re right, but I can’t deny that sometimes one does really wish things were solved that easily.
Suppose the second-best is to vote their puppets out of power and deflate their organization’s influence.
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Personally, I pray that the ranking members of the Heritage Foundation get caught cooking the books or committing some other type of fraud because they can justifiably be arrested and imprisoned for that.
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The right up to its old tricks.
Actually the title is a lie. Just remember, we on the right and Brenden Carr maybe cannot cancel but set the rules for the new and better section 230. WIKIPEDIA your going to need major donations dare your worthless Encyclopedia say anything negative about Trump or his policies. Remember the New York Supreme Court said prodigy was not protected from comment line. Wyden/Cox must be reinterpreted as it is not a living document law. Big tech will suffer if section 230 goes and who gives a crap about small tech GOODBYE:)))). The internet better watch it for the next four year. PS I am a court clerk not mentioning for who but Free Speech coalition vs Paxton has already been decided and will be easily announce in June and if you do not have a drivers license I suggest you get one. We are not playing. The. Conservatives are stronger and better and at the end of the day the cowards on the left talk big but will cry like Babies. You will do nothing like always but cry in mom’s basement while we laugh. The internet is not for the right ONLY. Trump Won. Internet you will respect the President as well as Bluesky or else. You should not have banned Laura Loomer Bluesky. Do not expect that Trump to have ANY PITY ON BLUESKY or on commenters. You will respect Trump period
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Fuck you, make me.
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What a child you are, always keeping the trolls alive and breathing well.
Pathetic life spending all this time here.
Re: You may now eat my entire ass
“PS I am a court clerk not mentioning for who…”
Son if you were a court clerk for a traffic court, you’d be able to spell and reason better than that. Maybe try a lie that is at least not laughable on it’s face next time.
“…cry in mom’s basement while we laugh.”
Or at the very least, not tell on yourself.
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Trump has a period? I’d have thought he’s hit menopause by now.
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FSC v Paxton is very much not decided yet, dumbass.
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You will respect Trump period
Like this?
Both you and him can go fuck yourselves.
Technical Hurdles
At least some of the elements on that list require at minimum ISP or other infrastructure provider assistance. In particular, “controlled domain redirects” requires intercepting all traffic to Wikipedia – and if they actually want to be able to tell who’s doing editing they need to issue a fraudulent HTTPS cert (Because paths inside a domain are only visible to the website operator).
The best thing you can do is make sure people see what the creeps at Heritage are doing. Assholes like these don’t like having a light shined on their activities.
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Re: Why??
Why are you against what heritage is doing. The problem with America is it has no morals. Women having abortion NO MORALS, Porn and Sex for free on the Internet NO MORALS, Israel Jews (who are the good guys here and the Heavens know it) taking on the evil Palestinians (These people have the devil in them.) Wikipedia is allowing lying left wing dribble on there website. Heritage has the constitution on there side here. Jewish Americans are fed up. If you oppose Israel then you should lose your right to be a citizen and hopefully Trump will issue an executive order on that TRUMP 2025-2032
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Seek mental health help immediately, please.
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The problem with America is it has no morals.
And we’ll get them by electing an asshole who doesn’t pay his bills, cheated on every wife he had, stole from his contractors, bilked you suckers out of millions of dollars, and lies in damn near every sentence that comes out of that shit-laden mouth of his.
Get some self-awareness, you fucking fool.
Re: Re: Say hi to herman for me bro
Sorry hun, we’ve hit our quota of racist right wing nut jobs on this forum. You’re going to have to slap fight one of the regular nutters if you want to take on of their shouty, piss stained, basement slots.
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Opposing the heritage foundation and conservatism in general is a moral human being thing. You clearly wouldn’t understand.
You can tell a lot about someone by who and what they consider their enemies...
Well someone’s certainly upset that people keep calling them out on their lies and providing evidence and reality-based claims and information…
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Wikipedia is Western centric and racist
When I tried to add context to an article from an African woman’s perspective I instantly got accused of “vandalism” and banned. How on earth could Wikipedia possibly be any more racist and right wing? These people are insane.
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Even if you are an African woman, nothing in that says you’re not white. I’m not surprised you got banned from editing Wikipedia if you decide what is racism from an outsider’s perspective the way you did here last year.
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Knowing their comment history, Valis has made a habit of shittalking the U.S. while defending/praising China. The odds that they’re African are pretty low; the odds that they’re Chinese, or at least in the employ of the Chinese government, are pretty damn high.
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Read again: Even if you are an African woman…
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Yeah, they racist because you got banned for posting racist shit.
Way to tell on yourself bro.
Heritage Foundation: Random bullshit Go! Go! Go!