Wikipedia in Wartime: Experiences of Wikipedians Maintaining Articles About the Russia-Ukraine War

TL;DR

This study investigates how the English-language Wikipedia maintains a neutral, high-quality knowledge resource during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. Through 13 semistructured interviews with expert editors, it documents disruption from both Russia-aligned and Ukraine-aligned contributors but finds no conclusive evidence of state-sponsored coordination. The authors show that Wikipedia relies on established policies, extended confirmed protections, and reliable-sources to mitigate disruption, while noting burnout and variable quality in peripheral articles. The findings suggest that Wikipedia’s governance and community-driven moderation offer resilience that social media platforms could emulate to improve information integrity during fast-moving geopolitical events.

Abstract

How do Wikipedians maintain an accurate encyclopedia during an ongoing geopolitical conflict where state actors might seek to spread disinformation or conduct an information operation? In the context of the Russia-Ukraine War, this question becomes more pressing, given the Russian government's extensive history of orchestrating information campaigns. We conducted an interview study with 13 expert Wikipedians involved in the Russo-Ukrainian War topic area on the English-language edition of Wikipedia. While our participants did not perceive there to be clear evidence of a state-backed information operation, they agreed that war-related articles experienced high levels of disruptive editing from both Russia-aligned and Ukraine-aligned accounts. The English-language edition of Wikipedia had existing policies and processes at its disposal to counter such disruption. State-backed or not, the disruptive activity created time-intensive maintenance work for our participants. Finally, participants considered English-language Wikipedia to be more resilient than social media in preventing the spread of false information online. We conclude by discussing sociotechnical implications for Wikipedia and social platforms.