Computers & internet

Wikipedia Removes Archive.today Links After Malicious Code

Is Wikipedia's Archive.today blacklist hypocritical negligence or necessary cybersecurity protection?

FEB 22·Updated FEB 24

Wikipedia Removes Archive.today Links After Malicious Code

Story

Image credit: Ismail Aslandag/Anadolu/Getty Images

The Facts

Wikipedia's English-language edition has decided to remove all links to Archive.today, an archiving service that has been cited more than 695,000 times across approximately 400,000 Wikipedia pages. The site operates under multiple domain names.
TechCrunch
Ars Technica
In January, Archive.today allegedly inserted malicious code into its CAPTCHA page that caused visitors' browsers to send requests to blogger Jani Patokallio's website, effectively launching a distributed denial-of-service attack against him.
PCMAG
The Times of India
The dispute between Archive.today's operator and Patokallio stems from a 2023 blog post in which Patokallio investigated the archive site's operations and attempted to identify its maintainer, uncovering several aliases used by the operator.
Tom's Hardware
Boing Boing
Wikipedia editors discovered that Archive.today had altered snapshots of archived webpages by inserting Patokallio's name into content he did not write, raising concerns about the reliability and integrity of the archiving service.
Tom's Hardware
Ars Technica
Archive.today is commonly used to bypass paywalls on news websites, and the FBI has reportedly sought information about the site operator's identity through a subpoena to domain registrar Tucows since late 2025.
PCMAG
Ars Technica
Wikipedia editors have been directed to replace Archive.today links with alternative archiving services such as Internet Archive, Ghostarchive or Megalodon, or to use original sources that do not require archiving.
TechCrunch
The Times of India
PCMAG

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

Wikipedia's blacklist of Archive.today proves the platform's hypocrisy and incompetence in preserving digital history. While Kiwi Farms created on-premise mirrors of all their archive links, Wikimedia never even considered such contingency planning, exposing that linkrot concerns were never genuine. The real value for Wikipedia was offloading copyright liability onto archives, making them the sink for legal attacks while reaping the benefits.

archive.today

Narrative B

Archive.today's blacklisting is a necessary defensive measure that prioritizes cybersecurity over convenience, following serious allegations of DDoS attacks against Wikimedia infrastructure. Removing 695,000 archived links fundamentally alters Wikipedia's informational landscape but demonstrates responsible stewardship by protecting digital infrastructure from potential technological sabotage. This decisive action balances information freedom with vigilance against genuine threats to the platform's integrity.