Wikipedia Blacklists Archive.today, Starts Removing 695,000 Archive Links
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by BeauHDFebruary 21, 2026
AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary
Wikipedia has taken a significant step to enhance its reliability by blacklisting Archive.today, a controversial web archiving service. The decision was made after discovering thatArchive.today had been used to facilitate a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on a blog and that its operators had altered archived webpage content to insert the name of the targeted blogger. This move reflects Wikipedia's commitment to avoiding links to sources that compromise user security or reliability.
The English-language edition of Wikipedia has announced plans to deprecate Archive.today, which currently appears in over 695,000 links across nearly 400,000 pages. The consensus among editors was driven by concerns about the service's ethical practices, including its alleged alteration of archived content and its role in a DDoS attack linked to a personal grudge. These actions raise serious questions about the trustworthiness of Archive.today as a source for reliable snapshots of webpages.
WhileArchive.today has been widely used on Wikipedia to verify information by bypassing paywalls or accessing outdated versions of articles, its recent misdeeds have led editors to prioritize security and reliability over utility. The process of removing links will begin immediately, with plans to add the service to the site's spam blacklist and create filters to prevent future additions. This shift highlights the importance of maintaining high standards for external references, particularly when those references
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Originally published on Slashdot on 2/21/2026