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2005 · Google & the web

Wikipedia locks the doors: vandalism and the end of fully open editing

Last reviewed 5 October 2026

After a false biography made headlines in late 2005, Wikipedia restricted new article creation and introduced semi-protection.

The trigger

In late 2005 a hoax biography of the American journalist John Seigenthaler, which had sat on Wikipedia unnoticed for months, became national news. It raised a question critics had asked for years: how can an encyclopaedia anyone can edit be trusted?

The changes

In December 2005 English Wikipedia stopped anonymous users from creating new articles; they could still edit existing ones. At about the same time it introduced “semi-protection”, which blocks anonymous and very new accounts from editing a particular article, usually one under repeated vandalism.

The measures were presented as targeted. Most of Wikipedia stayed open, but the most-vandalised pages could now be locked down quickly.

Long-term effect

The episode moved Wikipedia toward the layered model it uses today: open editing for most pages, protection tools for contested ones, and stronger sourcing rules for biographies of living people.

Sources

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