A Swedish singer has called on her TikTok followers to change the photo on her biography, an open-source analyst encouraged people on his blog to improve a Wikipedia article, and a government blocked editors from logging into their Wikimedia accounts.

Editors in Indonesia are currently unable to log into their Wikimedia accounts after the country's Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Kemkomdigi) ordered internet providers on 25 February 2026 to block access to auth.wikimedia.org. The government cited the Wikimedia Foundation's failure to register as a private Electronic System Provider (Penyelenggara Sistem Elektronik, or PSE) under Indonesian regulations. (Tempo)

While readers' access to the various Wikimedia projects is not affected by this block, editors in Indonesia have effectively been prevented from logging into their accounts, and new accounts cannot be created. Editors who were logged in before the block was instituted are still able to use their accounts. However, as authentication cookies expire over time, Indonesian editors may gradually lose access to their accounts. This could prevent established editors from editing protected pages and administrators from using administrative tools needed to maintain the projects.

If Wikimedia Foundation registered as a "Electronic System Provider", then it would be subjected to Indonesian laws. These laws may give Indonesian authorities broad access to user data including access details as well as authority to demand the removal of "prohibited content". Human rights organizations have previously described content definitions as overly broad restrictions on free speech. (Human Rights Watch) The vague wording of what can be taken down, such as creating "community anxiety" or causing "disturbance in public order" are also a cause for concern among free speech advocates. The law was established in 2019 by the previous government and has since gone through several amendments. Tech in Asia notes that the enforcement on Wikimedia platforms is based on this already established law. Before the latest action on Wikimedia Foundation, other international companies or services such as PayPal, Steam, Dota, CS:Go, Yahoo, Origin.com, Epic Games, Archive.org had run afoul of the law, having their platforms blocked as well until they had registered as PSEs. (Digital Policy Alert). As of writing, there are 779 foreign PSEs (around 4%) registered out of a total of 16,255 PSEs. (Komdigi PSE Statistics)

The latest enforcement on 25 February 2026 came on the heels of the formation of a dedicated Digital Space Oversight Directorate General in January 2025, which operates under the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs. It has an expanded mandate, and has also asked for an increase in its operating budget, in part to centralise digital oversight, including compliance and law enforcement, in the digital space. (Indonesia at Melbourne, Lexology). Prior to this, the Wikimedia Foundation had received multiple notifications from the authorities since November 2025, urging them to be registered as a PSE. (VOI) Cloudflare was similarly warned in November 2025, and its staff have met the authorities since then and are currently reviewing the applicable laws while stating that as an infrastructure provider, they do not directly curate content. (Tech in Asia 2)

In a statement to The Signpost, the Wikimedia Foundation said that it is aware of the access restriction in Indonesia and that Wikimedia projects remain accessible to read and contribute as logged-out users. The Foundation further explained that they are "actively investigating the scope and underlying basis of this situation", while engaging with the Indonesian authorities to seek a resolution. It added that it "deeply values the dedication and contributions of the Indonesian Wikimedia communities" and expressed hope that access would be restored soon so that volunteers could resume editing without disruption.

Addendum: On 9 March 2026, after a week of discussion, the Indonesian Wikipedia community released a statement asking Komdigi to undo the block (In Indonesian: Indonesian Wikipedia). Additionally, a Central Notice banner in Indonesian, alerting readers of the situation, has been requested to be placed across the various projects after seeking consensus among 20 other project communities. (Central Notice request)

Swedish singer Zara Larsson entreated millions of followers on TikTok to change the infobox photo in her Wikipedia article, which she loathed (People, Rolling Stone, The Independent). The resulting barrage of edits led to page protection, which quickly escalated from semi to extended-confirmed. The Daily Dot kind of nailed it when they said "The utopian open-source ethos of Wikipedia can become an enemy to a public figure trying to control their image." A Request for Comment on the talk page ensued.

Pitchfork followed up with what appear to be pretty straightforward directions to other artists on how to upload their favored photo and make an edit request. – B

See related "Signpost" coverage at News and notes and the Technology report.

"Wikipedia blacklists Archive.today, starts removing 695,000 archive links" and "If DDoSing a blog wasn't bad enough, archive site also tampered with web snapshots", said Ars Technica on Feb 20. The blacklisting was also described at Times of India; International Business Times; TechCrunch; Boing Boing; PC Magazine; Tom's Hardware, and others. – B

Open-source analyst Andrew S. Erickson's blog had an entry about the Chinese People's Armed Forces Maritime Militia (PAFMM), in which he notes other analysts calling PAFMM "little blue men"^[a] and invited more people to do their own analysis and contribute to Wikipedia. He says:

Folks outside government looking for a way to enhance public understanding may wish of their own accord to update and enhance Wikipedia’s entries on "Maritime Militia" (now in English, Chinese, Japanese, and Czech)—which have improved significantly yet remain far from comprehensive or complete. It's easy to become a Wikipedia editor, by the platform's very design...

In sum, rarely is a topic so little recognized and so little understood (even now), yet so important and so amenable to research using Chinese-language open sources.

– B

See related content at News and notes

A recent security incident involving a computer worm forced the Wikimedia Foundation to temporarily put all wikis into read-only mode. The incident has drawn the attention of some tech-focused outlets, with Bleeping Computer reporting that "approximately 3,996 pages were modified", with the commons.js files for 85 accounts being replaced by it. In the same article, they also analyzed the code. — B,M

404 Media reports that AI Translations Are Adding 'Hallucinations' to Wikipedia Articles. The Open Knowledge Association (OKA) is a small Swiss not-for-profit associated with the effective altruism movement and run by it's main donor, User:7804j. OKA recruits and pays newby editors from the global south to translate articles into English using AI translation, raising questions about paid editing, and the proper use of AI. Recent community discussions, culminating at WP:AN, have instructed OKA to make sure they comply with WP:Paid and AI rules, and suggest that more suggestions may be coming. 7804j seems amenable. Other interesting challenges may include the community's ability to adapt its governance processes to new conditions while continuing to assume good faith. – S

• [insert name]pedia: Following on the heels of last issue's Signpost coverage of Xikipedia, now we have on our radar Jikipedia (aka Jwiki) at Gizmodo, The Verge, and others. The 'pedia is part of the Jmail suite created by Riley Walz and Luke Igel that repackages the 3,000,000 or so documents released by the DOJ on the Jeffrey Epstein case. We are going to run out of letters of the alphabet if this keeps up. N.b. Dickipedia is already taken.
• Kiwix proves its worth, again: In Lamu County, Kenya, "Students and teachers at Shela Primary School can now access Wikipedia and thousands of educational resources without an internet connection following the installation of Kiwix for Schools". ("Wikipedia Provides Shela School With Digital Library", The Coast [Kenya])
• Majority rules: 65.8% of respondents voted to largely ban the use of AI on the German Wikipedia (for context, they use polls). "German Wikipedia bans AI-generated content while other language editions take a softer approach" (The Decoder, Heise Group)
• Training: "Hamas-linked org. trains Gazans to edit Wikipedia pages about Israel, Palestine" (Jerusalem Post), "Hamas-Linked Nonprofit Launches Wikipedia Training Program to Smear Israel" (Algemeiner (New York)), "Wikipedia's Information Intifada" (Algemeiner)

• Jimbo, live from Indian AI summit: Jimmy Wales is optimistic about India's future in tech, but emphasizes the importance of keeping humans in the AI loop.
• Who can you trust?: Reason magazine talks about Wikipedia's power 62, Trump, Grokipedia, Justapedia, and "Can you trust Wikipedia?" (video and transcript). Zach Weissmueller interviews Betty Wills, Larry Sanger, and Jimmy Wales. You might even think that Jimbo and Larry have finally come together for an online debate. But no, the interviews were separate, and carefully spliced, with the questions and accompanying commentary rerecorded.
• Props from Craigslist founder: Craig Newmark (known for his Craigslist) interviewed on Lay of the Land podcast... Starting at 36:45, he talks about Wikipedia, which he says "maintained a great moral compass" despite the lure of billions to go commercial.

The San Francisco Chronicle reviews Annie Rauwerda's stage show "The Depths of Wikipedia". Rauwerda first appeared in this Signpost column in 2021, and most Wikipedians are likely to be familiar with her work. The Chronicle gives lots of good reasons why it's a great show, but it boils down to one simple fact. It's fun! In one segment Riley Walz was invited on-stage and answered trivia questions from Rauwerda.

I got a chance to see the show this week in Philadelphia. Like Walz, I was invited on-stage (for about five minutes) and then was quizzed on WikiTrivia. I demonstrated that I don't know anything about WikiTrivia, so Rauwerda showed several photos that I've posted of my dog, Graf. It was great fun and the audience seemed to enjoy it. COI disclosure - I received a free ticket. – S