Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Wikipedia entry includes many of the details typical of politicians’ pages: age, family ties, political party, work experience, and education.
Notably missing: references to anything remotely controversial. And that seems to be intentional.
On June 27, a mysterious Wikipedia editor clicked the “edit” button on Lurie’s page and got to work, scrubbing the site of unfavorable facts about San Francisco’s wealthy new mayor, who rose to power in the November 2024 election as a political newcomer.
A link to a story about his nonprofit’s failed homeless plan: deleted. A sentence about his mother’s $1 million donation to an independent committee supporting his 2024 mayoral bid: vanished. A reference to the Republican organizations that supported his campaign: scrubbed.
In its place: flattering language about the mayor’s past work prior to his political career, along with a heavy dose of links to press releases from his City Hall team promoting the work he has done in office.
The person behind Wikiedits84153 is a mystery. Lurie’s spokesperson, Charles Lutvak, said nobody in the mayor’s City Hall office has edited the page. Max Szabo, a spokesperson during Lurie’s campaign who continues to work closely with City Hall staff, did not respond to The Standard’s inquiry.
Whoever it is, Wikiedits84153 has a mission that appears straightforward: Purge Lurie’s Wikipedia page of criticism and controversy and highlight his accomplishments as mayor.
“This seems purposeful and intentional,” said Joseph Reagle, a Northeastern communications professor who has written extensively about Wikipedia. Reagle, who reviewed Lurie’s page after The Standard contacted him, said that while it’s not uncommon for politicians’ pages to be cleansed of unfavorable details, it’s “probably inappropriate.”
“The intention is to have reputable sources, to give the best presentation of information that we can,” Reagle said. “A lot of people turn to Wikipedia to read about things.”
Wikipedia is one of the top 10 most visited websites globally and relies on volunteer writers and editors to contribute to its vast catalogue. Articles are built upon multiple entries over time, and users can joust back and forth over the quality of information. Each page on the website maintains a detailed log of changes.
This month, editors placed a notice at the top of Lurie’s page warning that the article “contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information.”
Wikiedits84153 has not contributed to other pages, according to the user’s profile, but the author’s entries make up 55% of Lurie’s Wikipedia page, which received about 41,000 views in July. During the election in November, the site hit approximately 325,000 views. Because Wikiedits84153 made the edits while logged into an account, the user’s IP address is not disclosed, making it difficult to determine who is behind it.
Among Wikiedits84153’s June edits to Lurie’s page:
- A 2018 San Francisco Chronicle article about Lurie’s failed $100 million plan to dramatically cut chronic homelessness when he was executive director of his nonprofit Tipping Point was removed.
- References to the nearly $10 million Lurie personally contributed to his 2024 campaign was cut. Instead, Wikiedits84153 wrote that $16 million was raised by the campaign through “a mix of self-financing and broad donor support.” Also axed from the article was a 163-word section that raised questions about how Lurie tapped his personal fortune as a Levi Strauss heir to finance his campaign.
- Several sentences that highlighted Republican support for Lurie’s campaign were cut, including an endorsement from the centrist Republican group the San Francisco Briones Society. (At the time, Lurie said it was not the endorsement he was “seeking,” but he was campaigning on not “pushing” voters away.)
- The mention of a $1 million donation from Lurie’s mother, Mimi Haas, to an independent expenditure committee supporting her son was scrubbed. A day after Wikiedits84153’s edits, another Wikipedia user noted the removal of this fact and added it back to the page.
- References to Lurie as a political “moderate” and “centrist” were erased.
- A section describing Tipping Point as “one of the largest and most prominent poverty-fighting organizations in the United States” was added. Another addition described Super Bowl 50, held in 2016 at Levi’s Stadium, as the “most philanthropic Super Bowl” in “NFL history.” Lurie was appointed as the head of the event’s host committee.
- Wikiedits84153 added nine links to press releases from the mayor’s office, highlighting Lurie’s accomplishments on homelessness, his “family zoning” housing plan, and his permit reform effort. The user also added encouraging articles about downtown’s economic recovery, proclaiming it as “a signal that confidence is returning to the city’s housing market in response to the Lurie administration’s priorities.”
- The fact that Lurie’s wife, Becca Prowda, works as chief of protocol to Gov. Gavin Newsom was wiped.
- Lurie’s Jewish background was deleted.
Wikiedits84153’s edits are “trying to find an angle that is more positive than it originally was,” said Dariusz Jemielniak, a longtime editor of the site and a former board member at the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia.
“People use it as a go-to resource,” Jemielniak said of Wikipedia, noting that Google and ChatGPT use it to inform their generated content. “If you can whitewash the article, it can benefit you.”
Wikipedia “strongly” discourages contributing to an article if it is about yourself or a close affiliate, according to its rules on conflicts of interest. Editors who have a conflict — or are being paid to add to an article — are expected to disclose their connection on the website.
“These guidelines are meant to ensure that Wikipedia remains a neutral, reliable, and accurate knowledge resource for all,” Wikipedia spokesperson Lauren Dickinson wrote in a statement. “If someone is found to be making edits to a Wikipedia article in violation of Wikipedia's policies, other Wikipedia editors and volunteer administrators (trusted Wikipedia volunteers with advanced permissions to protect Wikipedia) may issue warnings and blockings to the user making the edits.”
Dickinson said Wikipedia does not require users to divulge their identity.
Since Wikipedia’s launch in 2001, there have been controversies involving edits on elected officials’ pages. In 2006, the IP addresses of writers who edited the pages of U.S. senators, including the late Dianne Feinstein and Joe Biden, were traced back to Capitol Hill offices. In 2023, a New York congressman was banned from Wikipedia after fluffing up his page’s résumé.
In a note as part of the June 27 edit, Wikiedits84153 said they were updating “several factual inaccuracies,” removing “editorialized language,” and making additions to “reflect” the mayor’s policies.
“Also added details about his actual campaign platform and early actions as mayor, particularly around housing, public safety, and economic revitalization,” Wikiedits84153 wrote. “The edits ensure the page is more accurate, objective, and aligned with publicly verifiable information.”
Some of Wikiedits84153’s contributions did clear up inaccurate information. For example, the sentence citing the 2018 Tipping Point article included an incorrect timeline of events. Since June, a handful of Wikiedits84153’s changes have been modified by other users to remove language perceived as praising the mayor.
The cleansing of Lurie’s page coincides with a behind-the-scenes PR operation by his advisers to cultivate his public image and promote the narrative that San Francisco is on the upswing. The Standard reported this month that Lurie had paid $350,000 this year to four operatives who help with the mayor’s social media, political strategy, speeches, and public events.
Tomoki Chien contributed reporting to this article.