Vivek Ramaswamy Hired Wikipedia Editors to Remove References to His Soros Fellowship and COVID Work

According to a disclaimer on Wikipedia, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who is running for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, paid to alter the information shown on his page. On his Wikipedia, there are certain warnings, like, 'this article has multiple issues' and 'may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia’s content policies, particularly neutral point of view.'

While everyone has the ability to edit Wikipedia articles, it is against the rules for someone to update information about themselves. It is not against the rules to pay someone to edit an article on Wikipedia, so long as the payment is disclosed. According to Mediaite, a user going by the name of 'Jhofferman' was paid to edit Ramaswamy's Wikipedia and revealed the information. The article's history shows that the editor deleted material that mentioned Ramaswamy's 2011 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.

The late Paul Soros' brother, George Soros, is a Democratic megadonor who far-right leaders frequently criticize. However, Ramaswamy famously made his presidential run public on Tucker Carlson's broadcast before Carlson was fired from Fox News. In addition, Carlson was also the one who often criticized Soros on his program. 

Not only was the Soros fellowship judged to be an 'extraneous material' by the editor, but he also deleted references to Ramaswamy's membership of the Ohio COVID-19 Response Team; the reasoning behind this is unclear. However, some Republicans may view discussions about the government's response to the outbreak as political poison.

A little under two weeks after the alterations were made, Ramaswamy declared his candidacy for the White House. Eventually, however, Wikipedia users and editors discussed the editor's potential conflict of interest. The reference to Ramaswamy's fellowship was reinstated, but his time spent with the Ohio Covid Team was removed. 

This is not the only time Ramaswamy has been accused of attempting to change his past. He was later accused of paying to have his Wikipedia page revised to provide a more 'flattering' biography in a highly circulated post on Twitter. @depthsofwiki, which documents humorous edits and additions to the online encyclopedia, revealed on August 24, 2023, that Ramaswamy had hired a freelancer via the website Upwork to alter his Wikipedia entry in his favor. There was a screenshot in the message that seemed to be a log of updates made to Ramaswamy's profile between February 14 and March 9, 2023.

There is a current disagreement flag on Ramaswamy's Wikipedia because it lacks objectivity. The paid donations may or may not have triggered the flagging of his page. There has been some discussion among Wikipedia's editors over whether Ramaswamy's article should be protected.

The campaign for Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy insisted that rumors regarding his Wikipedia page are untrue. According to a text message from senior advisor Tricia McLaughlin to HuffPost, the adjustments rectify 'factual distortions' on 'a number of topics, including family members' names.' According to McLaughlin, Ramaswamy isn't attempting to keep any secrets from anybody. She added, "The point is getting accurate information on his Wikipedia... it makes sense to clear up lies and deception planted by the very folks who appear to have planted this story."