Let me guess. You have a Wikipedia biography and are frustrated as hell.
There is a ton of inaccurate information, and it doesn’t seem to correct itself. You’ve even tried correcting it but have been denied by editors.
Maybe your biography contains too much personal information that you feel should be private (name of spouse, date of birth, etc.).
Thankfully, you have Wikipedia guidelines on your side.
Chances are that your past attempts at correcting information on your Wikipedia biography likely failed because of not knowing how to navigate the system.
Don’t worry. This is common.
You can correct or remove information from your biography. You may even be able to delete the article altogether. I have put together this information to show you how.
Helpful Tip – This article will help you navigate your current Wikipedia article. If you want to create a new Wikipedia article, check out my Wikipedia biography template. You can also contact me direct for a quote to do the work on your behalf.
Let’s dive in and start by learning the guidelines and policies that apply to cleaning up you Wikipedia article.
Wikipedia Biographies and Privacy
Wikipedia has a high standard when it comes to inclusion of information in a biography. It also takes it seriously when it comes to someone’s privacy.
Wikipedia is not to be used as a publisher of original information. That means that certain things about you should not go onto Wikipedia and can be removed if someone does add them without a reliable source.
Wikipedia’s guideline on privacy of personal information spells out what can and cannot be added to a biography.
The guideline basically says that editors should use caution when publishing personal information such as full names, dates of birth, etc. In fact, they are very empathetic to those who object to having such information included in their biography.
For this type of information to be included, it must be widely published across the internet. It also must be from reliable sources. For instance, if your date of birth is published in articles in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the like, your date of birth will likely meet inclusion criteria.
If editors are using fan sites such as IMDb or Celebrity Net Worth, it can likely be removed.
Another thing Wikipedia may consider reliable is whether you as the subject of the biography have readily stated the information.
Here is what I mean.
If you have a Facebook page and wish yourself a “happy 40th birthday,” Wikipedia can infer your date of birth and it will likely be included. Same goes for names of your spouse, children, relatives, etc.
Helpful Tip– To avoid the changes of Wikipedia using your statements against you, I advise deleting any social media post or website entry that contains the personal information you are attempting to remove from Wikipedia.
Things that will never be included on Wikipedia include address, phone number, account numbers, or other private information that is not readily available to the public. This information is normally removed quickly and the edit history showing the information is hidden from public view.
Correcting False Information:
When I refer to false information, I am talking about things such as incorrect schools you may have attended, your birth date, past accomplishments, etc.
Keep in mind that Wikipedia is based on what reliable secondary sources say about you. So, if information on your page is false, but the information included can be verified from a reliable source, it will likely stay on your Wikipedia page.
This is because of Wikipedia’s policy on verifiability. Wikipedia does NOT care about facts, only what reliable sources say about you.
Helpful Tip – If there is false information on Wikipedia which can still be verified from a reliable source, you should elect to go with a reputation management firm who can contact these publications and get the information corrected. Once the references are updated, you can then proceed to correct it on Wikipedia.
If there is false information on Wikipedia (e.g., it says you graduated from Georgetown University when in fact you graduated from Harvard), you can get this corrected.
Sometimes incorrect information is added by vandals or people playing jokes. Regardless of how it got there, if a reliable source can verify the correct information, you can easily get it fixed.
Deleting Your Wikipedia Biography
Privacy concerns aside, I have a lot of people contact me saying they have simply had enough. They no longer want a Wikipedia article and wish to have it deleted.
So, can you delete your Wikipedia biography?
Surprisingly, yes! But, only in certain circumstances (isn’t Wikipedia fun?).
Deletion Based on Notability
The easiest way to have your biography deleted is because you simply aren’t notable.
Hear me out.
Just having a page does not mean you meet notability guidelines. There are many articles in Wikipedia that have slipped past the oversight process and exist despite not meeting notability.
So, you could have a page that does not meet guidelines and can recommend it for deletion.
Wikipedia is also changing notability guidelines regularly. Your biography could have met guidelines at one time and now it does not. To determine if you are notable, you can look through my guide to Wikipedia notability.
Helpful Tip – There is also a way to have the page deleted by tagging it for proposed deletion. This is one of the deletion methods on Wikipedia where the page is tagged and if no one objects, it will be deleted in 10 days.
Screenshot of Wikipedia guidelines on speedy deletion. Unsourced biographies that contain negative information are considered “attack pages” and subject to speedy deletion.
Helpful Tip – If the biography has overly negative information that is not supported by a reliable source, you may also request that it is speedily deleted. This process will remove the page quickly (normally within a few hours). Note that someone may create the page in the future, but it would need to be supported by reliable sources or subject to deletion again.
Deletion Based on Courtesy
There is a little-known practice on Wikipedia which may allow you to delete your biography based on a simple request.
According to Wikipedia, living people who are non-public figures (non-politicians, etc.) may be deleted. The biography must be of borderline notability and administrators are allowed the option of honoring the request of deletion from the subject of the article.
To request deletion, you can leave a message on the talk page of the Articles for Deletion project. Make sure to state that you are the subject of the article and request a “courtesy deletion” of the page.
Helpful Tip – Wikipedia editors are not REQUIRED to honor your request. Do not get upset if they don’t. You will simply need to use another process to clean up your Wikipedia biography.
Deletion By Merging
A third option for deletion of the page would be to merge the information into another.
An example would be merging the biography of a company founder into a page about the company. If the founder is marginally notable but the company is notable, it would be proper to merge the information.
The good thing about this is that the founder would still have a Wikipedia presence.
However, not all the information from the biography would be included on the company page. That would be considered coatracking.
So, if there is a lot of information in your biography you do not want included but still want to be mentioned, a merge of select information could be a viable option. Once merged, your biography would be deleted and your name would redirect to the company page.
Conflict of Interest:
Prior to advising you on the process for making or requesting edits, I need to go over conflict of interest guidelines on Wikipedia.
A conflict of interest takes place when you have a connection to the subject you are editing. If you are the person depicted in the Wikipedia biography, then you have a conflict of interest.
It is not against Wikipedia rules to edit with a conflict of interest. However, it is strongly discouraged. If you choose to edit and do not follow guidelines, there is a good chance that editors will shun you for doing so.
With this in mind, let’s get into making a request for edits.
Making or Requesting Edits
Based on the conflict of interest guidelines listed above, I would suggest you not make edits yourself. You should either request the edits on the talk page or hire a Wikipedia writer to work on your behalf.
You must disclose your affiliation by including a notice on your userpage. To do so, include the code {{UserboxCOI}}.
Once you have made disclosure, you can go to the talk page of the article you wish to request edits for. User the code {{edit COI}} in a new section and type out the request for the changes you want to see. The “edit COI” code will notify editors that there is a request from an editor with a COI.
The following image should appear once you save your edit. This is one from the Wikipedia page “Bending Spoons” where a conflict of interest edit request was made.
For an in-depth guide on requesting edits, please see Wikipedia’s simple guide to requesting edits.
Correcting Sources:
You may run into an issue where there is negative information in your biography that cannot be removed as it is what Wikipedia considers “reliably sourced.”
This means that the information is in a reliable source such as a newspaper or website. Unfortunately, Wikipedia is based on what can be verified, not necessarily the truth as previously discussed.
To correct the information on Wikipedia, you must first correct the source.
This may take the help of a reputation management firm who can reach out to these publications on your behalf. Once the source is corrected, you can then go through the process of requesting your Wikipedia biography be updated with the correct information.
Final Word:
Don’t stress out about negative information in your Wikipedia biography. There are ways to get the information removed, reworded for neutrality, or even have the entire article deleted.
If you are still having trouble, you can always reach out and schedule a consultation.