Wiki board hopeful called 10/7 rapes ‘fake news’

Iraqi-based Ravan Al-Taie, whose social media history reportedly includes posts referring to the “fake news of ‘rape attacks’ on Oct. 7” and stating that Israel has committed “hundreds of genocides,” is competing for a seat on the Wikipedia board of directors to — as she puts it — “help ensure that decisions reflect the diversity of our global community.”

“It should raise every red flag imaginable when a would-be Wikimedia board member, guardian of one of the world’s most influential information platforms, is on record pushing anti-Israel propaganda and peddling canards,” Vlad Khaykin, executive vice president of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told JNS.

Al-Taie’s election to the board would corrupt “the integrity of Wikipedia and its noble mission of providing impartial knowledge for all” at a time when “Wikipedia is bleeding credibility thanks to activist editors smuggling anti-Israel bias into its pages,” said Khaykin.

“Wikimedia needs to decide. Is it still in the fact business, or is it handing the keys to the conspiracy theorists?” he said.

Daniel S. Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International, told JNS that Al-Taie “should be disqualified from the get-go,” questioning why anyone “would assume Wikipedia’s impartiality with a board whose membership includes Al-Taie, who subscribes to myth-based view of history and the present.”

A former administrator for the Arabic-language Wikipedia, Al-Taie, who is employed by an oilfield services company, is one of six candidates running for two open seats on the foundation’s board.

Since-deleted social media posts purportedly by Al-Taie have surfaced, including reference to Israel committing “hundreds of genocides.”

An Israeli diplomat in Britain posted a screenshot of Al-Taie’s referring to the “fake news of ‘rape attacks’ on Oct. 7.”

“Over 50% of British adults use Wikipedia for research. Right now, its parent company, the Wikimedia Foundation, is considering Ravan Jaafar Al-Taie to join their board of trustees,” the diplomat wrote. “Does rape denial fall in line with your trustee code of conduct, Wikimedia.”

Al-Taie appears to have deleted her account on the X social network recently.

Shlomit Aharoni Lir, a research fellow at the University of Haifa who called attention to what she described as former social media posts of Al-Taie’s, told JNS that she thinks the Iraqi’s candidacy is “very serious.”

Al-Taie’s deleted posts violate the foundation’s universal code of conduct, which “bans hate speech, discriminatory language and the use of symbols or content meant to intimidate, harm or marginalize people, as groups or individuals,” the researcher told JNS.

“A trustee, who has publicly denied documented atrocities, circulated antisemitic tropes and erases Israel by labeling the entire territory as ‘Palestine,’ thus denying Jewish self-determination, violates the universal code of conduct and demonstrates the kind of bias the foundation was warned about,” she said.

Al-Taie’s “presence at the board table would legitimize extremist views and further damage the board’s credibility, making it complicit in the very manipulation of knowledge it is supposed to oppose and has failed to do so,” Lir said.

The Wikimedia board “directs and oversees the foundation’s activities” and defines the “strategy, long-term objectives and the approaches needed to reach them,” she said.

“Over the past 16 years, I’ve made more than 22,000 edits and created over 1,000 articles, with a strong focus on bridging content gaps in topics related to Iraqi culture, women’s biographies and underrepresented communities,” Al-Taie states. “My goal has always been to make knowledge accessible, relevant and reflective of the diversity in our region.”

Members of the foundation’s board serve three-year terms.

Those who had made at least 300 edits on Wikimedia sites — including Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wiktionary and Wikiquote — prior to July 28, and at least 20 edits between Aug. 27, 2024, and July 28, 2025, can vote for the foundation board between Oct. 8 and 23. (Those who have been banned on any Wikimedia projects are ineligible to vote, per the foundation.)

The foundation intends to release preliminary results after that voting period, and its board aims to confirm new members in December. It had planned on holding voting from Aug. 27 to Sept. 10, but on Aug. 21, its elections and governance committees postponed elections due to “best practices, increased scrutiny the board faces and to reduce uncertainty around candidate eligibility before community members vote.”