Editing Fandom (section)

==Incidents==
This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the [[:Category:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|{{PAGENAME}} category]].

===Portable Infoboxes (May 2017)===
<blockquote>''"Honestly, what allowed me to never put 100% of my trust to the FANDOM Staff was the fact that they disregard the concerns of their userbase most of the time. They'd introduce certain features and implement them without considering all of the potential flaws that'd persist. Remember the Portable infoboxes? They didn't think of inserting official tabbers in them when they first introduced them. It took several months before tabbers in PIs finally became a thing."'' </blockquote>- Quote from [https://archive.ph/UUvUT @QueenPinksweets], former Vocaloid Wiki Moderator (2021)

In mid-2017, Spanish programmer Jesús Martínez Novo, who had been working on the WikiDex project since 2006, published a note discussing his experience with the platform as well as the forking of the largest Pokémon wiki in Spanish. Martínez explained that in 2017, Fandom had forced users to abruptly change the code of some of their templates. This decision was not previously consulted with the users who had previously coded much of the site voluntarily, and the company gave them one week to convert the rest of the templates.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Martínez |first=Jesús |date=2017-05-07 |title=Wikia — When the site you spend most of the time goes evil |url=https://medium.com/@martineznovo/wikia-when-the-site-you-spend-most-of-the-time-goes-evil-1ce9d3f79285 |access-date=2025-08-19 |website=Medium}}</ref>

This decision caused quite a few problems on the website, as the technology behind Portable Infoboxes was not well-developed at the time, with templates unable to display icons or multiple images. In addition, Fandom would remove administrative rights from anyone who attempted to convert the templates back to their original code.<ref name=":2" />

===Auto-playing videos (September 2017)===
Throughout 2017, Fandom introduced auto-playing to several popular video game wikis, such as RuneScape and Fallout. These videos were inserted without prior consultation with editors, and many of them contained misinformation about the games covered by the wikis. The editorial team had to post notices informing users that they had no control over the videos, which were created solely by Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-09-05 |title=(PSA) Featured Videos on the RuneScape Wiki |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/runescape/comments/6yc8xt/psa_featured_videos_on_the_runescape_wiki/ |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=r/runescape via Reddit}}</ref> Some of the videos contained mispronunciations of in-game items, as well as featured stolen material from game footage. Notably, the videos produced about "Zamik Wizard"<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2017-08-05 |title=(PSA) Featured Videos on the Old School RuneScape Wiki |url=https://www.reddit.com/r/2007scape/comments/6ybxly/psa_featured_videos_on_the_old_school_runescape/ |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=r/2007scape via Reddit |quote=As you can probably guess, me and my colleagues are pissed about this change. And the worst thing is that we have ZERO SAY about this; it is out of our control. We have even created a template that we have added right underneath these videos to emphasize that these videos were made by the company, and not us, the admins who provide you with actual quality articles.}}</ref> are commonly referred to as a joke by the community due to the poor quality of the video.

===Fandom Shop (September 2020)===
[[File:Fandom Wiki - Bootleg Ripoff Online Shop Ad.jpg|alt=Fandom Wiki Shop Ripoff Bootleg Store (2020)|thumb|During 2020, Fandom aggressively promoted a store on its wikis, with much of the merchandise consisting of poor-quality bootlegs/ripoffs. Additionally, users expressed concern about how Fandom was clearly selling and profiting from merchandise based on intellectual property that it did not own.]]
At the end of 2020, the company introduced links to "Fandom Shop" on various wikis, an initiative by the company to distribute merchandise. This measure was criticized by users, as the links were embedded in the site's navigation without prior consultation by administrators. In addition, some of the products included poor-quality bootlegs products.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-09-16 |title=Wikia/FANDOM are rolling out a "Shop" tab on Wikis, filled with affiliate (for profit) links to stores. I would like to make folks aware that nearly 99% of items in this tab are UNOFFICIAL/BOOTLEGS. |url=https://x.com/danganronpawiki/status/1306182977999732741 |access-date=2025-07-17 |website=Danganronpa Wiki via Twitter}}</ref>

===NFT Integration Plans (February 2022)===
In early 2022, Fandom CEO Perkins Miller announced the possibility of integrating NFTs into the platform, despite backlash from user surveys and concerns about the environmental damage it could cause.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-02-16 |title=Perkins Miller, the CEO of @getFANDOM, our Wiki host, has put out a statement on LinkedIN that the platform is considering getting into NFTs, despite the admitted extremely poor feedback from a community survey. |url=https://x.com/danganronpawiki/status/1494105070220292098 |access-date=2025-08-23 |website=Danganronpa Wiki via Twitter}}</ref>

===McDonald's Fandom Advertising (June 2023)===
In June 2023 the [[McDonalds|McDonald's]] corporation paid Fandom to completely change the McDonald's Fandom wiki into an advertisement for their recent relaunch of the Grimace Shake as well as other McDonald's products. These changes were made against the wishes of the McDonald's Wiki editors including the original author of the Grimace page. The changelogs left by Fandom stated “switching over the entirety of Grimace article at McDonald’s request, just for the length of this campaign in 2023,”.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Grimace Fandom Page |url=https://mcdonalds.fandom.com/wiki/Grimace?oldid=29634 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230617204844/https://mcdonalds.fandom.com/wiki/Grimace?oldid=29634 |archive-date=2023-06-17}}</ref> 

===Online grooming and sexual harassment (November 2023)===
<blockquote>''"When you're just trying to speak out and get a pedophile off the site, or they say that everything happened on Discord we can't do anything, [...], saying that pedophilia is okay if it's offsite this is just disgusting"''</blockquote>- Quote from @bruhwrecksnoobs on the video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXqWuIcugrY FANDOM Is Disgusting]

In 2023, writer and video game developer Christopher Howard Wolf, under the alias "Slimebeast", posted several videos discussing how Fandom had allowed minors to be exposed to inappropriate content and citing concerns that child moderators had to maintain contact with groomers. Additionally, Howard Wolf criticized the fact that Fandom was using under-age volunteers to moderate its platform instead of proper employees to moderate the situation.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2023-11-19 |title=Wikitubia has a Minor Issue - Plus CreepsMcPasta Caught in 4k |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bKb6-xr4Qg |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=Slimebeast via YouTube |quote=That mod he referred to WAS THE UNDERAGED MOD THAT DID WHAT HE REQUESTED, proving that Wikitubia having on minors as mods puts them in direct contact with groomers. Imagine EDP DMing a kid mod who has a "duty" to talk to him.}}</ref>

Howard later posted videos explaining the inappropriate behavior of one of the administrators of Wikitubia and The Amazing Digital Circus Wiki, explaining that minors were being exposed, as well as publishing several documents detailing how minors were being harassed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Howard |first=Cristopher |date=2024-10-26 |title=Pred Concerns on YouTube Wiki & The Amazing Digital Circus Wiki |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXM_LRnWvTE |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=SlimeBeast via YouTube}}</ref> He also reported on Fandom Staff's handling of the situation, which had previously banned a victim of grooming for expressing concern about the safety of minors on the platform.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wolf |first=Cristopher |date=2024-10-28 |title=Fandom (The Company) Bans Grooming Whistleblower For Whistleblowing |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSGGVQwG1Is |access-date=2025-08-18 |website=SlimeBeast via YouTube}}</ref>

===AI translations (July 2025)===
In July 2025, Fandom began experimenting with creating wikis in other languages using generative AI. The move was boycotted by users, citing concerns about replacing editors and translators who had previously worked on the website to provide high-quality translations manually, as well as the dismantling of international support for other languages.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-07-08 |title=Fandom is planning to start translating English wiki articles into other languages using AI. If you log in to view comments on the blogpost announcing this, you can see this decision is extremely unpopular with Fandom editors. |url=https://x.com/mossbag69/status/1942656734146777248 |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Mossbag69 via Twitter}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-07-07 |title=Apparently @getFANDOM is planning to launch AI generated non English wikis, and I *cannot* stress enough how bad this idea is, and how disrespectful it is to the people who create the content on their platform. |url=https://x.com/SEJordanWilson/status/1942405776267419777 |access-date=2025-07-17 |website=Jordan Wilson via Twitter}}</ref> In response, a petition was launched to halt the process of automating translations with generative AI, with approximately 390 different editors signing up to have the project canceled.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-07-11 |title=We are now over 390 editor signatures against Fandom's new plan to use AI to translate wikis from English to other languages. This replaces human editors with AI, and if Fandom is serious about supporting foreign languages, invest in people. Not machines. |url=https://x.com/SEJordanWilson/status/1943777100982628579 |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Jordan Wilson via Twitter}}</ref> 

===Stowarzyszenie Minecraft Wiki Polska (August 2025)===
In early August 2025, Stowarzyszenie Minecraft Wiki Polska, which hosts the independent wiki for the video game "Minecraft" in Polish, filed a DMCA claim for copyright infringement following the transfer of data from Gamepedia to Fandom.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-08-06 |title=David and Goliath - on Polish Minecraft Wiki taking legal action against Fandom |url=https://frisk.space/posts/pl-mcw-fandom/ |access-date=2025-08-17 |website=Frisk.space Blog |quote=Fandom has "aggregated content from the wiki" and by doing so has started to violate the license agreements. We read that "as a result of wiki account transfers, at least 1440 different usernames being pseudonyms of their creators were damaged". By result of doing so, Fandom couldn't fulfill the authorship requirement of Creative Commons licensed used by the wiki (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).}}</ref>