Wikipedia Blacklists Archive.today After Alleged DDoS Attack

Editors cite concerns over altered content and a DDoS attack linked to the web archiving service.

Published on Feb. 21, 2026

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Wikipedia editors have decided to remove all links to the web archiving service Archive.today, citing concerns that the site has been linked to a DDoS attack and evidence that its operators have altered the content of archived pages, rendering it unreliable as a source.

Why it matters

Archive.today is a widely used tool for accessing content behind paywalls, making it a valuable resource for Wikipedia citations. However, the allegations of a DDoS attack and content alteration have led Wikipedia to blacklist the site, raising questions about the reliability of web archives and the responsibilities of platforms that host user-generated content.

The details

According to the Wikipedia discussion page, there is consensus to immediately deprecate Archive.today and add it to the spam blacklist. The decision was made after evidence was presented that Archive.today's operators had altered the content of archived pages and that the site was used to launch a DDoS attack against blogger Jani Patokallio. Patokallio had previously published a blog post examining the 'opaque mystery' of Archive.today's ownership, which he believed to be a 'one-person labor of love' likely operated by a Russian individual.

  • On January 11, users who loaded the Archive.today CAPTCHA page were allegedly unknowingly loading and executing JavaScript that sent a search request to Patokallio's Gyrovague blog, in an apparent attempt to increase his hosting bill.
  • In 2023, Patokallio published a blog post examining Archive.today and its ownership.

The players

Wikipedia

The online encyclopedia that has decided to remove all links to Archive.today due to concerns over altered content and a DDoS attack linked to the site.

Archive.today

A web archiving service that has been linked to over 695,000 times across Wikipedia, but has now been blacklisted by the platform due to reliability concerns.

Jani Patokallio

A blogger who published a post examining the ownership and operations of Archive.today, which the site's operators allegedly attempted to have removed and responded to with 'an increasingly unhinged series of threats.'

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What’s next

Wikipedia editors have stated that they will remove all links to Archive.today and related sites, replacing them with links to the original source or other web archives like the Wayback Machine.

The takeaway

This decision by Wikipedia highlights the challenges of maintaining reliable sources and the responsibilities of web platforms when user-generated content is alleged to be altered or used for malicious purposes. It raises broader questions about the role and accountability of web archiving services in the digital age.