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Robert Willis (hacker) article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
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Given that the largest thing he's done is run a fake news network to cause political damage, it's not clear to me why this is Robert Willis (hacker), and not Robert Willis (con artist)
None of the work he did was actual hacking. He was present on teams where other people did things that aren't hacking, such as discovering exposed resources.
Why are we giving this person the opportunity to write himself as a successful person for committing large scale fraud?
Shall we also say Jeffrey Dahmer (surgeon) ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.58.78.240 ( talk) 00:09, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
His fake "expose" overstating his role in a misinformation grift https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/10/hacker-x-the-american-who-built-a-pro-trump-fake-news-empire-unmasks-himself/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.215.45.66 ( talk) 15:11, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
That reference should not be used; author has admitted the article is full of inaccuracies and it is essentially the same as a blog post by the subject himself: https://ax-sharma.medium.com/a-statement-on-the-hacker-x-story-54172bf9d094 https://robertwillishacking.com/the-machine-enabled-by-facebook-how-i-helped-hack-the-2016-election-via-information-warfare/ It parrots Willis even in obvious factual lies. I suggest it makes the many other links by the same author used here suspect as well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by SjoerdVerweij ( talk • contribs) 18:12, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
@ SjoerdVerweij: How did you determine that the Robert Willis mentioned in your sources is the same individual described in this article? I'm a little concerned that the sources don't have photos or make any other mention of details about Willis that could be used to infer it's the same person, aside from the Connecticut connection. GorillaWarfare (she/her • talk) 19:25, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
Willis was also a state house candidate in Connecticut in 2014. Article with photo here: https://www.mycitizensnews.com/news/gop-endorses-willis-in-105th/. It doesn't specifically connect him with the Tea Party, but it does establish that he was a Republican political activist in Fairfield county prior to his candidacy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.21.250.78 ( talk) 19:40, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
That's fair enough. He looks like the same person to me, but additional imput would be ideal. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.21.250.78 ( talk) 20:07, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
It does look like the same person to me. For whatever that's worth. Flowernerd ( talk) 07:21, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
It looks like the same person to me as well, they have the same face shape and glasses and same name and it's known that Robert Willis the hacker lives in the same area.
There is another picture of Robert Willis marketer at a PDF from tbe National Kitchen and Bath Association showing a different angle of the same person. Gemory1987 ( talk) 00:41, 17 October 2021 (UTC)
User JohnBarringer1988 appears to only edit pages for Robert Willis and those related to Robert Willis or to embellish articles to add members of Robert Willis's group with self-attested claims. Gemory1987 ( talk) 01:19, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
No, it is not allowed, if you believe there is someone editing their own page, use “COI” at the top of the page:
![]() | A major contributor to this article appears to have a
close connection with its subject. (August 2023) |
Twillisjr ( talk) 13:01, 12 March 2023 (UTC)
Sharma's medium piece contains text like:
"Everything about the story is carefully structured, from its wording to where and what kind of images were placed. The story may appear to tell one thing on the surface but shows a whole other side of ‘Hacker X’ if you are paying close attention — all of which induces confusion"
This suggests to me that we should not take the claims at face value, but treat them as statements made by Willis about himself.
"Quoting Willis directly, “Russia played such a minor role” but not countering it with a citation, as a news report would. Refuting it wasn’t important, the whole world knows what had happened — but it was left towards the beginning to show Willis’ thought process, and let readers take a peek into his head."
Sharma says he left a known falsehood in the piece without rebuttal.
"Then, one may find obvious contradictions in the story, that stand out: how Koala’s owners wanted to keep Clinton out of the White House at any cost, followed by “Had Clinton’s voter base earned them more money, the pro-Clinton narrative might have been their focus, claim the sources.” Which one is it?"
Here he acknowledges contradictions in what he posted with no reporting to separate Willis's claims from the reporting.
This feels like a flimsy source to reference so heavily. Gemory1987 ( talk) 19:11, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
Additionally, much of the piece is identical with a literal blog post by Willis. Gemory1987 ( talk) 19:13, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
Ars Technica's Creative Director has said, on tbe Ars Technica forum thread about this article:
" Gemory1987 ( talk) 19:19, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
Ars's Creative Director, Aurich Larson has said, in tbe forum thread on tbe story:
"Let me not bury the lede: We are terminating our relationship with Ax Sharma, effective immediately.
It is not our editorial standard to “drop hints” and purposely add confusion and smoke to a story. We got blindsided by his personal blog post on Medium, and find the content of what he wrote upsetting." Gemory1987 ( talk) 19:20, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
They have not issued a retraction yet. I will update when they do. Gemory1987 ( talk) 19:22, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
Today Willis has acknowledged on his own blog that he was a Tea Party organizer and worked for a plumbing company.
Can we now include his history as written and linked Friday and Saturday? Gemory1987 ( talk) 19:44, 18 October 2021 (UTC)
The background for Willis there is the same as this Wikipedia file. File:Google_Fiber_store,_Austin_1.jpg
There is no record of "Willis speaking at Google in 2015". That appears to be a man posing at a lectern in the Google Fiber store in Austin. Gemory1987 ( talk) 00:15, 23 October 2021 (UTC)
Input cropt.com to the Wayback Machine and it will resolve Willis’ former graphic design information. There is an edit war regarding this citation. Twillisjr ( talk) 12:39, 12 March 2023 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Robert Willis (hacker) article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page. |
![]() | This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to multiple WikiProjects. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
![]() | If you came here because someone asked you to, or you read a message on another website, please note that this is
not a majority vote, but instead a discussion among Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia has
policies and guidelines regarding the encyclopedia's content, and
consensus (agreement) is gauged based on the merits of the arguments, not by counting votes.
However, you are invited to participate and your opinion is welcome. Remember to assume good faith on the part of others and to sign your posts on this page by adding ~~~~ at the end. Note: Comments may be tagged as follows: suspected single-purpose accounts:{{subst:
spa|username}} ; suspected
canvassed users: {{subst:
canvassed|username}} ; accounts blocked for
sockpuppetry: {{subst:
csm|username}} or {{subst:
csp|username}} . |
Given that the largest thing he's done is run a fake news network to cause political damage, it's not clear to me why this is Robert Willis (hacker), and not Robert Willis (con artist)
None of the work he did was actual hacking. He was present on teams where other people did things that aren't hacking, such as discovering exposed resources.
Why are we giving this person the opportunity to write himself as a successful person for committing large scale fraud?
Shall we also say Jeffrey Dahmer (surgeon) ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.58.78.240 ( talk) 00:09, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
His fake "expose" overstating his role in a misinformation grift https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/10/hacker-x-the-american-who-built-a-pro-trump-fake-news-empire-unmasks-himself/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.215.45.66 ( talk) 15:11, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
That reference should not be used; author has admitted the article is full of inaccuracies and it is essentially the same as a blog post by the subject himself: https://ax-sharma.medium.com/a-statement-on-the-hacker-x-story-54172bf9d094 https://robertwillishacking.com/the-machine-enabled-by-facebook-how-i-helped-hack-the-2016-election-via-information-warfare/ It parrots Willis even in obvious factual lies. I suggest it makes the many other links by the same author used here suspect as well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by SjoerdVerweij ( talk • contribs) 18:12, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
@ SjoerdVerweij: How did you determine that the Robert Willis mentioned in your sources is the same individual described in this article? I'm a little concerned that the sources don't have photos or make any other mention of details about Willis that could be used to infer it's the same person, aside from the Connecticut connection. GorillaWarfare (she/her • talk) 19:25, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
Willis was also a state house candidate in Connecticut in 2014. Article with photo here: https://www.mycitizensnews.com/news/gop-endorses-willis-in-105th/. It doesn't specifically connect him with the Tea Party, but it does establish that he was a Republican political activist in Fairfield county prior to his candidacy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.21.250.78 ( talk) 19:40, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
That's fair enough. He looks like the same person to me, but additional imput would be ideal. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.21.250.78 ( talk) 20:07, 15 October 2021 (UTC)
It does look like the same person to me. For whatever that's worth. Flowernerd ( talk) 07:21, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
It looks like the same person to me as well, they have the same face shape and glasses and same name and it's known that Robert Willis the hacker lives in the same area.
There is another picture of Robert Willis marketer at a PDF from tbe National Kitchen and Bath Association showing a different angle of the same person. Gemory1987 ( talk) 00:41, 17 October 2021 (UTC)
User JohnBarringer1988 appears to only edit pages for Robert Willis and those related to Robert Willis or to embellish articles to add members of Robert Willis's group with self-attested claims. Gemory1987 ( talk) 01:19, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
No, it is not allowed, if you believe there is someone editing their own page, use “COI” at the top of the page:
![]() | A major contributor to this article appears to have a
close connection with its subject. (August 2023) |
Twillisjr ( talk) 13:01, 12 March 2023 (UTC)
Sharma's medium piece contains text like:
"Everything about the story is carefully structured, from its wording to where and what kind of images were placed. The story may appear to tell one thing on the surface but shows a whole other side of ‘Hacker X’ if you are paying close attention — all of which induces confusion"
This suggests to me that we should not take the claims at face value, but treat them as statements made by Willis about himself.
"Quoting Willis directly, “Russia played such a minor role” but not countering it with a citation, as a news report would. Refuting it wasn’t important, the whole world knows what had happened — but it was left towards the beginning to show Willis’ thought process, and let readers take a peek into his head."
Sharma says he left a known falsehood in the piece without rebuttal.
"Then, one may find obvious contradictions in the story, that stand out: how Koala’s owners wanted to keep Clinton out of the White House at any cost, followed by “Had Clinton’s voter base earned them more money, the pro-Clinton narrative might have been their focus, claim the sources.” Which one is it?"
Here he acknowledges contradictions in what he posted with no reporting to separate Willis's claims from the reporting.
This feels like a flimsy source to reference so heavily. Gemory1987 ( talk) 19:11, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
Additionally, much of the piece is identical with a literal blog post by Willis. Gemory1987 ( talk) 19:13, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
Ars Technica's Creative Director has said, on tbe Ars Technica forum thread about this article:
" Gemory1987 ( talk) 19:19, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
Ars's Creative Director, Aurich Larson has said, in tbe forum thread on tbe story:
"Let me not bury the lede: We are terminating our relationship with Ax Sharma, effective immediately.
It is not our editorial standard to “drop hints” and purposely add confusion and smoke to a story. We got blindsided by his personal blog post on Medium, and find the content of what he wrote upsetting." Gemory1987 ( talk) 19:20, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
They have not issued a retraction yet. I will update when they do. Gemory1987 ( talk) 19:22, 16 October 2021 (UTC)
Today Willis has acknowledged on his own blog that he was a Tea Party organizer and worked for a plumbing company.
Can we now include his history as written and linked Friday and Saturday? Gemory1987 ( talk) 19:44, 18 October 2021 (UTC)
The background for Willis there is the same as this Wikipedia file. File:Google_Fiber_store,_Austin_1.jpg
There is no record of "Willis speaking at Google in 2015". That appears to be a man posing at a lectern in the Google Fiber store in Austin. Gemory1987 ( talk) 00:15, 23 October 2021 (UTC)
Input cropt.com to the Wayback Machine and it will resolve Willis’ former graphic design information. There is an edit war regarding this citation. Twillisjr ( talk) 12:39, 12 March 2023 (UTC)