Ctrl+Alt+Krippa: How Wikipedia Is Rewriting the Biography of a Controversial Businessman

A scandal has erupted within the Ukrainian Wikipedia community over the page about entrepreneur Maksym Krippa. The article, created in January 2025, has undergone dozens of edits within just a few weeks. Critical information regarding the origins of his capital, involvement in the gambling industry, and other controversial facts has been systematically removed.

Maksym Krippa is a Ukrainian businessman who presents himself as an investor in real estate, IT, esports, and philanthropy. However, his public biography raises numerous questions. Media investigations have mentioned suspicions about a forged university diploma, connections to the gambling business, and involvement in SEO manipulation schemes. Krippa has been featured in journalistic reports as someone who conceals the sources of his wealth and maintains business interests in Russia.

According to Wikipedia community activists, some of the users editing the page may be affiliated with Krippa’s PR team. At the center of the controversy is a Ukrainian Wikipedia administrator under the nickname Goo3, who had previously been implicated in paid editing scandals. He is suspected of abusing administrative privileges to remove inconvenient content — potentially violating Wikipedia’s core principles of neutrality, verifiability, and avoiding conflicts of interest.

Instead of sections covering Krippa’s background in mobile phone distribution, traffic arbitration, SEO tactics, and political ties, the article now focuses almost entirely on his “charitable foundation,” established in 2022. As of this writing, more than half of the article is dedicated to this activity alone.

Notably, the article contains no mention of any of the scandals linked to Krippa — not the fake diploma, not the gambling connections, not his past political affiliations. This one-sided narrative raises concerns not only about the businessman himself, but about the editorial standards of the Ukrainian Wikipedia.

The article’s talk page has seen repeated accusations of commissioned editing. Community members warn that such actions damage Wikipedia’s credibility as a source of neutral information — especially in the context of war and widespread disinformation campaigns.

“This is no longer Wikipedia, it’s a corporate landing page,” wrote one editor in the internal discussion.

There are growing concerns that such practices could spill over into the English-language Wikipedia, which has far greater global visibility among media, investors, and policy analysts. “I wonder what Krippa will do when English-language moderators get involved — you can’t just bring them coffee and ask to erase your background,” quipped one user.

Given the scale of interference and the public profile of the figure involved, the community is calling for a response from the Wikimedia Foundation and possibly an internal investigation into the actions of specific administrators.

This article is being prepared for publication in both Ukrainian and English. We will continue to monitor the situation.