Behind the moderation of Fandom Wikis: Controversies, incidents, and toxicity

Published on July 31, 2025 | Issue N° 1 of "The Internet Report" blog

Important Message: This article discusses sensitive topics that may be upsetting to some people. Additionally, please remember that all of the information collected is public and was shared by the original authors on social media, but we still recommend that you do not contact any of the people mentioned in the article. This is general advice and is for educational purposes only.

Note: This paper includes preventive and educational information to inform parents and guardians about the dangers of minors volunteering for a Fandom wiki. However, discretion is advised on the part of the reader, as topics related to cyberbullying, harassment, and online grooming will be discussed.

Disclaimer: This article includes references to suicide. Please note that this article is for informational purposes only. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, please contact a healthcare professional in your country: https://blog.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines/ for more information.

Fandom, formerly known as Wikia before its rebranding, is a California-based multimedia conglomerate. The site has around 50 million wiki pages written by unpaid volunteers, as well as ownership of several entertainment news outlets following acquisitions of other companies such as Curse and Red Ventures.

Criticism of the platform dates back quite some time, but since 2023, general dissatisfaction with the platform has led to a mass exodus, with a large part of its communities forking off to other services. However, this article is not about that, but rather about moderation and the dangers users may face when editing what can basically be described as a media monopoly.

Using labour of underage users

One of the issues that has concerned parents somewhat over the past decade is the fact that their children work for large companies for free. This User Generated Content (UGC) model has been criticized from time to time in the news, mainly in the case of Roblox, where major newspapers such as The Guardian have previously criticized the company for using minors to run its business. In the case of Fandom, it is not so different. Although the company states that only users older than 13 can use the platform and has previously added pop-ups to customize ads for minors, the platform contains a significant amount of content intended for minors, including wikis that document TV shows and material created for preschoolers, as well as a lot of media specifically targeted at minors incluiding pre-teens. However, this is still a concern for users aged 14 to 18, even though in certain jurisdictions they can edit and moderate wikis and other similar sites. Users had previously reported incidents with Fandom's moderation.

Unfortunately, Fandom's moderation has been quite ineffective in protecting minors. Testimonials from former editors reveal that they were subjected to viewing inappropriate material while moderating the site, ranging from racist content to violent sexual imagery, while they were still minors. Additionally, reports from former editors also noted that they were required to sign NDAs to obtain certain positions on wikis such as Vanguard and Council, giving Wikia (at the time) the opportunity to effectively sue its editors.

Comment by former Wikia Volunteer on the video "Does FANDOM (Wikia) exploit its users?" by Blue Revue (2019)

This would imply a legal conflict in certain countries, as certain legislatures prevent minors from signing these contracts because they do not have sufficient capacity to understand them. Other legislatures may allow it with the consent of a legal guardian. Quoting Tennesse's Tressler & Associates: "While it’s not technically illegal for a minor to sign on a dotted line, no contract they sign is legal and is null and void. It cannot be used against them even after they eventually turn 18. This means that if a child gets a hold of or hears of your business’s secret through legal means, they can’t be made to keep it a secret."

This is not the first time that a company has been criticized for making minors sign NDAs. In fact, Roblox had been questioned about the ethics and legal implications of making minors sign NDAs.

“This wholeeeeeeee idea of a “fan- made site for fans!” genuinely wrecked my life for like 5 years because the moderation on the companies end is godawful- they let anyone make a wiki for anything and just let them run wild and assume that theyll be self regulating” – Quote from DEM0N10FLEUR, moderator of the Steven Universe Wiki about Fandom (2023)

In 2024, writer Christopher Howard Wolf, who goes by the alias “Slimebeast”, published a series of videos discussing Fandom's moderation issues, including the problem that the company was using underage users to moderate and maintain its website. This series of videos detailed how minors were exposed to contact with people who had previously been accused of sexual harassment and online grooming, mainly highlighting the lack of moderation by Fandom websites that host information about controversial figures in YouTube. (See "Pred Concerns on YouTube Wiki & The Amazing Digital Circus Wiki" (2024))

Additional comments were partially validated by former moderators of WikiTubia, where it is mentioned that underage users had to maintain contact with people who had previously been accused of sexual misconduct.

“I regret ever being a WikiTubia staff member. Minors should not deal with dangerous people like Nathan Larson. After finding out about him, that's why I left” – Quote from Joey, former moderator of WikiTubia (2023) - Futher information about this incident (Page 80 of the Google Doc)

In 2025, users reported incidents where one of the moderators of the website “Villains Wiki” had unblocked an administrator who had previously sent messages of sexual idolatry to a minor under the age of 15. The situation escalated quite quickly, causing the partial withdrawal of the administration.

“To give this a long story short, an admin doubling as a bureaucrat was defending a user's unforgivable actions from, to put it simply, assocating with a minor on Discord. Shocker, I know. And when a Fandom staff stepped in well, let's just say the flames only got hotter, and the other staff at Fandom started to enact global ban on folks left and right as a form of extreme damage control in order to silence everyone regarding the incident instead of changing their ToS altogether. Sadly, I was one of those folks that got the ultimatum because they sure as hell will not listen and instead resort to power tripping, which was basically the last straw. And it shows how little they value their own community as a whole. Because of this, it's likely caused a ripple effect towards other Wikis, though most are likely too indifferent about it, which isn't surprising.” – Quote from Jon the VGNerd following the controversy regarding the protection of minors in the Villains Wiki (2025)

Additionally, in 2025, there was a controversy regarding the administration of “Hypmic Wiki.” This controversy centered on the fact that underage users were in charge of managing a large dataset, and it is partly Fandom's fault for allowing its company to be run by users who have no previous experience.

To provide some context, the moderators of this wiki for a Japanese game had previously embedded translations that they did not have permission for. The backlash generated controversy among groups dedicated to translation. Wikis are hard work, as they require an understanding of copyright and the ability to deal with controversies and problematic material when moderating them. This is not the first time Fandom has faced this problem. In Howard Wolf's videos, he had previously mentioned that minors are unable to do much of the work required to moderate such a large website and had previously criticized the company for using underage users for unpaid labor.

In the case of Hypmic, it says a lot when it empowers underage users to manage websites, as well as the ethics of allowing people who don't know how to deal with controversies and public backlash.

“harassing and stalking people on twitter and trying to spread blatantly untrue misinformation about them/shittalking them behind their backs in the wiki discord; refusing to properly credit translations due to personal biases… the list goes on and on. it’s so disappointing” – Quote from the translator “ash” (2025)

This issue raises questions about legal paradigms, and it is not the first time that Fandom has been questioned about its model. Among them is the Polish writer with the pseudonym “Frisk”, who had previously collaborated with Fandom on moderation. In 2021, he sent an email explaining the problems the company could face due to unpaid labor, citing the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of the US Department of Labor, which regulates how much a volunteer can do for a for-profit company and how Fandom had been using volunteers to perform tasks that are usually paid for in other companies.

Fandom has not been the only company to face this type of problem; Facebook is another example. In 2024, the US company was sued by a group of moderators from Kenya, where more than 140 people reported suffering from severe PTSD as a result of moderating its website. Unlike Fandom, most Facebook moderators were adults and were paid for their work. Although it should be noted that Facebook/Samasource paid its Kenyan moderators eight times less than its American moderators. (Source: "More than 140 Kenya Facebook moderators diagnosed with severe PTSD" by The Guardian)

Facebook moderators complained that the company exposed them to horrific material, including violent sexual imagery. The case of Facebook moderators is similar to that of Fandom editors. Comments provided by moderators of the Steven Universe Wiki explained that they were subjected to viewing white supremacist content related to the KKK, as well as obscene material unsuitable for minors, while moderating their respective wikis. Prolonged exposure to this material had significantly affected the mental health of Fandom moderators, especially knowing that they were minors.

“To fandom staff who didnt even look who was in the right and ended up banning staff members by accident, interwiki drama was often brought to us so we had to defend other users from pedophiles while we were minors ourselves, yet fandom still wont acknowledge any of this” – Quote from DEM0N10FLEUR (2023)

The aforementioned incidents demonstrate that the company should not allow underage users to perform tasks that should be done by paid employees. Underage users do not have the reasoning skills or professional experience to handle moderation tasks such as proper understanding of copyright law in the case of Hypmic Wiki, or dealing with articles about sexual harassment and online grooming in the case of Wikitubia.

As a final conclusion, we quote an artist who previously had to report the situation regarding this issue:

“hope the hypmic fandom wiki stuff dies down soon... here’s your reminder it’s not a good idea to take on online community responsibilities when you’re a teenager and hate anyone with different opinions to you” – Quote from artist "Logan" about the Hypmic Wiki incident (2025)

Harassment Incidents

Other editors such as Jordan Wilson, who had previously managed part of the social media for Wookiepedia, one of the largest Star Wars wikis, had previously reported that the company had failed to control the situation with regard to moderation. Wilson cited that the company had failed to recognize that his time spent moderating the wiki had damaged his mental health, as well as the rest of Wookiepedia Moderators imposing demands and deadlines on him.

“Fandom staff intervention to have the vote closed. The messages I shared here are ones I got from a fellow admin, and someone I had considered a close friend. When it came down to it though, they didn't care at all about hurting me. They didn't care about me being harassed. They didn't care about my mental health, and were more interested in sending demands at 10pm my time” - Quote from Jordan Wilson about the moderation of Wookiepedia (2025)

This wasn't the first time Fandom Staff got involved internally in Wookiepedia affairs. In 2022, Justin C., who runs the “EckhartsLadder” channel dedicated to reporting science fiction, shared a video related to an incident in Fandom moderation, where the company had allowed wiki chats to be used to share inappropriate messages. The video discussed Fandom's approach to who should be blamed for the site's lack of moderation. The company received backlash from editors and content creators, partly due to the site's lack of professionalism in responding to criticism of the site's moderation, such as the fact that the former VP of Fandom, Brandon Rhea, began insulting people who were reporting the controversy

Incidents of harassment had also spread to other wikis, including Nukapedia, where volunteers on the website had doxxed and banned a trans editor for expressing concerns about the state of the website. (See "As a Fallout fan would you consider leaving a community where a dominant mod posted this" by Calder via Tumblr)

Inappropiate Ads

The website has previously displayed ads with NSFW content, including pornographic games. Some of these ads may redirect users to malicious websites. Additionally, Fandom does not usually report which ads are displayed on its pages. Among them are ads supporting the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which has caused controversy in communities, especially considering that this organization has supported the genocide taking place in Gaza. This would not be the first time that Fandom would be hosting political ads, in a report by Adalytics it was made clear that Fandom is showing “Make America Great Again PAC” ads during the 2024 U.S. elections.

Working Conditions

Working conditions at Fandom are quite poor according to some former Wiki representatives and editors, with layoffs and massive firings being quite common. This is one of the reasons why it has become much more noticeable that they cannot manage their website, as well as failures on the part of the company to properly address moderation issues such as grooming and harassment of minors.

In 2021, one of the former representatives of Wiki reported on working conditions at the company, explaining that they did not have the right to paid time off (PTO), a policy for employees in the US that allows them to take time off for sick days, vacations, or personal reasons. Additionally, the same review explained that most of the wiki representatives used by Fandom are in fact contractors who do not receive the same benefits as other employees such as a pay raise, and Fandom does not openly communicate whether contractors are fired or not. (Source: "Hostile work environment - recurring layoffs - managers blame subordinates for failure" via Indeed - 2021)

Unfortunately, problems with Fandom's management also extend to more of its wikis, including the editorial management of some of its publications acquired from Red Ventures (which, at the time of writing this article, have included AI-generated content for CNET articles and caused the website to be partially excluded from English Wikipedia). In 2022, Fandom acquired several entertainment sites such as GameSpot, TV Guide, GameFAQs, and GiantBomb, the latter of which was sold when the company imposed regulations that were unpopular with a large part of its staff, as well as a boycott by the GB community when those measures were implemented.

Comment by former Fandom Employee on the video "The Giant Bomb Situation is Insane" by Eyepatch Wolf (2025)

This raises many questions for us: if Fandom cannot provide a good working environment for its own contractors, then how can it do so for its editors and volunteers, who basically run its business for free? This is especially true for minors, who do not have the tools on the site to protect themselves from these situations.

“Layoffs and surprise firings are a regular occurrence. They don't even bother to tell people when they're fired, we just had to find out we've lost access, sometimes in the middle of working. An entire team was axed with nobody knowing what was going on until we pestered upper management enough to tell us that they just didn't want that team anymore (we had to get through some deflections first like "we're not going to discuss our reasons for firing others"), then they hired a new completely unqualified person to do the job of the whole team instead of promoting one of the highly-qualified people they cut.
The platform itself is a terrible experience for the user, yet any and all non-positive feedback, internal or external, seems to just go into a void, rarely even acknowledged. In fact, internal feedback is considered "unprofessional".” - Quote from "Okay side gig with poor management that has no respect for you" via Indeed (2023)

Reflections and Conclusions

Although this article paints Fandom in a bad light, it is mainly intended to highlight the voices of people who have been affected by the lack of moderation, especially victims of online grooming and neurodivergent people. Fandom is not the only social network/website that has had this type of controversy. The Amino app, which even attempted to recreate the User Generated Wikis model, has also been criticized for its management and use of underage labor to moderate its communities.

As a parent or legal guardian, you must ensure that your children do not browse the Internet unprotected. Although large companies claim to have a safety team that can help with these situations, it has been shown to be very ineffective in protecting minors. Additionally, it is important for responsible adults to ensure that their children do not moderate or take charge of these types of websites, as this not only borders on discussions of possible child labor but also raises ethical questions about whether it is morally correct for an underage person to work for a company instead of a real employee.