Twitter billionaire pays to have his BLP deleted

[Mancunium]

Who is Twitter's mysterious 'big investor'?
The Telegraph, 4 October 2013 link

He is thought to have been instrumental in attracting major private investors to the microblogging site, pumping more than $1bn into the business through his own and his clients' investments.

But little is known about Suhail Rizvi, founder of New York private equity outfit Rizvi Traverse Management, who is poised to become one of the biggest winners from Twitter's upcoming initial public offering.

Here are six of the things we do know about the enigmatic Mr Rizvi.

He has no Wikipedia page, just one picture online..and does not tweet

The 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture from the Internet.

The only readily found picture of Rizvi is a snapshot of him sitting with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and Alwaleed in a New York hotel after the prince bought Twitter shares.

Is he paying someone in the WMF, or a WP admin, or Mr and Mrs Jimbo?

[Randy from Boise]

Who is Twitter's mysterious 'big investor'?
The Telegraph, 4 October 2013 link

He is thought to have been instrumental in attracting major private investors to the microblogging site, pumping more than $1bn into the business through his own and his clients' investments.

But little is known about Suhail Rizvi, founder of New York private equity outfit Rizvi Traverse Management, who is poised to become one of the biggest winners from Twitter's upcoming initial public offering.

Here are six of the things we do know about the enigmatic Mr Rizvi.

He has no Wikipedia page, just one picture online..and does not tweet

The 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture from the Internet.

The only readily found picture of Rizvi is a snapshot of him sitting with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and Alwaleed in a New York hotel after the prince bought Twitter shares.

Is he paying someone in the WMF, or a WP admin, or Mr and Mrs Jimbo?

Well, that's one source towards GNG right there.

I completely fucking hate article subjects pulling stunts like this. Writing fluff pieces about the internet bourgeoisie isn't how i spend my time though...

RfB

[Midsize Jake]

The 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture from the Internet.

So naturally, someone immediately goes in and creates the article in question. Some things never change...

Note that I don't see anything in the page logs for his name, nor is there a pre-existing AfD. So he might have employed such a person, but until today that person has had a fairly easy job, at least as far as WP is concerned.

[Mason]

Interesting. I wonder who Veripedian (T-C-L) is.

[Mason]

So naturally, someone immediately goes in and creates the article in question. Some things never change...

I wonder if garage bands could exploit that technique. Get an article about themselves in the local music rag with a quote about how they employ a roadie whose job it is to prevent Wikipedia from having an article about them, and the next day someone will create a Wikipedia article just to spite them.

[HRIP7]

I can't see any evidence that he ever had a Wikipedia biography. Could one of you admins check that?

Because if he didn't, then the new Wikipedia biography is already libellous.

He guards his privacy carefully, employing a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and remove his picture from the Internet.[6]

[Mason]

I can't see any evidence that he ever had a Wikipedia biography. Could one of you admins check that?

Because if he didn't, then the new Wikipedia biography is already libellous.

He guards his privacy carefully, employing a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and remove his picture from the Internet.[6]

Well, I see that Tom harrison (T-C-L) deleted suhail rizvi (T-H-L) (note the lowercase) in 2007.

[HRIP7]

I can't see any evidence that he ever had a Wikipedia biography. Could one of you admins check that?

Because if he didn't, then the new Wikipedia biography is already libellous.

He guards his privacy carefully, employing a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and remove his picture from the Internet.[6]

Well, I see that Tom harrison (T-C-L) deleted suhail rizvi (T-H-L) (note the lowercase) in 2007.

Okay. Can an admin check that that article was actually about the same Suhail Rizvi, rather than some dude in South Asia?

[Mason]

Curiouser and curiouser... the account that created that page was Suhail Rizvi (T-C-L). They have no other edits other than the (deleted) edit to create that page. A fan, maybe? A joe job? Surely not Rizvi himself?

Here's what was deleted:

Suhail Rizvi is an entrepreneur and founder of the investment firm Rizvi Traverse. Rizvi Traverse provides alternative investment strategies in private equity and independent film finance. During his career he has acquired or invested in over 32 companies in a diverse set of industries. Suhail is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and serves on the school's Executive Board

Only two edits; one by the SR account to create the article, and one (by Jvhertum (T-C-L)) to tag it with "{{db-bio}}".

[HRIP7]

Curiouser and curiouser... the account that created that page was Suhail Rizvi (T-C-L). They have no other edits other than the (deleted) edit to create that page. A fan, maybe? A joe job? Surely not Rizvi himself?

Here's what was deleted:

Suhail Rizvi is an entrepreneur and founder of the investment firm Rizvi Traverse. Rizvi Traverse provides alternative investment strategies in private equity and independent film finance. During his career he has acquired or invested in over 32 companies in a diverse set of industries. Suhail is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and serves on the school's Executive Board

Only two edits; one by the SR account to create the article, and one (by Jvhertum (T-C-L)) to tag it with "{{db-bio}}".

Thanks. Well, the deletion was under the a7 criterion for speedy deletion. Seems like a common, garden-variety deletion of an article that lacked evidence of notability.

[thekohser]

Because if he didn't, then the new Wikipedia biography is already libellous.

He guards his privacy carefully, employing a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and remove his picture from the Internet.[6]

Why do you hate Wikipedia, Andreas? The correct thing, rather than deleting the sentence, would have been to simply add, "According to one source that Wikipedia considers reliable..."

[Midsize Jake]

Curiouser and curiouser... the account that created that page was Suhail Rizvi (T-C-L). They have no other edits other than the (deleted) edit to create that page. A fan, maybe? A joe job? Surely not Rizvi himself?

Maybe not, but I believe we've seen that before - some people with weak ego-facades have a kind of narcissistic ego-crisis brought on by an article about them being deleted under the "NNP" rubric, whether they post the article themselves or not. The person can't deal with the fact that his achievements don't warrant even a stupid little Wikipedia BLP, so he invents a mythology involving (a) not wanting the article to exist, (b) taking steps to ensure that it doesn't, and optionally, (c) powerful, influential, and non-existent forces working on the person's behalf in that regard.

The cool thing about this approach is that the person actually does want the article to exist, he just doesn't want it to be deleted again. And since it's Wikipedia, all it takes is media coverage stating that he doesn't want it to exist, and presto-bingo, there's your BLP.

[Randy from Boise]

Curiouser and curiouser... the account that created that page was Suhail Rizvi (T-C-L). They have no other edits other than the (deleted) edit to create that page. A fan, maybe? A joe job? Surely not Rizvi himself?

Maybe not, but I believe we've seen that before - some people with weak ego-facades have a kind of narcissistic ego-crisis brought on by an article about them being deleted under the "NNP" rubric, whether they post the article themselves or not. The person can't deal with the fact that his achievements don't warrant even a stupid little Wikipedia BLP, so he invents a mythology involving (a) not wanting the article to exist, (b) taking steps to ensure that it doesn't, and optionally, (c) powerful, influential, and non-existent forces working on the person's behalf in that regard.

The cool thing about this approach is that the person actually does want the article to exist, he just doesn't want it to be deleted again. And since it's Wikipedia, all it takes is media coverage stating that he doesn't want it to exist, and presto-bingo, there's your BLP.

I think it's safe to say that most billionaires are gonna clear GNG.

This scenario strikes me as a really backwards way to create a fluff bio — reverse psychology trying to get a Wikipedian to write a balanced freebie vs. tossing a few hundred bucks at a PR firm or an employee lickspittle.

RfB

[Hersch]

Well, I see that Tom harrison (T-C-L) deleted suhail rizvi (T-H-L) (note the lowercase) in 2007.

Well, that's certainly interesting. Tom Harrison cultivates an image of being just some dude who is doggedly defending the project against the ravages of conspiracisticisticism, but I have always thought that there was a lot more to him than meets the eye.

[EricBarbour]

Well, I see that Tom harrison (T-C-L) deleted suhail rizvi (T-H-L) (note the lowercase) in 2007.

I can easily believe that Mr. Harrison is performing paid edits, and covering it up. I'm looking into paid editing by Wikipedia insiders,
and keep finding more and more obvious examples of it, plus plenty of possible examples. The place is completely corrupt--they chase
declared paid editors off because they want the business for themselves.

Hey, Tom! Where's "Criticism of Jimmy Wales"? Oh, right, it's on MyWikiBiz, because you and your little friends don't want Jimbo criticized.
If there was criticism of Jimbo, then there would be criticism of the rest of you admins.

(And if Rizvi wants his privacy, why is there a CrunchBase biography of him?)

[EricBarbour]

Look at Harrison's deletion logs. He deleted more than 3500 articles and images since 2006. How many involved payment?

[Midsize Jake]

This scenario strikes me as a really backwards way to create a fluff bio — reverse psychology trying to get a Wikipedian to write a balanced freebie vs. tossing a few hundred bucks at a PR firm or an employee lickspittle.

I doubt the reverse psychology is intentional in cases like this - most of these people are far too egocentric to care about what motivates others, particular if they don't interact with them on a regular basis. This guy might be unusual in that he seems mostly satisfied with the lack of public attention, but that could just be an internal compromise over the lack of direct control he'd have over how he'd be perceived by others.

The fact remains, any time you're dealing with Wikipedians who might think you're trying to thwart them in some way, reverse psychology is what works. In some cases, it's the only thing that works.

[Mancunium]

A more detailed story about Suhail Rizvi, and the lede is:

When Twitter goes public in coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture from the Internet.

Secretive Hollywood investor poised to score with Twitter IPO
The Globe and Mail, 4 October 2013 link

Rizvi’s growing network includes the likes of Vivi Nevo, the secretive Time Warner Inc shareholder who also famously prided himself on being “UnGoogleable,” mutual friends of the two men said.

But while Nevo is now easy to find online, Rizvi maintains an elusive Web presence. The only readily found picture of Rizvi is a snapshot of him sitting with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and Alwaleed in a New York hotel after the prince bought Twitter shares.

The photo, on a Saudi news outlet, had irked Twitter executives and Rizvi, as they had preferred to keep the transaction quiet.

The photo:



Prince Alwaleed meets Twitter management in New York
MediaMe, 2 September 2012 link

The photo with tiny caption:

[SB_Johnny]

A more detailed story about Suhail Rizvi, and the lede is:

Sorry, but aren't you that earl of something or other who doesn't want to be trotted out on the interwebs, and (presumably) thinks people shouldn't be subject to that if they don't want to be?

Just asking.

[EricBarbour]

Forget it, he's rolling.

[Mancunium]

A more detailed story about Suhail Rizvi, and the lede is:

Sorry, but aren't you that earl of something or other who doesn't want to be trotted out on the interwebs, and (presumably) thinks people shouldn't be subject to that if they don't want to be?

Just asking.

Sorry, but isn't this thread about a billionaire who is said to employ a person to take down his Wikipedia entry?

If you want me to recuse myself from posting on BLPs, just let me know.

[SB_Johnny]

If you want me to recuse myself from posting on BLPs, just let me know.

Not at all, I was just surprised by the follow-up (re-posting the pix of him and such).

(We don't approve of recusal around here, as a rule .)

[Midsize Jake]

They weren't trying very hard - he's even wearing a nametag in this one, though it may not be the same guy (he looks older than the guy in the group photo, who would be the second one from the right).

Indeed, it was a different guy. (My bad.)

There are probably ways we can ethically justify hot-linking such images or even carrying them directly. But SB_Johnny may be right; the thing is to determine if the "person employed to take down his Wikipedia entry" was invented by him or by the Telegraph.co.uk reporter. I suspect the reporter, personally, in which case the mods should (IMO) feel free to delete the (hot-linked) image above.

[Mancunium]

Forget it, he's rolling.

[Mancunium]

Right. Rizvi and I are in exactly the same league.

Google News:

Secretive Hollywood investor poised to score with Twitter IPO
The Globe and Mail - ‎14 minutes ago‎
When Twitter goes public in coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture from the Internet. Over the past two ...

Suhail Rizvi: the 47-year-old 'unsocial' social media baron
Hindustan Times - ‎1 hour ago‎
When Twitter goes public in the coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his photos from the internet. He was born in ...

Suhail Rizvi: Twitter's secret investor with 15% stake of more than $1 billion
Economic Times - ‎2 hours ago‎
When Twitter goes public in coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture from the Internet. Over the past two ...

Suhail Rizvi: the 'unsocial' social media baron
Hindustan Times - ‎2 hours ago‎
When Twitter goes public in the coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his photos from the internet. He was born in ...

Little-known Hollywood investor poised to score with Twitter IPO
The Globe and Mail - ‎3 hours ago‎
When Twitter goes public in coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture from the Internet. Over the past two ...

Mysterious Twitter Investor to Make Big Bucks on IPO
Newser - ‎7 hours ago‎
Reuters has this great example: The 47-year-old pays someone to take down his Wikipedia page and ensure no photos of him appear on the Internet. It's doubtful Rizvi will get the largest single payout, however. The best bet there is Williams himself, whose ...

Little-known investor poised to score big with Twitter IPO
ArabianBusiness.com - ‎9 hours ago‎
When Twitter goes public in coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture from the Internet. Over the past two ...

Who is Twitter's mysterious 'big investor'?
Telegraph.co.uk - ‎9 hours ago‎
The 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture from the Internet. The only readily found picture of Rizvi is a snapshot of him sitting with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo ...

Twitter IPO: Stealth Investor Suhail Rizvi Set to Make Fortune
IBTimes.co.uk - ‎10 hours ago‎
Stealth investor Suhail Rizvi is poised to make a killing when Twitter goes public (Reuters). Suhail Rizvi, a US-based financer and secretive Twitter shareholder, is poised to make a killing on the stock markets when the microblogging service goes public later ...

Insight - Little-known Hollywood investor poised to score with Twitter IPO
Reuters UK - ‎14 hours ago‎
LOS ANGELES/ SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When Twitter goes public in coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his ...

Media-shy banker to score on Twitter IPO
Independent Online - ‎16 hours ago‎
LOS ANGELES/ SAN FRANCISCO - When Twitter goes public in coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture ...

Little-known Hollywood investor to score with Twitter IPO
Moneycontrol.com - ‎18 hours ago‎
When Twitter goes public in coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture from the Internet. Over the past two ...

Little-known Hollywood investor poised to score big with Twitter IPO
GMA News - ‎22 hours ago‎
LOS ANGELES/ SAN FRANCISCO - When Twitter goes public in coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture ...

Meet the secretive investor set for a big win on Twitter's IPO
The Australian Financial Review - ‎Oct 3, 2013‎
When Twitter goes public in coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his picture from the internet. Over the past two ...

A Little-Known Hollywood Investor Is Poised To Make Millions Off The Twitter IPO
Business Insider - ‎Oct 3, 2013‎
LOS ANGELES/ SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When Twitter goes public in coming weeks, one of the biggest winners will be a 47-year-old financier who guards his secrecy so zealously that he employs a person to take down his Wikipedia entry and scrub his

[Midsize Jake]

Right. Rizvi and I are in exactly the same league.

Don't worry...

Maybe now that this story is breaking across multiple tiers of online media, maybe an additional point we should consider is the extent to which he deserves privacy, in light of the fact that his investments support media properties (not just web-based) that arguably could be used to invade privacy or defame people. Maybe that's not our call to make, but either way, the first thing is to determine the veracity of the story. I still think it's bogus - this guy can't be that stupid, can he?

You'd think he would know that something like that is far more likely to blow up in his face, unless of course he wants the BLP and is using reverse psychology to get it. If that's the case, then he just won big.

[Mason]

I suspect the reporter, personally, in which case the mods should (IMO) feel free to delete the (hot-linked) image above.

It very much sounds like the kind of thing that would be a reporter's misinterpretation/misunderstanding/jumping to conclusions. Reporters screw up and invent things like that all the time, I've noticed. It would be interesting to know what Mr. Rizvi actually said that gave the reporter the false impression that there was somebody actively thwarting attempts to create an article about him.

[thekohser]

I'm hoping the billionaire fires a certain incompetent Twitter customer support person and replaces her with someone whose head is not up her a**.

[Poetlister]

Andreas' edit is definitely wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... =575741009

"Removal under BLP policy: There's no evidence in logs or AfDs that he ever had a Wikipedia biography. Until such evidence is provided, it's not sound to say so"

We have something reliably sourced. Since by definition Wikipedia is not a reliable source, it cannot be used to disprove the statement. Anyway, if the article was oversighted that wouldn't be visible in the public logs.

[Midsize Jake]

The PR firm for Rizvi Traverse is the Brunswick Group, and their media contacts are Justin Dini and someone named Beau Allen (who doesn't have a profile page on Brunswick's site but still lists himself as an employee there on LinkedIn.) There's an e-mail address for Mr. Dini; maybe one of us should ask him? He'll probably ignore such inquiries, and it's always possible that Rizvi has his own personal PR team aside from Brunswick, but I guess it has to be attempted before coming to any conclusions.

I believe the most plausible explanation here is that Rizvi (or one of his PR people) tried to tell the Telegraph reporter that there's someone who searches for and tries to delete mentions of Rizvi in Wikipedia, which wouldn't require an administrator. The reporter misinterpreted it, as reporters often do, but still... why would they even say that, if they really didn't want an article to be created?

So, just to summarize, if the person who said it was a PR professional, that person is probably about to be fired, unless Rizvi ordered it as a reverse-psychology tactic to get himself a BLP. Whereas, if Rizvi himself said it, then... being a billionaire, Rizvi probably has no idea about how these things work, and didn't know that (a) only admins can delete entire articles, (b) serious suspicion would be cast on any admin who deleted an article about Rizvi, as well as any other user who deleted mentions of him, and (c) saying this would be completely self-defeating (again, unless).

Anyway, I think I'm going to stop obsessing about this, and go back to assuming that billionaires are mostly just arseholes who would burn the planet to the ground just to avoid paying a few bucks more in taxes.