Miami Lakes Mayor Manny Cid has had a Wikipedia page up since November. But a couple of days after Cid, who is running for Miami-Dade Mayor, launched a video this week about incumbent Mayor Daniella Levine Cava‘s $2.5 billion bond initiative, an anonymous editor “nominated this article for deletion.”
Notes on the website page say someone named BottleOfChocolateMilk doesn’t think Cid, who has been mayor of Miami Lakes for eight years, deserves a page.
“Non-notable mayor of a small city in Florida (population 30,000). Manny Cid doesn’t seem to have gotten in-depth news coverage from any outlets outside the Miami area, there’s just some routine coverage of his administration and campaigns from local outlets. I don’t see any reason to justify him having a Wikipedia page,” the first note says.
Read related: Manny Cid PAC hits Mayor Daniella Levine Cava on $2.5 billion bond
“It’s also worth pointing out that this page was created shortly after Cid announced his candidacy for Miami-Dade County mayor, and that the creator has only ever edited this page, the page for the city where Cid serves as mayor, and the page for the election he’s currently running in.”
It’s also worth pointing out that BottleOfChocolateMilk has also commented on or edited or created other political pages, including one on the last New York City mayoral elections, one on the 2020 congressional race in Indiana, the 2022 Nebraska gubernatorial election and the 2022 Florida Senate race, where she or he “added a candidate to the declared section that wasn’t yet registered in the Florida Department of State register for declared candidates.”
So it looks like a political operative using Wikipedia to campaign.
The comment was posted Feb. 13, two days after Political Cortadito published a story about the video Cid’s political action committee released blasting La Alcaldesa’s bond proposal, a bomb she dropped on everybody during her State of the County address last month.
Read related: La Alcaldesa’s camp responds to Manny Cid’s PAC attack on her $2.5 bil bond
“It’s definitely related,” Cid said. “They’re trying to eliminate my name from Google searches. It’s unprecedented. That’s never happened in any other mayor’s race. And we’ve looked everywhere.”
Wikipedia is known for its protection of voters’ rights against misinformation and advocates for correct information. In 2020, Wikipedia — considered a trusted source even though it is written and edited by unvetted volunteers who call themselves Wikipedians — created a disinformation task force and locked down its main election page ahead of the U.S. presidential election so only certain editors could make changes.
Cid says that the attempt to wipe him off Wikipedia indicates that the Levine Cava camp is nervous about his candidacy.
“They’re polling all the time,” Cid said, adding that one person he knows has been called at least four times.
Two days after the comment was posted to delete Cid’s page, on Thursday, someone else said Wikipedia should keep Cid.
“Cid was the first mayor in the United States to allow for remote public comments for residents. Here are several national outlets that wrote on this. https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-miami-lakes-town-council-video-conferencing.htmlhttps://commonedge.org/conducting-city-government-on-zoom-mayor-manny-cid/. He has also been mentioned on several national outlets including here: https://www.politico.com/newsletters/florida-playbook/2023/09/06/miami-dade-contest-heats-up-00114184. Many cities followed his lead and implemented remote participation. His impact extends far beyond where he is mayor.”
Could it be someone in his campaign?
Suddenly, after video ad, Manny Cid’s Wikipedia page is questioned, at risk added by Ladra on
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