WP:Article hijack

{{distinguish|Wikipedia:Don't hijack references|Wikipedia:Cuckoo editing}}

{{essay|WP:ARTHI|WP:AHIJACK|WP:HIJACK/A}}

{{nutshell| Don't overwrite an existing article or any other page with a completely different or new topic.}}

An article hijack occurs when an existing page is changed from one subject to another, as in the following examples:

• A Russian film becomes an advertisement for software.
• Australian cricketer Joel Joseph becomes a Tanzanian music manager.
• Retired American soccer midfielder Josh Keller becomes actor, fashion & lifestyle photographer Joshua Lawrence Heller.
• Pakistani general Abdullah Saeed becomes an American TV producer.
• A prehistoric marsupial becomes a clan of an Indian caste.
• The disambiguation page for Sacrorum, written in 2009, is [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&page=Sacrorum moved to "C. L. Services, Inc"] in 2016 and its content completely erased by an advertisement for a logistics company in Atlanta, and has to be history-merged back into the original page in 2020.
• A 2005 song by Wyclef Jean, composed for the movie Hotel Rwanda, becomes a 2012 song by Otto Knows.

:* The article hijack went unnoticed for 12 years.

:* The WikiProject banner was never changed.

:* The article history had to be split.

:* Talk page sections had to be [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Million_Voices_(2012_song)/Archive_1&action=history archived and moved].

:* Wikidata information had to be [https://www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=Q3314357&diff=prev&oldid=2236844638 adjusted], because Albanian Wikipedia [https://sq.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Million_Voices&action=history did not change] with the release of the 2012 song.

:* What a mess! [https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log&page=A+Million+Voices+%28song%29 Errors were made] during the untangling.

Hijacking articles in this way is never helpful. Not only does it cause loss of the original article, but even when that original article has no worthwhile content, combining content of two completely different articles into the history of one page causes confusion. Article hijacking is most commonly done by new editors. A much better way of dealing with that restriction is to start new articles in the draft namespace, or go through WP:AfC. Of course, it is also sometimes done by spammers and undisclosed paid editors who are deliberately trying to circumvent these processes.

While it is most common with articles, this can also occur with redirects. If you follow a redirect and end up at an entirely unexpected target, checking the history is always prudent. In obvious cases, a bold correction is the most efficient solution.