This is an information page. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines; rather, its purpose is to explain certain aspects of Wikipedia's norms, customs, technicalities, or practices. It may reflect differing levels of consensus and vetting.

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This page in a nutshell: The community has decided to exclude certain highly questionable sources from articles, except in special cases.

Deprecated sources are highly questionable sources that editors are discouraged from citing in articles, because they fail the reliable sources guideline in nearly all circumstances. Use of these sources may generate edit filter warnings for registered users and may be automatically reverted for edits from IP addresses.

Deprecation is a formalization that arises from Wikipedia’s normal processes for evaluating sources. It primarily exists to save time by avoiding the endless discussion of the same issues, and to raise awareness among editors of the status of the sources in question. For example, if editors are unfamiliar with either the specific sources or the general sourcing requirements, they can be saved the experience of having their work undone later on. Deprecation can be proposed with a request for comment at the reliable sources noticeboard, and the restrictions are only applied if there is community consensus.^[1]

Since there are an endless number of poor sources, there are also an endless number of sources that would be deprecated if we bothered to have discussions on them. These sources have always been de facto deprecated as a normal result of our policies and guidelines that try to ensure that we use reputable sources. A discussion that results in deprecation may involve a change or clarification of editorial consensus (thus resulting in a change of current practice), but the only effect of deprecation alone is to explicitly codify the source’s pre-existing status, as already determined by Wikipedia’s sourcing requirements. It does not inherently change how they are evaluated under those requirements.

Deprecated sources should not be considered to be either unique or uniquely unreliable. They may be those that are most often cited by unaware editors, or those that come up in discussion the most often – for example, due to real-world controversy, borderline reliability, or a tendency to be promoted on-wiki despite a lack of reliability. Since there are many reasons that a source may be unreliable, the specific reasons for deprecation vary from case to case. The first source to be formally deprecated was the Daily Mail, which was determined by community consensus in a 2017 RfC to have a "reputation for poor fact checking, sensationalism, and flat-out fabrication". This RfC became a landmark decision, and new deprecation proposals are usually based on language from its closing summary.

Deprecating a source is different from blocking the source (blacklisting), which is generally done to address spam-related issues.

Deprecated sources are restricted in three ways, most of which were discussed in the 2017 Daily Mail RfC:

1. The source is designated as generally unreliable.
   • Citing the source as a reference is generally prohibited, especially when other more reliable sources exist. Images and quotations should also be avoided, since they can be manipulated or fabricated. If the source contains material that cannot be found in more reliable sources, it may be valid to assume that the material in question is incorrect. The source may only be used when there is a demonstrable need to use it instead of other sources.
   • The source is no longer used to determine notability.
2. Typically, the source is listed on User:XLinkBot/RevertList and User:XLinkBot/RevertReferencesList. XLinkBot automatically reverts links to the source that are added by unregistered users and accounts under seven days old. This behavior is subject to restrictions, which are described in the lists themselves.
3. Typically, an edit filter set to "warn" is implemented, which displays a message to editors having contributed more than 7 days and who are attempting to cite the source in an article, notifying them of the existing consensus and asking them if they want to proceed. At this point, the editor may choose to cancel the edit, or dismiss the warning and complete the edit.
   • This measure is implemented through filter 869 (hist · log), which marks all edits that trigger the filter with the "use of deprecated (unreliable) source" tag.

Deprecated sources with few valid use cases may be blocked due to persistent abuse. This involves the source being added to the spam blacklist and/or the Wikimedia global spam blacklist, which prevents editors from saving contributions containing a link to the source. It is not necessary for a source to be deprecated to be blocked, nor are all deprecated sources blocked.

Deprecation is not a blanket retroactive "ban" on using the source in absolutely every situation, contrary to what has been reported in media headlines.^[2] In particular, reliability always depends on the specific content being cited, and all sources are reliable in at least some circumstances and unreliable in at least some others. Citations to deprecated sources should not be removed indiscriminately, and each case should be reviewed separately. While some deprecated sources have been completely eliminated as references, others have not.

Looking forward, however, the addition of new references from deprecated sources is extremely rare. Deprecated sources can normally be cited as a primary source when the source itself is the subject of discussion, such as to describe its own viewpoint. The verifiability policy provides an additional exception: a questionable source may be used for information on itself, subject to the conditions in WP:ABOUTSELF (see also WP:SPS and WP:BLPSELFPUB). An external link to the source can be included on an article about the source. Editors are also expected to use common sense and act to improve the encyclopedia. If an exception applies, the source can be evaluated and used like any other. Deprecation does not change the application of Wikipedia's policies and guidelines, and the use of all sources continues to be governed by WP:RS and WP:V.

Additional exceptions may be specific to individual sources as summarized in the RfC: for example, the 2017 closure of the Daily Mail RfC mentioned that participants said it may have been more reliable historically.

Deprecation is a status indicating that a source almost always falls below Wikipedia's standards of reliability, and that uses of the source must fall within one of the established acceptable uses. Establishing new types of acceptable use requires a demonstration that the source is uniquely reliable in those particular circumstances compared to other possible uses of the source.

Deprecating a source is a weaker measure than blocking or banning it, and the terms are not comparable to each other. Wikipedia's equivalent to blocking is blacklisting, which is an entirely separate mechanism, and websites are usually only blacklisted if they are involved in spam-related issues, such as external link spamming. Blacklisted sources are listed at the English Wikipedia spam blacklist and the Wikimedia global spam blacklist, with new proposals submitted at MediaWiki talk:Spam-blacklist. External links to blacklisted sources cannot be included in edits, and editors will be shown an error message. In contrast, deprecated sources can technically be entered by editors as long as they are not on either of the spam blacklists.

To start a discussion on deprecation, start a request for comment at the reliable sources noticeboard (RSN).^[1] Editors will then evaluate the source and determine whether there is a consensus for deprecation. However, if the source is not already de facto deprecated as current practice, or if the source has not already been discussed at length in the past, it may be a better idea to start a regular RSN discussion instead.

In general, a source that is proposed for deprecation should be either frequently used or frequently discussed. Additionally, in order to prevent instruction creep, sources that should be particularly obvious (for example, satire sites such as The Onion or The Babylon Bee) are unlikely to be formally deprecated unless there are editors seriously arguing for their reliability. Similarly, the fact that there may be non-deprecated sources which are just as bad as (or even worse than) a source under consideration is not considered to be a valid argument against deprecation.^[3]

Any source that fails the reliable sources guideline in nearly all circumstances. While we will never have an exhaustive list, most deprecation to date has focused on sources that promote known falsehoods, particularly debunked conspiracy theories. This does not have to be intentional and may be a result of factors such as poor fact checking or sensationalism. One might assume, for instance, that fake news websites are effectively deprecated, as are sources that promote pseudoscience or denialism. The pages on potentially unreliable sources and perennially discussed sources may also be helpful.

Since each source proposed for deprecation has to be discussed separately, we cannot formally deprecate all possible sources that deserve it. As described above, the fact that an unreliable source is listed here does not make it inherently different from an unreliable source that is not listed here.

Deprecated sources

Source	Date of deprecation	RfC	Auto-reverted	Edit-filtered	Black-listed	Notes	Uses
Al Mayadeen	17 November 2023	2023	2023	2023		Some editors consider it to misrepresent sources and lie, some describe it as propaganda.	1
ANNA News (Abkhazian Network News Agency, Analytical Network News Agency)	21 March 2022	2022	2022	2022			1
Baidu Baike	4 August 2020	2020	2020	2020		Unacceptable as it is a user-generated site similar to Wikipedia.	1   2   3   4
bestgore.com	24 April 2021	2021			2021		1
Breitbart News	25 September 2018	2018			2018		1   2
China Global Television Network (CGTN, CCTV International)	15 September 2020	2020	2020	2020			1
The Cradle	5 January 2024	2024	2024	2024			1
Crunchbase	18 March 2019	2019	2019	2021		Crunchbase is only listed on User:XLinkBot/RevertReferencesList, so citations to Crunchbase are only automatically reverted if they are in ref tags in addition to meeting the standard criteria.	1
The Daily Caller	13 February 2019	2019	2019	2019			1   2   3
Daily Mail (MailOnline)	8 February 2017	2017  2019  2020	2018	6[a]		The Daily Mail was the first source to be deprecated on Wikipedia. The decision was challenged and upheld in the 2019 RfC. This deprecation also includes the newspaper's website, MailOnline. Editors note that the Daily Mail may have been more reliable historically.	1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13
Daily Star (UK)	21 September 2020	2020	2020	2020			1   2
The Epoch Times (New Tang Dynasty Television, Vision Times, Vision China Times)	6 December 2019	2019	2019	2020  2023  2023			1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20
FrontPage Magazine (FPM, FrontPageMag.com)	18 July 2020	2020	2020	2020			1   2
The Gateway Pundit (TGP)	21 November 2019	2019	2019	2020			1
Global Times (Huanqiu Shibao)	4 September 2020	2020	2020	2020		Near unanimous consensus that Global Times publishes false or fabricated information, conspiracy theories, and propaganda promoting the Chinese government.	1   2
The Grayzone	8 March 2020	2020	2020	2020			1
HispanTV	19 May 2019	2019	2019	2020			1   2
Healthline	5 July 2023	2023			2023		1
InfoWars (NewsWars)	30 August 2018	2018			2018  2018		1   2   3   4   5
Jihad Watch	20 January 2021	2021	2021	2021			1
Last.fm	23 February 2019	2019	2019	2020			1
Lenta.ru (12 March 2014–present)	21 December 2019	2019			2020	There is currently no consensus on the reliability of Lenta.ru prior to 12 March 2014.	1
LifeSiteNews (Campaign Life Coalition)	4 July 2019	2019	2019	2019  2021			1   2
The Mail on Sunday	16 November 2020	2020	2020	2020			1   2   3   4
MintPress News	4 July 2019	2019	2019  2022	2020  2022			1   2   3   4
National Enquirer	17 March 2019	2019	2019			There is no consensus to implement an edit filter for the National Enquirer.	1
New Eastern Outlook	19 May 2022	2022	2022	2022			1
News Break	1 July 2020	2020	2020	2020		News Break is a news aggregator that publishes snippets of articles from other sources. In the 2020 RfC, there was consensus to deprecate News Break in favor of the original sources.	1
NewsBlaze	16 September 2021	2021	2021	2022			1   2
News of the World	4 December 2019	2019	2019	2020		Some editors consider News of the World to be reliable for film reviews.	1   2
Newsmax	20 November 2020	2020	2020	2020			1   2
NNDB (Notable Names Database)	23 February 2019	2019	2019	2020			1
Occupy Democrats (Washington Press)	25 September 2018	2018	2018  2023	2020  2023			1   2
One America News Network (OANN)	21 December 2019	2019	2019	2020			1
Peerage websites (self-published)	26 May 2020	2020  2020	2020	2020  2020		See the list of sites at Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Perennial sources#Self-published peerage websites.	1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10
Press TV	24 June 2021	2021	2021	2021			1   2   3   4
Project Veritas (James O'Keefe, O'Keefe Media Group)	26 July 2023	2023	2023	2023	2021	The deprecation includes all content by James O'Keefe in any medium.	1   2
Rate Your Music (RYM, Cinemos, Glitchwave, Sonemic)	23 February 2019	2019	2019	2020			1   2   3   4
Republic TV (Republic World)	26 October 2021	2021	2021	2021			1   2
Royal Central	11 September 2022	2022	2022	2022			1
RT (Russia Today, ANO TV-Novosti, Ruptly, Redfish, Maffick)	27 May 2020	2020	2020  2022  2024	4[b]			1   2   3   4   5   6   7
Sputnik	6 June 2020	2020	2020  2022  2023	8[c]			1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20
The Sun (UK) (The Sun on Sunday, The Irish Sun, The Scottish Sun, The U.S. Sun)	18 January 2019	2019	2019	2020  2020  2021		Some editors consider The Sun to be reliable for sports reporting.	1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8
Taki's Magazine (Takimag, Taki's Top Drawer)	3 October 2019	2019	2019	2020			1
Telesur	31 March 2019	2019	2019	2020			1   2
The Unz Review	15 October 2021	2021	2021	2021		The site's extensive archive of journal reprints includes many apparent copyright violations.	1   2
VDARE	22 December 2018	2018	2019	2019			1
Veterans Today	21 December 2019	2019			2019		1
Voltaire Network	12 June 2020	2020	2020	2020			1
WorldNetDaily (WND)	11 December 2018	2018	2018	2019			1   2
Zero Hedge (ZH)	16 July 2020	2020	2020	2020			1

Legend

• In a highly-attended 2020 discussion, there was consensus to deprecate OpIndia and Swarajya, but the discussion was not a request for comment.