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Fact · impact · reported
Parts of Wikipedia, Edinburgh council, French government sites, the University of Geneva, online shops and the BBC were affected or taken offline
Not captured from any of the named organisations.
Fact-check
A2 Reported●●○○○○ · Attribution · verdict: holds
Every element is carried by the BBC live page, but Edinburgh council, online stores, the BBC itself and the University of Geneva are only in the 07:55Z raw copy (summary bullet and header-image alt text), not in the cited 08:05Z text capture. One named secondary party, so A2; the vault holds independent and operator captures that raise most items (Wikipedia, Edinburgh, French prefectures, UNIGE) but not "online shops".
| Capture checked | Result | What it says | sha256 of the text read |
|---|---|---|---|
| bbc-live-ckgel5xp2xv9t | partial | Wikipedia also took down parts of its website | c88b8c5f4c6bc07d |
| bbc-live-ckgel5xp2xv9t | partial | Government websites are down around the world, including France, due to the exposure | c88b8c5f4c6bc07d |
| bbc-live-ckgel5xp2xv9t | carries | Among the impacted sites are Wikipedia, Edinburgh council, many online stores and the BBC | fe32274b64ee109a |
| bbc-live-ckgel5xp2xv9t | carries | the university of geneva's website shows an error message that says it is down for maintenance. | ee7445a58187bcd6 |
| unige-site (in the vault, not yet on this site) | carries | The requested service is under maintenance for the moment. | 4bdf3d6eb3f0d3b6 |
| fr-prefecture-nord-down (in the vault, not yet on this site) | carries | Maintenance en cours Notre site sera à nouveau accessible d'ici quelques instants. | 72b685717874bab2 |
| fr-prefecture-rhone-down (in the vault, not yet on this site) | carries | Maintenance en cours Notre site sera à nouveau accessible d'ici quelques instants. | 72b685717874bab2 |
| actu17-prefectures (in the vault, not yet on this site) | carries | Les sites internet des préfectures, dont celui de la préfecture de police, sont inaccessibles depuis ce mercredi 21 octobre. | 84edb7f59b55a5ce |
| uk-edinburgh-council (in the vault, not yet on this site) | absent | nothing that carries it | eef60737c49dfded |
| wikimediastatus-page (in the vault, not yet on this site) | absent | All Systems Operational | 13e068d2c2b3665d |
| cyberexpress-php2shell-gov-sites | partial | Edinburgh council’s website and pages for BBC programmes, including Doctor Who and The Traitors, also went dark, though neither has confirmed a PHP link. | f45bc7599367343e |
Open tickets: Contradiction-6, Evidence-11, Evidence-3, Evidence-4, Finding-22, Finding-23, Finding-57, Gap-1.
Graded in Run-1, resting on captures up to 2026-10-22 08:05 UTC. The scale is on the fact-check page.
This fact over time
- 2026-10-22 06:16 UTCBBC News publishes PHP: Global scramble to fix critical cyber-security flaws as many websites taken offline - follow live
- 2026-10-22 08:04 UTCSaved into the evidence vault: BBC News, then 2 more captures
- 2026-10-22Enters this site as reported in v0.1.0 (reconstructed from git)
Published: when the source says it was published. Saved: the first capture into the evidence vault. The rest are this site: the release in which the fact first appeared and every release that changed its wording, sources or status.
What it rests on
Where this fact appears
In the briefings for:
And on every claim.
Every version of this fact
v1 · site v0.1.0 · 22 October 2026 · reported
Parts of Wikipedia, Edinburgh council, French government sites, the University of Geneva, online shops and the BBC were affected or taken offline Who says it: BBC Status: reported Topic: impact Sources: bbc-live-ckgel5xp2xv9t