Talk:Scribd

The user below has a request that an edit be made to Scribd. That user has an actual or apparent conflict of interest. Summary of request: review diff for multiple content edits The requested edits backlog is very high. Please be extremely patient. There are currently 1215 requests waiting for review. Please read the instructions for the parameters used by this template for accepting and declining them, and review the request below and make the edit if it is well sourced, neutral, and follows other Wikipedia guidelines and policies. Remember to set the |answered= parameter to "yes" when the request has been accepted, rejected or on hold awaiting user input.

Hello, I am requesting multiple edits as a representative of Scribd with a conflict of interest. I have drafted a new History section and made a diff in my user space here. In my proposed version, History and Products merge the current History and Timeline sections, as well as most of the Reception section, and add additional context and clarification.

I've tried to eliminate promotional and biased language and incorporate reliable sources in the absence of sources or live reference links. It also includes new content from 2020 to the present day to update the article.

• Information from the Timeline section and the Reception: Controversies subsection has been added into the History section chronologically.

The following content was omitted from this move due to lack of relevance to Scribd's activities as a company:

In March 2009, the passwords of several Comcast customers were leaked on Scribd. The passwords were later removed when the news was published by The New York Times.^[1][2][3]

The following content was omitted from this move due to lack of proper sourcing because this citation references a blog post:

Scribd has been accused of "[having] built its business on stealing from former customers" after numerous complaints of continuing to charge former subscribers on a monthly basis who had cancelled their subscriptions long prior to the charges.^[4]

The following content was omitted from this move due to lack of sourcing on the statement of The Social Network and a dead link on the statement pertaining to the block in Turkey, which I was not able to find a reliable source to support:

In July 2010, the script of The Social Network (2010) movie was uploaded and leaked on Scribd; it was promptly taken down per Sony's DMCA request.

Following a decision of the Istanbul 12th Criminal Court of Peace, dated March 8, 2013, access to Scribd is blocked for Internet users in Turkey.^[5]

• The subsections in History have been re-distributed and re-named, omitting the subsections on Audiobooks, Comics, and Social reading app for book club communities. The majority of that content has been added to Products. The new subsections of History are Founding (2006), Early growth (2007-2009), Technological expansion (2010-2016), and Acquisitions and development (2020-present). The new subsections focus on the activities of the company that comprise its history in an updated and chronological fashion.

• This diff deletes the following because both sources used for the statement are unreliable:

In August 2010, many notable documents hosted on Scribd became viral phenomenons, including the California Proposition 8 ruling, which received over 100,000 views in about 24 minutes, and HP's lawsuit against Mark Hurd's move to Oracle.^[6][7]

• The following paragraph is deleted in the diff because it reads as promotional:

The reporting system was discontinued on February 6, 2018, in favor of a system of "constantly rotating catalogs of ebooks and audiobooks" that provided "an unlimited number of books and audiobooks, alongside unlimited access to news, magazines, documents, and sheet music"^[8] for a monthly subscription fee of US$8.99.^[9] However, under this unlimited service, Scribd would occasionally "limit the titles that you’re able to access within a specific content library in a 30-day period."^[10]

• The following paragraph is deleted in the diff because it is unsourced and adds bias.
  

However, in December 2016, comics were eliminated from the service due to low demand.

• The content of the subsection Unbundling (2023-present) is explained more fully throughout the diff with reliable sources.

• The subsection Acquisitions and development (2020-present) has been added and reads as follows:

Scribd began acquiring companies and products outside of their original library service in 2020 when the company purchased Slideshare from Microsoft.^[11] It also launched a separate subscription-based library for audiobooks and ebooks called Everand in 2023.^[12]

In 2024, the company's chief financial officer Tony Grimminck was promoted to chief executive officer.^[13] That same year, Scribd Inc. announced that the subscription plan on Everand would convert to a credit system in 2025 as they expanded partnerships with major publishing houses, such as Hachette Book Group, Penguin Random House, and more.^[14]

The company purchased the social reading platform Fable in 2025, and reported that Fable's number of subscribers had increased from 3 million to 5 million by August 2026.^[15]

• Subsequently, because all the information has been removed from the Timeline section into the History or Products sections, the heading should be deleted.

• The subsection on BookID has been placed at the end of the Technology section.

@Packrat3860: I would love your input if you are interested in reviewing!

Thank you for your time and collaboration! Islewis (talk) 17:53, 30 September 2026 (UTC)

Some of the stuff you're removing here the sources seem fine? The archive link works for the Istanbul court block. KPCC and TechCrunch seem like good enough sources to me regarding these controversies. The Comcast leak has reporting from the NYT and involves official response from the company, so I think it is plenty relevant.

I haven't had time to look through the full diff yet but those ought to be retained imo. Packrat3860 (talk) 18:28, 30 September 2026 (UTC)

@Packrat3860: Thank you for the quick response!

Regarding the sources you mentioned:

• You are correct that KPCC is a solid source, but the referenced article is from the LAist in 2010, before KPCC bought the LAist. There is a note at the top of the article that its publication predates current editorial management, and there is no consensus among editors that LAist was a reliable source prior to KPCC’s takeover of LAist, so I thought it best to remove it.
• This specific piece from TechCrunch was written by a general partner at Google Ventures, not a staff member. This post does not seem like an unbiased source. Additionally, while this article states that the complaint was posted on Scribd, the article currently cites the complaint as an example of a “viral phenomenon,” but I have not been able to find anything indicating that that particular Scribd material went viral.
• The link and archived link from Freedom House give me a “Page Not Found” every time I click on them, and I cannot find the post through their website - do you mind sharing a link that’s working for you?

Regarding the Comcast passwords event, it seemed like an unnecessary detail to me. The sources are reliable, but the event was pretty minor and didn’t result in any kind of follow up action. It can be summarized as “In March 2009, The New York Times reported that approximately 800 Comcast usernames and passwords had been shared on Scribd and were later removed.”

Thanks so much! Islewis (talk) 16:37, 2 October 2026 (UTC)