Everybody knows that the first rule of the internet is that if you ask people not to do something, they will do it. That is, everybody except Zara Larsson.
In a TikTok on Wednesday, the singer-songwriter begged Wikipedia users to stop changing the photo on her page. In the clip, the 28-year-old took issue with “this fucking Wikipedia picture” of her holding a microphone, insisting instead that she wants to be seen on the page in a pink outfit with face paint, without a microphone. “I will never stop changing that picture to a nice one,” she tells the camera. “I will never stop.”
The TikTok shows her and her team going through photos uploaded to Wikipedia and scoffing at ones she deems unflattering. “Where’s my nice picture?” she asks while scrolling through a gallery. “Can I disapprove these pictures?” Then she finds the pink pic, whose official file name is “Zara Larsson Midnight Sun European Tour (cropped).jpg.”
“This is the one that I want,” she says. “And this is the one that we’re going to change to and keep changing to and keep changing to forever. And once again addressing whoever has the tenacity to show her holding a microphone, she chided, “I’m being so serious. Cut it out.”
At the time this article was published, the photo on her Wikipedia page was her preferred portrait. A refresh then showed no portrait at all. The page now has a “lock” indicating it’s “semi-protected” from future updates until next week.
A glance at the update history showed 70 revisions in the past day, showing photo updates and messages about Larsson’s TikTok, describing the changes as vandalism. “Let Zara choose her pic,” one user wrote. Another commented: “Recent flood of vandalism was caused by the article subject posting on TikTok, requesting this image be used instead of the previous one. Feel free to revert if controversial.”
Larsson likely knows that while she (and anyone) can update her own Wikipedia page, doing so is frowned upon, as it shows a conflict of interest. Her fans, of course, will support her, while anyone with a basic understanding of reverse psychology will do the opposite.
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