1. This week, the Foundation received a legal threat, termed by Brad
"the most serious legal threat we have received so far." The basis of
this threat was the statement by a very serious Florida-based group
with a very serious New York attorney that the Wikimedia Foundation
alone is legally liable for the actions of its admins, as they are
working on behalf of the Foundation.
[...]
4. At Brad's request, the two articles in question were stubbed and
protected. Brad wanted this to be done specifically by me, as an
employee of the Foundation, and not as an admin, which would feed into
the argument of those threatening us. The nature of the threat was,
and is, to be kept highly confidential. While the threat may have been
resolved in this instance, it could be used again, and we do NOT as
yet have a satisfactory answer to it.
In the comments for the post, he mentions this post as relevant explanation. From his contribution list of the time, it's rather obvious the articles in question are about NewsMax, a right-wing faux news website, and Christopher Ruddy, its founder. Apparently, the last pre-protection versions are correspondingly NewsMax Media #48758172 and Christopher Ruddy #48365799
If I understand the events properly, it seems that back in 2006, NewsMax folks took offence at something in the articles, threatened to sue Wikimedia Foundation if they're not censored, and Wikipedia obeyed.
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