Wikipedia's first sentence called it “egyptian-born coptic christian”. Today it says “egyptian-american writer”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Mark Basseley Youssef , formerly known as”. It now reads “Egyptian-American filmmaker (born 1957) Mark Basseley Youssef ( , born 1957), formerly known as”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-03.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2025 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2025
Egyptian-American filmmaker (born 1957) Mark Basseley Youssef ( Arabic : مارك باسيلي يوسف , born 1957), formerly known as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula ( Arabic : ناكولا باسيلي ناكولا ), is an Egyptian-American writer, producer, and promoter of Innocence of Muslims , a film which was critical of Islam and the Islamic prophet Muhammad . On July 2, 2012, a " Sam Bacile ", who was later identified as Nakoula, posted English-language promotional trailers for Innocence of Muslims on YouTube . The videos were later dubbed into Arabic and posted on the Internet in September 2012. Demonstrations and violent protests against the video broke out on September 11 in Egypt and spread to other Arab and Muslim countries and some western countries. These protests led to more than 50 deaths and hundreds of injuries. On September 27, 2012, U.S. federal authorities stated that Nakoula had been arrested in Los Angeles and charged with violating terms of his probation . Prosecutors stated that the violations included making false statements regarding his role in the film and his use of the alias "Sam Bacile". On November 7, 2012, Nakoula pleaded guilty to four of the charges against him and was sentenced to one year in prison and four years of supervised release .
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1253846300.
The opening as it stood in 2015
Mark Basseley Youssef , formerly known as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula (born 1957), is an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian , a U.S. resident who is a writer, producer and promoter of Innocence of Muslims , an anti-Islamic video that is perceived to denigrate Islam's prophet, Muhammad . On 2 July 2012, a "Sam Bacile", who was later identified as Nakoula, posted English-language promotional trailers for Innocence of Muslims on YouTube . The videos were later dubbed into Arabic and posted on the internet in September 2012. Demonstrations and violent protests against the video broke out on September 11 in Egypt and spread to other Arab and Muslim nations and some western countries. The protests led to hundreds of injuries and more than 50 deaths. On 27 September 2012, U.S. federal authorities stated that Nakoula had been arrested in Los Angeles and charged violating terms of his probation . Prosecutors stated that some of the violations included making false statements regarding his role in the film and his use of the alias "Sam Bacile". On 7 November 2012, Nakoula pled guilty to four of the charges against him and was sentenced to one year in prison and four years of supervised release .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 659769455.
The opening as it stood in 2020 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Mark Basseley Youssef , formerly known as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula (born 1957), is an Egyptian-born U.S. resident who was the writer, producer, and promoter of Innocence of Muslims , an anti-Islamic film which denigrated Islam 's prophet Muhammad . On 2 July 2012, a " Sam Bacile ", who was later identified as Nakoula, posted English-language promotional trailers for Innocence of Muslims on YouTube . The videos were later dubbed into Arabic and posted on the Internet in September 2012. Demonstrations and violent protests against the video broke out on September 11 in Egypt and spread to other Arab and Muslim countries and some western countries. These protests led to more than 50 deaths and hundreds of injuries. On 27 September 2012, U.S. federal authorities stated that Nakoula had been arrested in Los Angeles and charged with violating terms of his probation . Prosecutors stated that the violations included making false statements regarding his role in the film and his use of the alias "Sam Bacile". On 7 November 2012, Nakoula pleaded guilty to four of the charges against him and was sentenced to one year in prison and four years of supervised release .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 964995848.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023 1 passage from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Egyptian-American filmmaker (born 1957) Mark Basseley Youssef ( , born 1957), formerly known as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula ( ), is an Egyptian-American writer, producer, and promoter of Innocence of Muslims , a film which was critical of Islam and the Islamic prophet Muhammad . On July 2, 2012, a " Sam Bacile ", who was later identified as Nakoula, posted English-language promotional trailers for Innocence of Muslims on YouTube . The videos were later dubbed into Arabic and posted on the Internet in September 2012. Demonstrations and violent protests against the video broke out on September 11 in Egypt and spread to other Arab and Muslim countries and some western countries. These protests led to more than 50 deaths and hundreds of injuries. On September 27, 2012, U.S. federal authorities stated that Nakoula had been arrested in Los Angeles and charged with violating terms of his probation . Prosecutors stated that the violations included making false statements regarding his role in the film and his use of the alias "Sam Bacile". On November 7, 2012, Nakoula pleaded guilty to four of the charges against him and was sentenced to one year in prison and four years of supervised release .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1170901547.
Today
Wikipedia's first sentence called it “egyptian-born coptic christian”. Today it says “egyptian-american writer”. The one-line description Wikipedia serves to search engines and AI systems read “Mark Basseley Youssef , formerly known as”. It now reads “Egyptian-American filmmaker (born 1957) Mark Basseley Youssef ( , born 1957), formerly known as”. Read the current article and compare.
2015
2020
Oct '23
2025
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined since 2015, and today's defining sentence is their current revision.
Then
egyptian-born coptic christian
Now
egyptian-american writer
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.