Trump administration accuses Wikipedia of 'propaganda,' threatens to remove its nonprofit status

The United States Justice Department accused the Wikimedia Foundation of being influenced by “foreign actors” seeking “to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public.”

The Wikimedia Foundation, based in St. Petersburg, Florida, is a nonprofit organization that supports the widely used online encyclopedia Wikipedia and other Wiki-affiliated projects.

However, the Trump administration has warned that the organization’s nonprofit status could be at risk due to its alleged conduct.

Last week, Ed Martin, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, accused Wikimedia in an official letter of “subverting the interests of American taxpayers.” Martin warned that this “masked propaganda” is incompatible with Wikimedia’s official education mission profile.

The senior attorney assessed that the organization’s current board is “composed primarily of foreign nationals,” which he believes threatens the interests of American taxpayers. Martin further argued that Wikimedia is involved in “a series of activities” that potentially violate U.S. nonprofit legislation. Conservative pundits have accused Wikimedia of embracing liberal and left-wing bias.

In a June 2024 report, the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute reported it had identified “suggestive evidence” of “slight to moderate” left-leaning bias in Wikimedia’s content. 

The Trump administration has previously cut funding to various universities, including Harvard and Columbia ,in an effort to combat antisemitism and anti-American radical left-wing agendas on campus. 

Wikimedia responded on Friday by claiming that its Wikipedia platform’s over 65 million articles are designed “to inform, not persuade.” 

“Our vision is a world where every person can freely share in the sum of all knowledge,” Wikimedia claimed in its official statement. 

However, critics dispute Wikimedia’s official claim of neutrality. 

Last month, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish-American watchdog that combats antisemitism, accused some 30 Wikipedia editors of cooperating to promote anti-Israel online content. The ADL report argued that anti-Israel Wikipedia editors “coordinate to change pages related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, downplaying Palestinian antisemitism, violence, and calls to destroy Israel while promoting criticism of Israel.”

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt assessed that Wikipedia’s biased content undermines the online platform’s credibility. 

“Most readers assume Wikipedia is a reliable online encyclopedia, but in reality, it has become a biased platform manipulated by agenda-driven editors on many topics,” Greenblatt stated. 

Wikipedia’s Arabic language content, in particular, has escalated its propaganda against the Jewish state since the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre in 2023. 

The Arabic language Wikipedia has falsely accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza as the Jewish state defends itself against Hamas terrorists who do not believe in Israel's right to exist.

Furthermore, Arabic Wikipedia has denied the many well-documented cases of Hamas terrorists raping Israeli women, claiming that it is an “Israeli propaganda lie.” 

“Each phrase… ‘genocide in Gaza,’ ‘killing civilians,’ ‘targeting hospitals and schools,’ and ‘mislead and double standards,’ leads to its own Arabic-language article," the American magazine National Review assessed in March 2024. 

“There is not even a pretense of objectivity there. It is pure incitement against Israel aimed at the Arabic-speaking audience,” the Jewish blogger Elder of Ziyon stated regarding Arab Wikipedia’s banner.