Trump’s D.C. Prosecutor Is Going After Wikipedia For Allegedly Spreading ‘Propaganda’

Attorney Ed Martin claims that Wikimedia, the nonprofit that runs the free online encyclopedia, is “allowing foreign actors" to "manipulate information."

The nonprofit group that runs Wikipedia was threatened by Ed Martin, the interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, in a letter accusing it of “allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public.”

“Wikipedia is permitting information manipulation on its platform, including the rewriting of key, historical events and biographical information of current and previous American leaders, as well as other matters implicating the national security and the interests of the United States,” Martin wrote in a letter dated Thursday that was first reported by The Free Press.

The letter accuses the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind the online encyclopedia, of violating a tax code that requires nonprofits to operate exclusively for “religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes.”

Investigations into the tax-exempt statuses of nonprofits are usually handled by the Internal Revenue Service, not criminal prosecutors, The Free Press noted, citing the IRS complaint process.

Martin said in the letter that his office received information that Wikipedia’s “information management policies” have benefited “foreign powers.” He claimed that Wikipedia subverts “the interests of American taxpayers” due to its board being made up “primarily of foreign nationals.”