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In a letter obtained by The Free Press, Trump appointee Ed Martin accuses the Wikimedia Foundation of violating the law. Critics say his tactics are ‘grandstanding
Ed Martin, the firebrand Republican activist whom President Donald Trump picked to be the top prosecutor in D.C., has a new target: Wikipedia.
Martin, the interim U.S. attorney in Washington and Trump’s permanent selection to serve in that role, sent a letter on Thursday afternoon to the Wikimedia Foundation that alleged it “is engaging in a series of activities that could violate its obligations” under 501(c)(3), a section of the IRS code for charities. It is Wikipedia’s parent group.
The letter, which was obtained by The Free Press, accused the largest online encyclopedia of “allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public.” The Wikimedia Foundation, Martin said, is directed by a board “that is composed primarily of foreign nationals” who are “subverting the interests of American taxpayers.”
The Trump-allied prosecutor went on to accuse the foundation of engaging in activities that are “implicating the national security and the interests of the United States,” according to the letter, which is four pages long and demanded responses to a dozen questions about the Wikimedia Foundation’s operations by May 15.
The Wikimedia Foundation did not respond to The Free Press’s request for comment.
The letter is unusual, since investigations into charities and their tax-exempt status are typically handled by the IRS.
“Unless the U.S. attorney is suggesting that a crime has been committed, it would be highly unusual to initiate any kind of investigation,” said Charles Watkins, an associate at the firm Webster, Chamberlain, & Bean who focuses on nonprofit law. “The normal process for investigating whether an organization continues to qualify for tax-exempt status starts with the IRS.”
The letter comes as free speech advocates say that the prosecutor is using his powerful office for “political grandstanding” and to chill partisan dissent. Martin has threatened to prosecute critics of Supreme Court justices and critics of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Martin also launched an investigation in April into a scientific journal that he accused of acting in a partisan manner.
A former leader of the Republican Party in Missouri, Martin is a veteran political operative who has never previously served as a prosecutor. He is also now investigating his own office for its prior handling of cases related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He was in the crowd that day in Washington and hours after the riot tweeted: “Like Mardi Gras in DC today: love, faith and joy. Ignore #FakeNews.” As an attorney outside the government, Martin defended several peoplecharged in relation to the riot.
Martin’s Thursday letter to the Wikimedia Foundation cited IRS lawthat holds that 501(c)(3) organizations must be organized for “religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, educational, or other specified purposes.”
“Masking propaganda that influences public opinion under the guise of providing informational material is antithetical to Wikimedia’s ‘educational’ mission,” Martin wrote in the letter, claiming his office received information showing that Wikipedia’s “policies benefit foreign powers.” The Wikimedia Foundation is based in San Francisco, though it is also listed as a registered corporation in D.C., and fundraises inthe district.
The letter did not specify which foreign actors were manipulating information on Wikipedia and did not cite examples of alleged propaganda. However, a person close to Martin said he is concerned about “edits on Wikipedia as they relate to the Israel-Hamas conflict that are clearly targeted against Israel to benefit other countries.”
The Anti-Defamation League published a report in March that claimed “at least 30 Wikipedia editors acted in concert to circumvent Wikipedia’s policies to introduce antisemitic narratives, anti-Israel bias, and misleading information.”
According to previous reporting by Pirate Wires, anti-Israel editors on Wikipedia have “hijacked the Israel-Palestine narrative” on the site by erasing key facts and pushing pro-Hamas propaganda.
Wikipedia was founded in 2000 to “create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language,” according to co-founder Jimmy Wales. But in recent years, the site has been accused of falling short of its commitment to neutrality. In 2020, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger declared Wikipedia “badly biased.” In 2023, he called its commitment to neutrality a “running joke.”
Martin is assisting the Justice Department’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, according to a letter from its leader, Leo Terrell, to Martin on April 8 that was obtained by The Free Press. Terrell said in the letter that any “accusation that you are antisemitic is clearly false, proven by your life and work.” Weeks later, Martin apologized in an interview with the Jewish publication Forward for praising a man described by the Justice Department as “an avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer.”
In the letter, Martin also said that his office is aware of search engines like Google agreeing “to prioritize Wikipedia” in search results and that Wikipedia articles are “biased, unreliable, or sourced by entities who wish to do harm to the United States.” The allegations follow a New York Post editorial board article in February titled “Big Tech Must Block Wikipedia Until It Stops Censoring and Pushing Disinformation,” which said Wikipedia “blacklists” conservative news sources. Wikipedia has a “reliable sources” page that rates websites on their determined accuracy and downranks several conservative publications, such as Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire, Fox News, and National Review.
“Martin has this track record of abusing his authority as acting U.S. attorney to bully people who say things he doesn’t like by sending them these tacitly threatening letters,” said Carolyn Iodice, the legislative and policy director for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). “Anything that comes on the U.S. attorney’s letterhead has an implicit threat of criminal prosecution or a civil investigation. What he’s done repeatedly to other people is inquire about speech protected by the First Amendment.”
Martin’s letter notes that “generative AI platformsreceive Wikipedia data to train large-language models.”
“If the data provided is manipulated, particularly by foreign actors and entities, Wikipedia’s relationship with generative AI platforms have the potential to launder information on behalf of foreign actors,” the prosecutor wrote in the letter.
The person close to Martin said he is reviewing nonpublic documents detailing alleged ways that people with foreign IP addresses in “nefarious” countries edit Wikipedia pages. They added that Martin is looking into how those content changes may influence ChatGPT or other AI models.
In the letter, Martin asked the foundation for records showing how it will “fulfill its legal and ethical responsibilities to safeguard the public from the dissemination of propaganda.”
Among his questions were those seeking clarity on any third-party entities, “including but not limited to artificial intelligence, large language model companies, and search engines,” that “the Wikimedia Foundation contracted with to use, redistribute, or process Wikipedia content.”
Martin’s letter citedSanger’s recent criticism of Wikipedia’s anonymous editors for trying to “de-source” the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Wikipedia says it “welcomes editors who strive for anonymity.”
“How does it reconcile this policy with broader editorial standards, which typically require attribution, accountability, and subject-matter transparency as safeguards in the public interest?” Martin asked the foundation. “What measures does the Foundation take to assess the integrity and competence of senior editors and administrators?”
Iodice, FIRE’s legislative and policy director, said Martin’s letter “is very alarming from a free speech perspective.”
“You have a platform that hosts a huge amount of constitutionally protected speech, which implicates the rights of Wikimedia itself and its millions of readers and editors,” Iodice said.
Source: https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-prosecutor-threatens-wikipedia
Ed Martin, the firebrand Republican activist whom President Donald Trump picked to be the top prosecutor in D.C., has a new target: Wikipedia.
Martin, the interim U.S. attorney in Washington and Trump’s permanent selection to serve in that role, sent a letter on Thursday afternoon to the Wikimedia Foundation that alleged it “is engaging in a series of activities that could violate its obligations” under 501(c)(3), a section of the IRS code for charities. It is Wikipedia’s parent group.
The letter, which was obtained by The Free Press, accused the largest online encyclopedia of “allowing foreign actors to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public.” The Wikimedia Foundation, Martin said, is directed by a board “that is composed primarily of foreign nationals” who are “subverting the interests of American taxpayers.”
The Trump-allied prosecutor went on to accuse the foundation of engaging in activities that are “implicating the national security and the interests of the United States,” according to the letter, which is four pages long and demanded responses to a dozen questions about the Wikimedia Foundation’s operations by May 15.
The Wikimedia Foundation did not respond to The Free Press’s request for comment.
The letter is unusual, since investigations into charities and their tax-exempt status are typically handled by the IRS.
“Unless the U.S. attorney is suggesting that a crime has been committed, it would be highly unusual to initiate any kind of investigation,” said Charles Watkins, an associate at the firm Webster, Chamberlain, & Bean who focuses on nonprofit law. “The normal process for investigating whether an organization continues to qualify for tax-exempt status starts with the IRS.”
The letter comes as free speech advocates say that the prosecutor is using his powerful office for “political grandstanding” and to chill partisan dissent. Martin has threatened to prosecute critics of Supreme Court justices and critics of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Martin also launched an investigation in April into a scientific journal that he accused of acting in a partisan manner.
A former leader of the Republican Party in Missouri, Martin is a veteran political operative who has never previously served as a prosecutor. He is also now investigating his own office for its prior handling of cases related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. He was in the crowd that day in Washington and hours after the riot tweeted: “Like Mardi Gras in DC today: love, faith and joy. Ignore #FakeNews.” As an attorney outside the government, Martin defended several peoplecharged in relation to the riot.
Martin’s Thursday letter to the Wikimedia Foundation cited IRS lawthat holds that 501(c)(3) organizations must be organized for “religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, educational, or other specified purposes.”
“Masking propaganda that influences public opinion under the guise of providing informational material is antithetical to Wikimedia’s ‘educational’ mission,” Martin wrote in the letter, claiming his office received information showing that Wikipedia’s “policies benefit foreign powers.” The Wikimedia Foundation is based in San Francisco, though it is also listed as a registered corporation in D.C., and fundraises inthe district.
The letter did not specify which foreign actors were manipulating information on Wikipedia and did not cite examples of alleged propaganda. However, a person close to Martin said he is concerned about “edits on Wikipedia as they relate to the Israel-Hamas conflict that are clearly targeted against Israel to benefit other countries.”
The Anti-Defamation League published a report in March that claimed “at least 30 Wikipedia editors acted in concert to circumvent Wikipedia’s policies to introduce antisemitic narratives, anti-Israel bias, and misleading information.”
According to previous reporting by Pirate Wires, anti-Israel editors on Wikipedia have “hijacked the Israel-Palestine narrative” on the site by erasing key facts and pushing pro-Hamas propaganda.
Wikipedia was founded in 2000 to “create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language,” according to co-founder Jimmy Wales. But in recent years, the site has been accused of falling short of its commitment to neutrality. In 2020, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger declared Wikipedia “badly biased.” In 2023, he called its commitment to neutrality a “running joke.”
Martin is assisting the Justice Department’s Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism, according to a letter from its leader, Leo Terrell, to Martin on April 8 that was obtained by The Free Press. Terrell said in the letter that any “accusation that you are antisemitic is clearly false, proven by your life and work.” Weeks later, Martin apologized in an interview with the Jewish publication Forward for praising a man described by the Justice Department as “an avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer.”
In the letter, Martin also said that his office is aware of search engines like Google agreeing “to prioritize Wikipedia” in search results and that Wikipedia articles are “biased, unreliable, or sourced by entities who wish to do harm to the United States.” The allegations follow a New York Post editorial board article in February titled “Big Tech Must Block Wikipedia Until It Stops Censoring and Pushing Disinformation,” which said Wikipedia “blacklists” conservative news sources. Wikipedia has a “reliable sources” page that rates websites on their determined accuracy and downranks several conservative publications, such as Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire, Fox News, and National Review.
“Martin has this track record of abusing his authority as acting U.S. attorney to bully people who say things he doesn’t like by sending them these tacitly threatening letters,” said Carolyn Iodice, the legislative and policy director for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). “Anything that comes on the U.S. attorney’s letterhead has an implicit threat of criminal prosecution or a civil investigation. What he’s done repeatedly to other people is inquire about speech protected by the First Amendment.”
Martin’s letter notes that “generative AI platformsreceive Wikipedia data to train large-language models.”
“If the data provided is manipulated, particularly by foreign actors and entities, Wikipedia’s relationship with generative AI platforms have the potential to launder information on behalf of foreign actors,” the prosecutor wrote in the letter.
The person close to Martin said he is reviewing nonpublic documents detailing alleged ways that people with foreign IP addresses in “nefarious” countries edit Wikipedia pages. They added that Martin is looking into how those content changes may influence ChatGPT or other AI models.
In the letter, Martin asked the foundation for records showing how it will “fulfill its legal and ethical responsibilities to safeguard the public from the dissemination of propaganda.”
Among his questions were those seeking clarity on any third-party entities, “including but not limited to artificial intelligence, large language model companies, and search engines,” that “the Wikimedia Foundation contracted with to use, redistribute, or process Wikipedia content.”
Martin’s letter citedSanger’s recent criticism of Wikipedia’s anonymous editors for trying to “de-source” the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Wikipedia says it “welcomes editors who strive for anonymity.”
“How does it reconcile this policy with broader editorial standards, which typically require attribution, accountability, and subject-matter transparency as safeguards in the public interest?” Martin asked the foundation. “What measures does the Foundation take to assess the integrity and competence of senior editors and administrators?”
Iodice, FIRE’s legislative and policy director, said Martin’s letter “is very alarming from a free speech perspective.”
“You have a platform that hosts a huge amount of constitutionally protected speech, which implicates the rights of Wikimedia itself and its millions of readers and editors,” Iodice said.
Source: https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-prosecutor-threatens-wikipedia
