The House Oversight Committee, along with the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, has launched an investigation into Wikipedia over manipulated entries.
The investigation comes as Americans and AI chatbots use Wikipedia for information.
“Multiple studies and reports have highlighted efforts to manipulate information on the Wikipedia platform for propaganda aimed at Western audiences. One recent report raised troubling questions about potentially systematic efforts to advance antisemitic and anti-Israel information in Wikipedia articles related to conflicts with the State of Israel,” Reps. James Comer (R-KY) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) wrote in the letter. “A second investigation detailed actions by hostile nation-state actors to expose Western audiences to pro-Kremlin and anti-Western messaging by manipulating Wikipedia articles and other news outlets relied on for training AI chatbots.”
“[The Wikimedia] foundation, which hosts the Wikipedia platform, has acknowledged taking actions responding to misconduct by volunteer editors who effectively create Wikipedia’s encyclopedic articles. The Committee recognizes that virtually all web-based information platforms must contend with bad actors and their efforts to manipulate,” the lawmakers added. “Our inquiry seeks information to help our examination of how Wikipedia responds to such threats and how frequently it creates accountability when intentional, egregious, or highly suspicious patterns of conduct on topics of sensitive public interest are brought to attention.”
Earlier this year, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger urged the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to look into whether the government has influenced the encyclopedia site. “Hi @ElonMusk. Wikipedia co-founder here,” he wrote on X. “May I ask you to determine what branches of the U.S. government—if any!—have employees paid to edit, monitor, update, lobby, etc., Wikipedia?”
A report from the Media Research Center Free Speech America found that Wikipedia effectively blacklisted conservative media groups. The groups blacklisted included Breitbart, The Daily Caller, Daily Mail, Newsmax, OANN, and the Media Research Center.
