Wikipedia in Jeopardy

Back in February, NASA took down some of their web pages about women. I freaked out about it. But I moved on—until this morning.

I read a blog discussing a letter that the DOJ recently sent to Wikipedia’s CEO, implying that Wikipedia was a tool for foreign propaganda, among other things.

“…Wikipedia is 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.”

That is blatantly false, and anyone who regularly uses Wikipedia knows it is, and why it cannot be true. (And don’t we just love the hypocrisy regarding the *#$% TikTok, X, and Meta spread?) Part of the problem the DOJ and the Trump Administration has with Wikipedia is that it exposes their activities.

I love Wikipedia. I use it all the time. I trust it because I can look under the hood. It shows who’s editing and who’s contributing. If it has passages or statements that don’t include accompanying supporting documentation, it will say so. This is super helpful when doing initial background research on any subject. I can read an overview of a subject, use the references to which they conveniently provide links, and go deeper. They call this “Doing your own research.”

Like all things online, it should be approached with common sense. I’m not saying everything you will read on a Wikipedia page is always true. It doesn’t claim to be. It’s research.

Research (according to my Webster’s New World College Dictionary) is defined as:

“…careful, systematic, patient study and investigation in some field of knowledge, undertaken to discover or establish facts or principles.”

As one might imagine I went down a bit of a rabbit hole. There is a Wikipedia page that is keeping a running list of what pages and data are being removed. When I read it, it gave me a stomachache.

They are deleting databases that help doctors pick the correct drugs for patients, representing years of research across multiple disciplines. A drug for treating a three-year-old won’t be the same as a seventy-three-year-old or a pregnant person with the same disease, (yea, some pages were removed because they said ‘person’ instead of woman).

They are taking down pages on the NOAA site that collect real-time data of conditions contributing to climate change. They are removing pages that track virus outbreaks around the world in real time.

They are starting with things that we don’t pay attention to. But that won’t last. They will come for anything that they don’t like or might contradict their claims. The recent threats to Public Broadcasting are a case in point.

When RFK stands in front of reporters and tells the American People to ‘do their own research’ after he’s taken down anything that might contradict his narrative, he knows we won’t find anything that he needs to be concerned about. He’s a liar.

I’ve heard the dismissals, ‘every administration does this, and the next party in power will put it all back, no harm done’. That is not true. Some of this data, data that helps keep all Americans safe and healthy, including MAGA Republicans, it’s gone. Harm Done.

If we do our own research, we won’t find anything that RFK or Trump, or the DOJ or DOGE, doesn’t want us to know. All that data is being deleted.

Thomas Jefferson is credited as saying that a healthy democracy requires an informed electorate. Our democracy is getting sick. They are taking away our ability to be informed.

Those above agencies don’t want to hear opposing opinions or facts that refute their words.

This is not a phase. This is bad. We should all be terrified.

We can help in small ways:

Donate to Wikipedia. Contact state and federal representatives, both Republican and Democrat, let them know we know. (Washington State reps are below). For anyone collecting data, back it up offline. If anyone has anything more, please, tell us! Hopefully these links will exist long enough for people to see them.

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This has been done, just quieter: 2017 article:

https://tcf.org/content/commentary/a-well-informed-electorate-is-a-prerequisite-for-democracy/

Removing data necessary for health

https://insidemedicine.substack.com/p/trump-administration-now-choosing

Wikipedia list of removals:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_United_States_government_online_resource_removals

Wikipedia itself is in danger:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/04/25/wikipedia-nonprofit-ed-martin-letter/

This article includes a link to the actual letter:

https://www.theverge.com/news/656720/ed-martin-dc-attorney-wikipedia-nonprofit-threat

Wikipedia Donations

The following links go to the representatives web pages where one can find contact links.

In the Senate:

Maria Cantwell: https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/

Patty Murray: https://www.murray.senate.gov/

In the House:

Suzan DelBene: https://delbene.house.gov/

Rick Larsen: https://larsen.house.gov/

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez: https://gluesenkampperez.house.gov/

Dan Newhouse: https://newhouse.house.gov/

Michael Baumgartner: https://baumgartner.house.gov/

Emily Randall: https://randall.house.gov/

Pramila Jayapal: https://jayapal.house.gov/

Kim Schrier: https://schrier.house.gov/

Adam Smith: https://adamsmith.house.gov/

Marilyn Strickland: https://strickland.house.gov/