(José Niño, Headline USA) House Republicans have launched an investigation into whether coordinated groups are manipulating Wikipedia articles on sensitive geopolitical topics, including narratives about conflicts dealing with Israel-Palestine and Russia-Ukraine.
James Comer, R-K.y., who is Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Nancy Mace, R-S.C., Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, are leading the probe into potential violations of Wikipedia’s internal rules. The areas of focus include articles about the Israel-Palestine conflict and Russian narratives about the war in Ukraine.
Lawmakers cite findings from the Anti-Defamation League. A March 2025 ADL report alleged that about 30 Wikipedia editors systematically worked to inject antisemitic and anti-Israel bias into more than 10,000 articles related to Israel and Palestine.
The ADL report noted that compared with similar groups, these editors maintained twice the level of activity across the past ten years and communicated internally up to eighteen times as frequently.
The report further claims editors consistently deleted references to credible sources while amplifying critiques of Israel and that their activity surged after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.
The lawmakers also cited an Atlantic Council report showing that pro-Kremlin actors have allegedly leveraged artificial intelligence tools to sanitize and reshape narratives about Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The committee sent a letter to Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander requesting documents and records about editor disputes, account characteristics such as activity logs and IP addresses, and analysis regarding manipulation or bias patterns from January 1, 2023, to the present.
“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,” Mace and Comer wrote. “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. 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,” the elected officials said in a concluding remark.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
