Wikipedia co-founder, Lawrence Mark Sanger, has accused U.S. intelligence agencies of manipulating the online encyclopedia for nearly two decades.
In an interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald, Sanger claimed that Wikipedia had become a tool of “control” in the hands of the U.S. establishment, which includes the CIA, FBI, and other intelligence agencies.
“We do have evidence that … even as early as … 2008 … that CIA and FBI computers were used to edit Wikipedia,” Sanger stated during the interview.
“Do you think that they stopped doing that back then?”
Sanger’s claims shed light on the alleged infiltration of Wikipedia by intelligence agencies and a perceived ideological shift on the platform. “Just how did we get to a point where ‘truth’ is tied to a particular ideology?” Sanger asked.
Sanger highlighted the “gradual change” he observed in Wikipedia’s content over the years, noting that by 2006 to 2008, articles related to controversial topics in science, such as global warming and certain drugs, began to exhibit what he described as an “over-the-top bias.”
“Then I started noticing around 2010 to 2015 that articles on like Eastern medicine and holistic medicine … were so obviously biased,” Sanger continued, suggesting