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Wikipedia’s nonprofit status questioned by D.C. U.S. attorney

(www.washingtonpost.com)
848 points coloneltcb | 1 comments | 25 Apr 25 23:03 UTC | HN request time: 0.257s | source
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mjrpes ◴[25 Apr 25 23:54 UTC] No.43799593[source]▶
Here's the letter: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ocNyx34Et19sKtlta0bTPPzSPcp...

No claims, no evidence. No sources, except "it has come to my attention" and "information received by my office".

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simonw ◴[26 Apr 25 00:38 UTC] No.43799855[source]▶
Yikes that letter is alarming.

> In view of public criticisms, including those expressed by Wikipedia Co-Founder Dr. Lawrence M. Sanger, regarding the opacity of editorial processes and the anonymity of contributors, what justification does the Foundation offer for shielding editors from public scrutiny?

Larry Sanger has been criticizing Wikipedia for more than 20 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Sanger#Criticism_of_Wiki...

The author of that letter is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Martin_(Missouri_politician... - "the first U.S. attorney for D.C. in at least 50 years to be appointed without experience as a judge or a federal prosecutor".

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ZeroGravitas ◴[26 Apr 25 07:29 UTC] No.43801620[source]▶
The Heritage Foundation has been open about their desire to strip Wikipedians of anonymity, this is just the government putting that plan into practice:

https://slate.com/technology/2025/02/wikipedia-project-2025-...

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1. douglasisshiny ◴[26 Apr 25 13:34 UTC] No.43803487[source]▶
To be more clear, it's operatives of the Heritage Foundation who now work in the government putting this into place. Does anyone think Trump actually does much day to day? He often seems completely unaware of what's going on in his own government. I invite anyway to watch his evening press conferences where he's handed a bunch of Executive Orders, is told what he's signing (he has no clue), and signs it.