The Wikimedia Foundation provided a statement when contacted by Ars Monday.
“We can confirm receipt of a letter from Senator Ted Cruz,” the statement said. “Wikipedia is supported by strong safeguards and high-quality volunteer oversight; it is a living encyclopedia that is always improving. We welcome the opportunity to further educate policymakers on the important work of Wikipedia, and the Wikimedia Foundation stands by its unwavering commitment to protect editors’ exercise of free expression. Through rigorous policies, editorial standards, user privacy protections, and transparent processes, nearly 260,000 volunteers have created over 65 million articles in 300 languages. Wikipedia seeks to inform, not persuade.”
Cruz Pressures Wikipedia After Criticizing FCC Chair
Cruz sent the letter about two weeks after criticizing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr for threatening ABC with station license revocations over political content on Jimmy Kimmel’s show. Cruz said that using the government to dictate what the media can say “will end up bad for conservatives” because when Democrats are back in power, “they will silence us, they will use this power, and they will use it ruthlessly.” Cruz said that Carr threatening ABC was like “a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here, it’d be a shame if something happened to it.'”
Cruz, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, doesn’t mind using his authority to pressure Wikipedia’s operator, however. “The Standing Rules of the Senate grant the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation jurisdiction over communications, including online information platforms,” he wrote to the Wikimedia Foundation. “As the Chairman of the Committee, I request that you provide written responses to the questions below, as well as requested documents, no later than October 17, 2025, and in accordance with the attached instructions.”
We asked Cruz’s office to explain why a senator pressuring Wikipedia is appropriate while an FCC chair pressuring ABC is not and will update this article if we get a response.
Among other requests, Cruz asked for “documents sufficient to show what supervision, oversight, or influence, if any, the Wikimedia Foundation has over the editing community,” and “documents sufficient to show how the Wikimedia Foundation addresses political or ideological bias.”
Cruz has separately been launching investigations into the Biden administration for alleged censorship. He issued a report allegedly “revealing how the Biden administration transformed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) into an agent of censorship pressuring Big Tech to police speech,” and scheduled a hearing for Wednesday titled, “Shut Your App: How Uncle Sam Jawboned Big Tech Into Silencing Americans.”
Cruz’s letter to Wikimedia seeks evidence that could figure into his ongoing investigations into the Biden administration. “Provide any and all documents and communications—including emails, texts, or other digital messages—between any officer, employee, or agent of the Wikimedia Foundation and any officer, employee, or agent of the federal government since January 1, 2020,” the letter said.
This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.
