By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON — The FBI, which can be very sensitive about its image, is taking on the ever-popular Wikipedia. The issue? The FBI seal.
The New York Times reports that the bureau sent off a letter to Wikimedia Foundation, the parent company of Wikipedia, demanding that it remove the FBI seal from an article on its pages.
”Failure to comply may result in further legal action. We appreciate your timely attention to this matter,” the FBI wrote, according to the New York Times.
Wikipedia claims the law the FBI cites is really aimed at preventing people from creating fake badges or profiting from the seal, the Times reported, noting that many websites (including this one) have displayed the seal.
Wikipedia fired back a response, according to the Times, saying the bureau had misquoted the law.
”While we appreciate your desire to revise the statute to reflect your expansive vision of it, the fact is that we must work with the actual language of the statute, not the aspirational version” that the F.B.I. had provided, the Times reported.
F.B.I. spokesman William Carter told the Times that the seal can’t be used without permission from the FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.
