‘It is essential that new laws do not endanger charities and public interest projects,’ Wikimedia Foundation says.
Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit behind the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, is taking legal action against regulations under the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA). The organisation argues that some of the rules risk the safety of its users.
The OSA requires Ofcom to categorise online platforms based on the number of users they hosts monthly.
Wikipedia, which received more than 4bn visits last March, would be subject to ‘Category 1’ as per the OSA rules, placing it under the same scrutiny as large social media websites.
“Wikipedia has thousands of volunteer users based in the UK alone and content from cultural institutions like the British Library and Wellcome Collection,” reads a blog by Wikimedia Foundation’s lead counsel Phil Bradley-Schmieg.
According to the foundation, the rules would require Wikipedia to verify the identity of its volunteer users and contributors, which it says could expose them to data breaches, stalking or even imprisonment.
“Wikipedia is not like social media,” Bradley-Schmieg writes, arguing that the categorisation is designed for social media websites and could “seriously harm” Wikipedia if applied to it.
Moreover, verifying volunteer user identity is an “exceptionally burdensome” task, he said. “Privacy is central to how we keep users safe and empowered.”
The categorisation rules are left “especially broad and vague” by the UK government due to limited research and in a bid to avoid loopholes, Bradley-Schmieg argues.
“For services like Wikipedia to thrive, it is essential that new laws do not endanger charities and public interest projects.”
According to the organisation, its proposed solutions to counteract the risks were not accepted by the UK government and it is expected to make its first categorisation decisions this summer.
“We are taking action now to protect Wikipedia’s volunteer users, as well as the global accessibility and integrity of free knowledge,” the counsel said, while clarifying that Wikimedia Foundation is not challenging the OSA as a whole.
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