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Privacy

Editorial: Europe should protect children online. It shouldn’t have to check everyone reading an encyclopedia

Waddie96, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

To buy a bottle of wine or a pack of cigarettes in Europe, you show an ID. That makes sense: these products carry real, well-documented risks to minors, and a quick glance at a card is enough to stop the sale. Now imagine that same threshold applied to anyone opening a browser to look up Kandinsky, or the article about Ithaca. Exactly this is the direction many lawmakers are heading to.   Over the last three years, a global wave of laws has settled on one dominant tool to deliver that protection: mandatory age verification for online platforms. The UK’s Online Safety Act opened this door in 2023. Australia has since banned under-16s from social media outright. France passed the first EU-based law, just to have it sent back by the Constitutional Court for fundamental right issues, although it did exclude online educational resources. Laws in Spain, Austria, Greece and Italy, just to list a few, are in the making. And of course, after an expert panel report,, everyone is expecting a move from the European Commission.  Nobody really disputes that children need protection online.The instinct behind restricting access to some online spaces is understandable and sometimes correct. But such a tool should be used on the highest-risk corners of the internet, not to be applied too broadly. Consider what age verification actually means. Even with the most sophisticated and privacy preserving systems a platform that doesn’t collect user data will know more about you than before. Even if it doesn’t want to. And it would mean that you, regardless of age, can’t just directly access that article about Ithaca. It is an additional barrier to access to knowledge. This is why the purpose and risk of an online space need to matter when lawmakers design… Read More »Editorial: Europe should protect children online. It shouldn’t have to check everyone reading an encyclopedia

WMEU on the Digital Omnibus & the Russmedia Decision

An omnibus of the Compagnie générale des omnibus. Scanned by Claude Shoshany, Collection personnelle, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1376037

On 19 November 2025, the European Commission unveiled its Digital Omnibus package — a pair of legislative proposals aimed at simplifying the EU’s digital regulatory framework. The first one is focused specifically on AI, while the second covers data protection and re-use of open data.   

The Commission frames these changes as efforts to streamline complex EU rules. However, civil society groups, many MEPs, and even some Member States argue that they fundamentally alter the EU’s digital rulebook by weakening longstanding data protection principles. 

The Wikimedia movement is made up of its organisations, projects and users. They all depend on robust privacy protections, open knowledge sharing, and solid intermediary liability protections. At the same time, the Wikimedia Foundation, as a service provider, also spends considerable resources on sometimes very complex compliance work in the EU.

With all this in mind it is needless to say that these proposals raise significant questions for Wikimedia. We can identify both positive and negative changes in the published texts. 

Read More »WMEU on the Digital Omnibus & the Russmedia Decision

Protecting and Empowering Children Online: A Wikimedia Perspective

Yoruba Wikipedia Children's Day Celebration Souvenir /cc-by-sa Agbalagba, via Wikimedia Commons

We understand the concern and are concerned ourselves. Lawmakers worldwide are rightly focused on the effects personal data collecting, algorithm-and-advertising-driven, content pushing platforms have on growing up. Protecting and empowering minors—both online and offline—requires ongoing effort, cooperation, and commitment from the entire society.

The EU has already enacted important legislation, including the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), and the Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA). These provide a solid framework for safeguarding children’s rights online, but of course could also be in need of updating. Currently several own-initiative reports by the European Parliament, Member States initiatives and the European Commission are considering options.

As such legislation is developed, we need to follow one guiding light: children’s rights and best interest. The challenge is clear: children deserve protection, and we have an obligation to protect them. Yet children also have other rights: to education, to privacy, and to freedom of expression. We must make sure all of these are protected.

Read More »Protecting and Empowering Children Online: A Wikimedia Perspective

European Democracy Shield: we shared our views with the Commission 

George E. Koronaios, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Democracy is one of the fundamental values of the EU and today, as never before, it needs to be preserved and nurtured. Wikimedia Europe welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to adopt a European Democracy Shield to uphold the Union’s founding values.

We are convinced that Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects have a great role to play in the everyday efforts to nurture European democracy and to make the digital information ecosystem more resilient. We explained how in our submission to the public consultation launched by the European Commission. 

Read More »European Democracy Shield: we shared our views with the Commission 

e-Privacy: our quick fix to help nonprofits and protect consent

Telefoncentralen i Piteå 1919 by Broman & Tekniska Museet, under CC BY 2.0

The ePrivacy Regulation could potentially make communications better by setting a firm standard on how online tools can and cannot be used in profiling and surveilling individuals. We became directly interested in the proposal for a regulation when we realised that the proposed rules on how our chapters and affiliates can communicate with their supporters are ambiguous. Here is the breakdown of the problems and ways out.

How it works now

The Regulation concerning the respect for private life and the protection of personal data in electronic communications (a full name of a Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications, or ePrivacy Regulation) is now subject to trilogue negotiations. We specifically look into provisions on the scope of direct marketing. As much as we don’t “market” any services or products for sale to individuals, we all want to keep in touch with our supporters. According to the ePrivacy proposal such communication falls under the definition of direct marketing. This concerns organisations in our movement that contact individuals to solicit donations or to encourage them to volunteer in various ways in support of our movement’s mission. 

Currently in several Member States, based on the ePrivacy Directive and subsequent national laws, nonprofits have the right to contact individuals who they were in touch with before, on an opt-out basis. It means that while they present a new initiative or a fundraising campaign, they need to provide the contacted people with a possibility to refuse receiving such information in the future. 

Read More »e-Privacy: our quick fix to help nonprofits and protect consent