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NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from Greenbelt, MD, USA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Wikipedia Recognized as a Digital Public Good

adapted illustration by Jasmina El Bouamraoui and Karabo Poppy Moletsane for Wikipedia 20, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Europe is keen to share that Wikipedia has been recognised as a digital public good. It is an important recognition for community-led free knowledge projects, which will help our advocacy efforts. In these troublesome times for the information ecosystem, it is of utmost importance defending free knowledge and access to information through the safeguard of alternative platform models, like distributed and community-led online encyclopedias, that proved their resilience.

This post was originally published on the Wikimedia Foundation website and can be accessed here.

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Wikipedia and the Digital Services Act: Lessons on the strength of community and the future of internet regulation

adapted illustration by Jasmina El Bouamraoui and Karabo Poppy Moletsane for Wikipedia 20, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Written by Jacob Rogers, Associate General Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation. Here, you may find the link to the original interview.

We share some considerations about the application of the recently adopted Digital Services Act (DSA), which lays down a new set of rules for online platforms. Under these new rules, Wikipedia has been designated as a VLOP and therefore bears some specific obligations. After one year of formal application, a first preliminary evaluation can be done. In this sense, the interview highlights Wikipedia’s specific characteristics, analyses the compliance burdens for the Wikimedia Foundation and offers some guidance for the future in order to preserve the Wikimedia model.

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A Joint Statement on the Use of Surveillance Spyware in the EU and Beyond

Gobierno Espía Ojo, Gibrán Aquino, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

We took stance against the use of spyware in the EU and beyond. This pervasive technology poses significant threat to European fundamental values, such as democracy and rule of law, and risks severely infringing fundamental rights to privacy and data protection as well as freedom of expression. Alongside with other civil society and journalists’ organisations we called on the new EU Institutions and Member States to take swift action and ban the use of such a technology. We need to protect citizens, including Wikimedians, and their fundamental rights from undue interference and arbitrary behaviours. Here below you can read the statement with the specific calls for action.

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Wikimedia Foundation defeats gambling magnate’s lawsuit in Germany

Aerial image of Justizpalast in Munich, by Carsten Steger, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Written by Phil Bradley-Schmieg and Jacob Rogers.

The Munich Regional Court acknowledged that the contested Wikipedia article (Tipico) contained relevant public information and was correctly sourced. This is very good news also for Wikimedia Europe, which closely followed the adoption of the anti-SLAPP Directive and will advocate for its ambitious and effective transposition in the different Member States.

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Cyber resilience Act – it’s a wrap!

IoT Drawing, Author: Wilgengebroed, Source: Flickr, Licnese: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en)

We finally have a deal on the Cyber Resilience Act.

It is a EU regulation thought up to make internet-connected products safer. With other words, it tackles the IT security and software maintenance of your smart toaster and AI-powered fridge. The tool originally chosen is to create obligations to manufacturers and/or vendors. We were involved in these negotiations because the newly proposed obligations could have seriously messed up the free & open software ecosystem. 

Perhaps not intended, but the initial proposal and some of the interim versions didn’t clearly protect free software and would have risked that individual, volunteer contributors of code to free software projects are liable and have to comply with the same stringent obligations as large companies. 

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Protecting youth online: Wikimedia Foundation publishes its first Child Rights Impact Assessment

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Computer Lab, Author: Denise Krebs, License: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

Originally posted on 17 January 2024 by Richard Gaines on Diff.

The Wikimedia Foundation has published an independent assessment to understand the impacts, risks, and opportunities posed to children who access and participate in Wikimedia projects.

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Geo-Blocking & Audiovisual Content: Why we need to achieve a truly connected digital single market

An image depicting a Netflix account being blocked due to Geo Restrictions. Image by mikemacmarketing, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The European Parliament’s resolution offers the opportunity to clarify Wikimedia Europe’s position on the practice of geo-blocking and its impact on Wikipedia and its sister projects.


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