Community-Led Advocacy for a Fair Digital Space

As the EU rolls out the Digital Services Act (DSA), a pivotal moment unfolds for the future of online governance. While the regulation offers promising frameworks to enhance accountability and curb online harms, its implementation also reveals pressing risks. Over-moderation by platforms can undermine freedom of expression, legal uncertainties threaten community-led initiatives, and fragmented enforcement across Member States risks weakening the resilience of the EU’s information ecosystem. At the same time, the dominance and secrecy of proprietary platforms further complicate oversight and fairness.

Yet, there is a powerful counterbalance: community-led models like Wikipedia. Such alternative business models demonstrate a transparent, participatory approach to content moderation that prioritises reliability, verifiability, and pluralism. 

By leveraging lessons from these models, which support grassroots advocacy, and foster cross-border cooperation, we can ensure that DSA enforcement truly serves the public interest and respects fundamental rights across Europe.

Bridging Communities, Research and Policymaking

Wikimedia Europe acts as both a support hub for free knowledge communities and a bridge to policymakers, facilitating the exchange of evidence-based practices and coordinated advocacy.

We aim to:

• Empower Wikimedia communities to advocate for fair DSA enforcement in Member States.
• Support enforcement Authorities and policymakers with evidence from Wikipedia’s governance model.
• Promote EU-wide consistency in digital regulation, protecting distributed and community-driven initiatives.

Researching What Works: Evidence From the Wikimedia Model

• Empirical studies by SWPS University will explore Wikipedia’s role in promoting trust and countering polarisation.
• Legal analysis by the University of Amsterdam will assess how current regulations affect community-led platforms.
• Building on DEM-Debate findings, we will integrate data on how Wikipedia handled disinformation related to elections.

Building Advocacy Capacity Across Europe’s Free Knowledge Movement

• Training Wikimedia affiliates on using transparency and risk data to inform national advocacy.
• Tailored fellowships and events in Brussels and other meetups.
• Outreach to underrepresented affiliates to ensure equitable participation in EU policy conversations.

Shaping EU Regulation Through Targeted Advocacy

• Engagement with DSCs and enforcement Authorities to advocate for a balanced, consistent and community-led model friendly application of the DSA.
• Direct engagement with EU Institutions  in the run-up to the 2027 DSA review.
• Deployment of the “Wikipedia test” to assess policy impacts and future regulatory initiatives on community-led projects.

Raising Awareness to Strengthen the Broader Digital Commons

• Sharing evidence-based insights to support other community-driven platforms and civil society actors.

A Fairer, More Trusted Online Space

• New, actionable knowledge about effective community-led moderation and its alignment (or misalignment) with EU regulation.
• Improved national DSA enforcement, safeguarding freedom of expression and promoting trust online.
• Sustainable community-led advocacy, equipped with training, fellowships, and tools to shape EU digital policy.
• Lasting impact, with structures in place for cross-border collaboration and long-term policy engagement.

Events

Deliverables

publications

If you are part of a Wikimedia affiliate, a policymaker, researcher, or civil society advocate—this project is for you. 

Want to stay in touch or get involved?
Email us at: office@wikimedia-europe.eu

Community-led Advocacy for a Fair Digital Space is powered by Wikimedia Europe in partnership with SWPS University, the University of Amsterdam, and supported by Civitates.