transparency

Takedown Notices and Community Content Moderation: Wikimedia’s Latest Transparency Report

by Dimi Dimitrov
June 4, 2021June 21, 2021

Wikimedia organizational and user rights hierarchy, under CC0 1.0

In the second half of 2020 the Wikimedia Foundation received 380 requests for content alteration and takedown. Two were granted. This is because our communities do an outstanding job in moderating the sites. Something the Digital Services Act negotiators should probably have in mind.

See the organisational chart in full here

Wikipedia is a top 10 website globally anyone can edit and upload content to. Its sister projects host millions of files uploaded by users. Yet, all these projects together triggered only 380 notices. How in the world is this possible?

Sergey Pesterev / Wikimedia Commons

Benh LIEU SONG (Flickr), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Michael S Adler, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Stefan Krause, Germany, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons

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

Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Markus Trienke, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

JohnDarrochNZ, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Takedown Notices and Community Content Moderation: Wikimedia’s Latest Transparency Report

<a href="/wiki/User:Black_Sickle" title="User:Black Sickle">Sergey Pesterev</a> / <a href="/wiki/Main_Page" title="Main Page">Wikimedia Commons</a>

Sergey Pesterev / Wikimedia Commons

<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Looking_upward_at_the_Yick_Cheong_Building,_13_June_2019.jpg">Benh LIEU SONG (Flickr)</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons

Benh LIEU SONG (Flickr), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Total_Solar_Eclipse_8-21-17.jpg">Michael S Adler</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons

Michael S Adler, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gl%C3%BChlampe_explodiert.jpg">Stefan Krause, Germany</a>, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons

Stefan Krause, Germany, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons

<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Magnificent_CME_Erupts_on_the_Sun_-_August_31_(7931835322).jpg">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from Greenbelt, MD, USA</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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

<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Common_seal_(Phoca_vitulina)_2.jpg">Charles J. Sharp</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons

Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dampfzug_am_Brocken_in_Winterlandschaft_(2).jpg">Markus Trienke</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0">CC BY-SA 2.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons

Markus Trienke, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crowd_listening_to_speakers.jpg">JohnDarrochNZ</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons

JohnDarrochNZ, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

transparency

Takedown Notices and Community Content Moderation: Wikimedia’s Latest Transparency Report