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Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

wikimediafoundation.org

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Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#2

Post by IlikeKitties »

All this is of course bullshit. The only response that would have a chance of succeeding would have been if most websites collectively just blocked everyone from the UK. Imagine if 60-70% of the internet just stopped working for UK People. The law would be toppled tomorrow.

Every Company that implemented any compliance is a traitor to the free internet and should be treated as such.

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#4

Post by chippiewill »

I'm skeptical this goes anywhere legally speaking.

The categorisation regulations are a statutory instrument rather than primary legislation, so they _are_ open to judicial review. But the Wikimedia foundation haven't presented an argument as to why the regulations are unlawful, just an argument for why they disagree with them.

It should be noted that even if they succeed (which seems a long shot), this wouldn't affect the main thrust of the Online Safety Act which _is_ primary legislation and includes the bit making the rounds about adult content being locked behind age verification.

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#5

Post by bawolff »

jonathantf2 wrote: post #3

I'm surprised they haven't deployed a big banner à la Jimmy Wales begging for donations to UK users re this law yet

I think most Wikimedia users would consider it inapropriate to mix fundraising and public policy initiatives.

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#6

Post by cubefox »

The headline seems a little misleading. From the article:

> The Wikimedia Foundation shares the UK government’s commitment to promoting online environments where everyone can safely participate. The organization is not bringing a general challenge to the OSA as a whole, nor to the existence of the Category 1 duties themselves. Rather, the legal challenge focuses solely on the new Categorisation Regulations that risk imposing Category 1 duties (the OSA’s most stringent obligations) on Wikipedia.

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#7

Post by perihelions »

This is full of contradictions and both-sides-of-the-mouth speech. You can't coherently argue for an "open internet" "for everyone", and simultaneously plead exceptionalism for your own website, due its special virtues[0]. An "open internet" for websites with sterling reputations is a closed internet. It's an internet where censorship segregates the desirable from undesirable; where websites must plead their case to the state, "please let me exist, for this reason: ..." That's not what "open" means!

And moreover: WF's special pleading is[1], paraphrased, "because we already strongly moderate in exactly the ways this government wants, so there's no need to regulate *us* in particular". That's capitulation; or, they were never really adverse in the first place.

Wikimedia's counsel is of course pleading Wikimedia's own interests[2]. Their interests are not the same as the public's interest. Don't confuse ourselves: if you are not a centimillionaire entity with sacks full of lawyers, you are not Wikimedia Foundation's peer group.

[0] ("It’s the only top-ten website operated by a non-profit and one of the highest-quality datasets used in training Large Language Models (LLMs)"—to the extent anyone parses that as virtuous)

[1] ("These volunteers set and enforce policies to ensure that information on the platform is fact-based, neutral, and attributed to reliable sources.")

[2] ("The organization is not bringing a general challenge to the OSA as a whole, nor to the existence of the Category 1 duties themselves. Rather, the legal challenge focuses solely on the new Categorisation Regulations that risk imposing Category 1 duties (the OSA’s most stringent obligations) on Wikipedia.")

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#9

Post by weberer »

bawolff wrote: post #5
jonathantf2 wrote: post #3

I'm surprised they haven't deployed a big banner à la Jimmy Wales begging for donations to UK users re this law yet

I think most Wikimedia users would consider it inapropriate to mix fundraising and public policy initiatives.

They previously did a 24 hour blackout to protest SOPA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PIPA...

Re: Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

#10

Post by Towaway69 »

perihelions wrote: post #7

This is full of contradictions and both-sides-of-the-mouth speech. You can't coherently argue for an "open internet" "for everyone", and simultaneously plead exceptionalism for your own website, due its special virtues[0]. An "open internet" for websites with sterling reputations is a closed internet. It's an internet where censorship segregates the desirable from undesirable; where websites must plead their case to…

This is a fine sentiment, could you also please provide an alternative approach?

The law has passed, Wikipedia has to enforce that law but don’t wish to because of privacy concerns.

What should Wikimedia now do? Give up? Ignore the laws of the UK? Shutdown in the UK? What exactly are the options for wikimedia?

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