Wikipedia mounts legal fight over UK online safety rules
The Wikipedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, is fighting back against the UK’s online safety rules, seeking a review of some of the requirements of the act.
The platform wishes to be in the threshold of a ‘category one’ service – a label reserved for platforms facing the strictest levels of user safety duties.
This status would compel Wikipedia to implement identity verification features, a move the foundation argues could severely disrupt how its global community of volunteers creates and monitors content.
In a statement, the Foundation said the Act would force Wikipedia to allow its users to block unverified editors from altering or deleting content, undermining its open, collaborative editing model.
It also warned that this could allow bad actors to post disinformation unchecked, while editors – most of which are anonymous for safety reasons – would be unable to interfere.
“This could mean significant amounts of vandalism, disinformation or abuse going unchecked… unless volunteers all over the world undergo identity verification”, the Foundation added.
Wikipedia’s sophisticated community-centred model, which has long relied on volunteers spanning across 300 languages, has been credited with keeping the site by and large free of harmful content.
The Foundation has argued that these users already serve as an effective barrier against harm in their own way, and that applying a new, blanket social-media style set of rules to its platform would be a misstep.
Its key concerns include the risk of serious privacy beaches for its volunteer editors, as well as identity verification exposing its user base to harassment or legal threat.
It has also warned that such rules may have a chilling effect on contributions to politically sensitive or controversial discourse, as volunteers may feel uncomfortable or unsafe editing or writing about certain issues if identified.
While Ofcom has not yet finalised which services will fall into this so-called ‘category 1’, it has requested further information from several platforms, including Wikipedia.
Lead counsel for the Foundation, Phil Bradle-Schmeig, said: “It is unfortunate that we must now defend the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer editors from flawed legislation”.
The firm had already said, back in 2023, that it would not comply with aspects of the Online Safety Bill if passed.
“The Wikipedia Foundation will not be verifying the age of UK readers or contributors,” had said Lucy Crompton-Reid, Wikipedia’s chief exec.
The department for science, innovation and technology (DSIT) declined to comment on ongoing legal proceedings, but said it remained committed to implementing the Act.
Legal experts have warned that this case won’t be the last, as more elements of the safety act come into effect later this year.