London’s High Court of Justice will next week hear the legal challenge of the Wikimedia Foundation, the organisation that operates Wikipedia, against the UK government’s Online Safety Act.
The case will take place on 22 and 23 July, following Wikimedia’s announcement that it was taking legal action against the government in May.
The non-profit is arguing that the Categorisation Regulations defined in the act place Wikipedia and its users at “unacceptable risk” of being subject to the act’s most stringent Category 1 duties, designed originally to target high-risk websites.
Websites with this designation have to, among other obligations, verify the identity of their users. The Wikimedia Foundation has expressed concern that this would undermine the quality and integrity of the content on its services.
Many volunteer editors on Wikipedia choose to stay anonymous, in same cases for their own protection. While Wikimedia does not actually expect to have to verify all of its users, it is concerned over the categorisation allowing essentially anyone to request that edits made by anonymous contributors be blocked.
The information on Wikipedia is written and curated by almost 260,000 global volunteers. The Wikimedia Foundation believes that if it falls under Category 1 requirements, it would “undermine the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer contributors, expose the encyclopedia to manipulation and vandalism, and divert essential resources from protecting people and improving Wikipedia”.
Stephen LaPorte, general council at the foundation said: “The court has an opportunity in this case to set a global precedent for protecting public interest projects online,” LaPorte said.
“Wikipedia is the backbone of knowledge on the internet. It’s the only top-ten website operated by a non-profit and one of the highest-quality datasets used in training LLMs.
“We trust the court will protect Wikipedia—a vital encyclopedic resource—from rules crafted for the internet’s riskiest commercial sites and, in doing so, safeguard the open internet for everyone.”
Wikimedia will be joined in the case by a longtime UK-based volunteer contributor referred to as User:Zzuuzz, whose true identity will remain confidential.
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