Welcome to “Don’t Blink”! Every month we share developments from around the world that shape people’s ability to participate in the free knowledge movement. In case you blinked last month, here are the most important public policy advocacy topics that have kept the Wikimedia Foundation busy.

The Global Advocacy team works to advocate laws and government policies that protect the volunteer community-led Wikimedia model, Wikimedia’s people, and the Wikimedia movement’s core values. To learn more about us and the work we do with the rest of the Foundation, visit our Meta-Wiki webpage, follow us on LinkedIn or on X (formerly Twitter), and sign up to our quarterly newsletter or Wikimedia public policy mailing list.

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Protecting the Wikimedia model
(Work related to access to knowledge and freedom of expression)

Supporting community-led content moderation with an amicus brief to Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice
[Learn more about the amicus brief in our blog post, and read the brief in English or Spanish]

Recently, the Wikimedia Foundation submitted an amicus or “friend-of-the-court” brief in a case known as Richter v. Google, which is currently before Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. The outcome of the lawsuit could impact the future of legal liability for internet platforms in Mexico that host user-generated content (UGC), including the Wikimedia projects. The Foundation’s brief urged the court to maintain these intermediary liability protections in Mexican law because they are crucial to the type of community-led content moderation and governance that makes the Wikimedia projects so special.

In this case, Google was sued for defamation because it refused to remove an allegedly defamatory post by a user on Blogger, a blog website that it hosts. Google was fined by a lower court and now the appeal has reached the Supreme Court of Mexico, where one of the questions at stake is whether Google should be protected by the country’s intermediary liability protections because they only hosted the blog post. 

Our amicus brief pointed out that without such protections, online platform hosts are likely to make more decisions related to content creation and moderation themselves in order to reduce their legal risks. Combined with the potential for abusive removal requests, this could create a legal environment online that discourages and hampers open and neutral platforms like Wikipedia, which rely on thousands of volunteer editors to create, update, and curate reliable information. 

Learn more about the amicus brief in our blog post, and read the brief in English or Spanish.

Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) Task Force launches Blueprint on Information Integrity Online
[Read our reflections on LinkedIn and explore the Blueprint]

The Freedom Online Coalition’s (FOC) Task Force on Information Integrity—which is co-chaired by representatives from Denmark, the Netherlands, and the Foundation—recently published its Blueprint on Information Integrity. The document is a positive vision for an online environment that supports the sharing of accurate and reliable information, and also protects human rights and democracy online. The Blueprint identifies opportunities and concrete actions for governments, online platforms, civil society, the press, and other interested parties to proactively contribute to realizing this vision.

The Blueprint describes three pillars of support for information integrity: agency, trust, and inclusion. These pillars strengthen communities’ and users’ capacity for decision-making and actions online, call attention to the sources of information, and emphasize the essential role that communities play in sharing reliable information online. This focus on communities is a new approach, directly inspired by the Wikimedia model, and one that we believe will be fundamental to improve information on the internet.

We are very proud of this contribution toward building a future where everyone, everywhere, is able to access reliable information, and we extend our gratitude to everyone involved in this process, especially the Task Force editorial group and our co-chairs!

Read our reflections on LinkedIn and explore the Blueprint.

Discussing public policy trends at WikiConference North America
[Read our recap on Linkedin and view the presentation slides]

This year, at WikiConference North America—an annual gathering of Wikimedians and allied organizations and individuals in the region—Stan Adams (Lead Public Policy Specialist, North America) presented a lightning talk about current trends in public policy that could impact Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia projects. 

In the talk, Stan discussed several child safety regulations developing in the United States (US) at both the national and state level, and how these regulations reflect a bigger global trend of regulations addressing children’s safety online.  He also highlighted a trend of laws that impact content moderation by increasing legal responsibility for platforms for the content posted by their users, as well as through implementing burdensome compliance requirements. 

Sharing his reflections on why it was important to highlight these trends, Stan said: “Wikipedia […] is unique among online platforms because legislative and regulatory proposals intended for the largest social media platforms can also impact our efforts to share free and open knowledge.” With fewer resources than these large platforms and a unique model that relies on large-scale community contributions, it is important to protect the Wikimedia projects from these types of regulatory threats before they become laws. 

The conference also gave volunteers an opportunity to share their policy priorities. This year, volunteers at the conference expressed their interest in advocating that photographs produced by state governments should be in the public domain, much like works produced by the national government, so that they can be used freely by journalists, archivists, and Wikimedians to share knowledge.

Read our recap on Linkedin and view the presentation slides.

Wikimedians share public policy experiences and lessons learned at WikiIndaba roundtable
[Learn more about our session]

WikiIndaba 2024 is a conference that gathers representatives from Wikimedia communities and projects across Africa. Aiming to connect and discuss topics related to Wikipedia and free knowledge on the African continent, it was held this past October in Johannesburg, South Africa. Ziski Putz (Senior Movement Advocacy Manager) attended and hosted a roundtable discussion with Wikimedians to discuss their experiences doing public policy advocacy in the continent.

Participants at the session, titled “Building the internet we want in Africa through policy advocacy,” shared what motivated them to pursue public policy initiatives, the misconceptions about Wikimedia they have encountered, what they have learned from these experiences, and how they plan to take their momentum forward. The session brought together Wikimedians from different projects and with different interests, who connected over public policy advocacy for the Wikimedia movement.

The conference also featured a session hosted by copyright advocacy organization Re:Create and a panel about media literacy featuring Maryana Iskander (Chief Executive Officer [CEO] of the Foundation), Anusha Alikhan (Chief Communications Officer), and Ferial Haffejee (Associate Editor at the Daily Maverick).

Learn more about our session.

Protecting Wikimedia’s values
(Work related to human rights and countering disinformation)

Joining civil society and US lawmakers in opposing  the United Nation (UN) Convention Against Cybercrime
[Learn more in our blog post about the Convention and read the letter we joined with civil society]

United Nations (UN) Member States will soon vote on their support or opposition to the UN Convention Against Cybercrime, a controversial treaty that could create sweeping powers for governments, allowing them to compel platforms to engage in surveillance on both users and platform staff without appropriate safeguards to prevent abuse or to protect human rights. The treaty, which has been opposed broadly by civil society worldwide, is expected to be voted on before the end of 2024.

We have joined our civil society allies from Access Now, European Digital Rights, Wikimedia Europe, and more in calling for EU Member States to oppose the treaty when it comes up for a vote. In a joint letter, we outline the issues with the Convention, including its broad definition of cybercrime and its failure to provide safeguards for limiting the invasive powers it grants to national governments. The Global Network Initiative, which has the  Foundation as a member, also published a letter opposing the Convention.

In the US, the Foundation endorsed a letter drafted by several senators urging congresspeople to oppose the Convention and propose a new balanced and rights-respecting approach to cybercrime at the UN. 

Learn more in our blog post about the Convention, and read the letter we joined with civil society. And, if you want to do more, please share information about the potential harmful impact of this Convention with your national leaders ahead of this crucial vote. 

Discussing the impact of misinformation and the power of public opinion at the Festival della Diplomazia
[Watch a recording about the power of disinformation session and a recording on the weight of public opinion in exercising power]

The Festival della Diplomazia is an annual conference that gathers academics, civil society, diplomats, and policymakers to discuss topics related to international cooperation and diplomacy. Costanza Sciubba Caniglia (Anti-Disinformation Strategy Lead) moderated two panels, which focused on how misinformation and disinformation influence public discourse and offline power dynamics. 

The first panel, titled “Power of Disinformation,” featured academics, researchers, and a representative from the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Panelists discussed misinformation, which involves the unintentional sharing of inaccurate or false information by the general public. Misinformation is increasingly fueled not only by the spreading of deliberate falsehoods, but by presenting true information in a misleading context or with exaggerated headlines. The panel discussed what approaches could be taken to address this challenge. 

The second panel, titled “Digital power and the weight of public opinion in exercising power,” examined how technology has transformed the power of individuals and “the public” to exert influence in political and cultural spheres, empowering more people to have a voice in decisions that can impact their communities and them. Panelists also examined the power of technology to shape that same public opinion, and how that power can be exploited by malicious actors.

Watch a recording of the “Power of Disinformation” session, and a recording of “Digital power and the weight of public opinion in exercising power” session to learn more.

Announcements from our team

See you again in January 2025! 

“Don’t Blink” will return in January for a full recap of our November and December 2024 advocacy efforts and events. Until then, find more news about our public policy advocacy for Wikimedia projects and volunteer communities in our quarterly newsletter and on our LinkedIn Showcase webpage. 

Meanwhile, for a sneak peek of a November highlight, check out Wikimedia Deutschland’s recap (in German) of the keynote address that Rebecca MacKinnon (Vice President of Global Advocacy) gave at the International Digital Dialogues summit hosted by the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport.

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Follow us on LinkedIn or on X (formerly Twitter), visit our Meta-Wiki webpage, sign up for our quarterly newsletter to receive updates, and join our Wikipedia policy mailing list. We hope to see you there!