Community Resilience & Sustainability/Response to Open letter to the Wikimania community July 26, 2026
Dear President Jin,
Thank you for your open letter and for taking the time to share Wikimedia Korea's concerns regarding the reported incident. On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation's Trust & Safety team, I acknowledge receipt of your message and appreciate you bringing these concerns to our attention.
We are always deeply sorry to hear of such experiences. We hope that all events in which Wikimedians gather will be safe spaces to advance the movement's mission and goals. Especially this year, we were hoping to celebrate the joy of being a Wikimedian, the deep satisfaction of sharing knowledge with the world. When incidents such as described here occur, they undermine participants' sense of safety, trust, and belonging, and may discourage participation in our movement and events. Every participant should be able to attend Wikimania feeling safe, respected, and able to participate fully in our movement. Joy is not always possible — the work itself can be stressful — but safety is a baseline we have to protect.
The Foundation is treating this matter seriously. You may be aware that we do not discuss Trust & Safety incidents in respect to the privacy of all individuals, but I can confirm that we are in contact with individuals involved in the reported incident and witnesses to other concerning behaviors. When our investigation is complete, we will handle the matter in accordance with our event policies and processes as well as our Universal Code of Conduct. While we will not be able to update community, including Wikimedia Korea, on the outcomes according to standard Trust & Safety policies, the person who made the report to us will be told the outcome directly. You can read more about the kinds of sanctions that the Foundation can issue, including the degree of public notice, here. What they choose to share with Wikimedia Korea after that is their decision rather than ours. This limit exists to protect people who report and the movement broadly.
You also asked what will be done to prevent incidents of this kind, and what additional measures will support respect and safety during our events. Following every Wikimania, we conduct reviews of events which were raised to our attention and use them to inform training and protocols for future events, whether we support them directly or offer assistance to local organizing teams. We also ask community to remember and respect the Universal Code of Conduct, not only in forbidden behaviors but encouraged approaches. We hope every community member will help uphold this standard, in person or online. We ask everyone to lend a hand to others when they need support and speak up for them when they are treated in a way that falls short of expected behaviour.
Thank you again for reaching out and for your continued commitment to the well-being of the Wikimedia community. This is precisely the kind of behavior the UCoC encourages. Support can be offered in many ways, including directing concerns to event organizers during events or to ca@wikimedia.org or, in many cases, to the U4C. One can see here when cases are appropriate for them versus Foundation staff. In regards to the particular incident to which you refer, the team will continue to engage with the reporter directly.
Warm regards,