Requests for comment/Prevent systemic bias move the WMF out of the USA fix WikiData

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TLDR, proposal

Short summary: Move the headquarters of the WMF out of the USA.

Problem

The headquarters of the WMF (WikiMedia Foundation) are located in the USA. WMF was founded in Florida year 2003 ^[1], and since then moved several times within USA, and is now apparently located in California ^[2]. This is a problem since the USA is a gangster state. This fact is not new. It existed already in 2003 when WMF was established and USA was busy with a world "war on terror", among other in Iraq, but it worsened even more substantially at begin of 2025 when Donald became president.

Donald started with removing the right to exist from non-binary and trans people with immediate effect ^[3]. Ey threatened Norway with war as a punishment for not receiving the Nobel Peace Price ^[4]. Ey started several wars, among other against Venezuela and Iran, and committed thousands of other crimes. Donald caused huge ecocidal damage in and around the Persian Gulf ^[5], while rapidly reshaping the USA and the world towards a fascist totalitarian system. Invasion and annexation of Greenland ^[6] plus further wars of aggression are imminent.

According to own policies, WMF advocates free expression ^[7], human rights ^[8], privacy ^[9] ^[10], diversity and inclusion ^[11].

The WMF also advocates sustainability ^[12]^[13].

The bias in favor of the USA and its malicious ideology is omnipresent everywhere within the activity of the WMF.

Almost all employess are citizens of USA. The legal team consists of people educated in the USA, according to the holy US-American principles "the US law is the universal law" and "the law that I violently impose on others of course does not apply to myself" (AKA Double standard). Similarly the technical team consists almost exclusively of people schooled and certified by " the US-American BigTech.

The headquarters of the WMF were moved several times, even over long distances, always within USA, whereas a move out of that jail state apparently never has been considered.

If Requests for comment/Stop accepting cryptocurrency donations was in scope of the meta RFC process, then this issue is too.

Bias in WikiData

One place where the pro-West and pro-US bias is prominently visible is WikiData. The early items were obviously added manually, Q0...Q150 within ca 4+1/2 hours on 2012-10-29:

A quick analysis reveals that, from 136 valid Q-items in the range Q0...Q150:

3 are dictators ("presidents") of USA
40 are related to US-American imperialism
the earliest human added, at Q23, was of course George Washington, the horrible genocide architect, slavery supporter, slave owner and slave abuser
2 are directly dedicated to Gugl (states as well as terms "computer" and "internet" not counted, criminal BigTech more or less owning the world, and increasingly also owning the WMF)
2 are directly dedicated to BigOil (states not counted)
between Q16 and Q45, of totally 30 items, there are 21 NATO members (sockpuppet states of USA), and ca 3 non-NATO close allies (sockpuppet states of USA)
there is only ONE non-domesticated organism, namely very late at Q140 "Panthera leo" (a opposed to "human" placed on very privileged index Q5)
there are exactly ZERO items for building blocks of matter or building blocks of life (not sufficiently notable?)
there is not a single person or organisation deviating from the holy US-American ideology

Bias in Commons

On WikiMedia Commons, a file must be public domain at the place of origin, AND in USA in order to be acceptable as public domain. The law of USA is taken as universal law, as if this was an axiom.

Bias in the TOS

Another place aggressively promoting the supremacy of the West and USA is the official TOU of the Foundation "Policy:Terms of Use" saying among other:

> non-profit charitable organization, headquartered in

> San Francisco, California, United States

...

> are legally responsible for all of your contributions, edits, and

> reuse of Wikimedia content under the laws of the United States

> of America and other applicable laws

...

> applicable law includes at least the laws of the United

> States of America and the State of California

...

> seek to file a legal claim against us, you agree to file and

> resolve it exclusively in a state or federal court located in

> San Francisco County, California. You also agree that the laws

> of the State of California and, to the extent applicable, the

> laws of the United States of America will govern

...

> In no event shall our liability exceed one thousand

> U.S. dollars (US$1,000.00) in aggregate.

Why should users not living in the USA bother about the "law" of California and USA? Also the use of USD as a "universal currency" is no way a natural idea, but a sign of a bias towards USA.

Bias in English Wikipedia

Last but not least in English Wikipedia for example w:en:Ted_Kaczynski and w:en:Osama_bin_Laden are in the cat w:en:Category:Murderers whereas the big ecocidal and genocidal perpetrators w:en:Donald Trump (is in cat "Criminals" only for "business fraud" only) w:en:George_H._W._Bush w:en:George_W._Bush are not. w:en:Nicolás_Maduro is in the cat w:en:Category:Politicide perpetrators whereas w:en:Donald Trump w:en:George_H._W._Bush w:en:George_W._Bush are not. The article w:en:Nord Stream pipelines sabotage pretends that the perpetrator is unknown. Available sources exposing the biggest profiter of the event USA as the obvious perpetrator are either absent or discredited. The article is extended-protected.

Proposal

the WMF should find another homeland (preferably not a sockpuppet state of USA), and move to it within reasonable time
the WMF should do its best to avoid bias towards USA and dependency on US-American BigTech with immediate effect (when it comes to recruiting staff, planning growth, making its platforms "secure", and other activities)
the items Q5...Q100 with exception of Q8 Q13 should get manually moved to some higher indexes (>=Q1000) making the affected low indexes invalid (like Q6 Q7 already are)

— The preceding unsigned comment was added by Taylor 49 (talk)

I am sorry for having forgotten to sign. Taylor 49 (talk) 09:42, 6 September 2026 (UTC)reply

References

Discussion

With the worsening situation across the Western world, your suggestions were great and we must find a place within en:Non-Aligned Movement for the WMF to settle. Many user essays say that Wikimedia wikis were biased towards Global North users. Ahri Boy (talk) 09:23, 5 September 2026 (UTC)reply

Procedurally speaking, this RFC is an unanswerable mess. Responding point by point:

"Moving the WMF" would amount to winding down the WMF and launching a similar NGO based in another country. For both legal and financial reasons, this is likely infeasible. Moreover, it is not at all clear that this action is even within the scope of a RFC.
The numeric values in Wikidata entity identifiers are not a measure of importance or popularity. "Renumbering" these values, especially for some of the entities involved here, would be a profoundly disruptive action with repercussions across virtually every project, and with no practical benefit. Furthermore, it would open the door to additional disputes over these numbers for other entities.
The WMF Terms of Use reference United States and California law because those are the laws which are applicable to the WMF. Changing this is not open to discussion.
enwiki content disputes are outside the scope of a Meta RFC.

I motion to close this RFC as invalid. Omphalographer (talk) 21:12, 8 September 2026 (UTC)reply

Comment How moving the WMF out of the USA fix said neutrality issues since they are not forced by the WMF itself, but by the users on each Wikipedia? How is the WMF such "not neutral", if it is just following the general narrative of mainstream sites? In fact, Wikipedia is not USA bias or US government bias; that's how Grokipedia or Conservapedia surged at all. I don't see the bias. And who cares which wikidata items were created first? PFSV-UY (talk) 22:25, 8 September 2026 (UTC)reply

Even if American companies moved out of the U.S., they are still subject to U.S. law in addition to local laws. Ahri Boy (talk) 22:58, 8 September 2026 (UTC)reply

Voting (find another homeland)

Support - U.S. politics has fucked up a lot of NGOs, including the WMF. However, moving the servers out of the U.S. would need to reexamine NFCC and fair use. Ahri Boy (talk) 09:20, 5 September 2026 (UTC)reply

Strong oppose. In fact, strongest Oppose possible. It’s a demographics issue, not anything to do with San Fran itself. I’m honestly surprised this isn’t invalid. Another Wiki User the 3rd (talk) 16:43, 5 September 2026 (UTC)reply

Oppose, how would it resolve said bias? If someone higher up wants to make Wikipedia biased, and they already succeded, they would still control it outside of the US. PFSV-UY (talk) 22:32, 8 September 2026 (UTC)reply

Strong oppose as not feasible or within the scope of an RfC. Eyesnore (talk) 17:54, 2 October 2026 (UTC)reply

Voting (do its best to avoid bias)

Oppose, that's a responsability for each individual project. PFSV-UY (talk) 22:36, 8 September 2026 (UTC)reply

Oppose per PFSV-UY, as many projects maintain their own policies on neutral point of view; see NPOV. Eyesnore (talk) 17:59, 2 October 2026 (UTC)reply

Voting (move up Q-items)

Strong oppose as it is physically impossible. Another Wiki User the 3rd (talk) 17:06, 5 September 2026 (UTC)reply

Strong oppose, I don't see why having a Wikidata item like Q26 gives more prestige than a Q718198. Its just an internal number. PFSV-UY (talk) 22:33, 8 September 2026 (UTC)reply

Strong oppose. It's infeasible and would cause large-scale disruption. Eyesnore (talk) 17:59, 2 October 2026 (UTC)reply

[1] :Wikimedia_Foundation#History

[2] :Wikimedia_Foundation#Staff

[3] ttps://whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/defending-women-from-gender-ideology-extremism-and-restoring-biological-truth-to-the-federal-government

[4] ttps://bbc.com/news/articles/cy7mev35x2lo

[5] theintercept.com/2026/08/31/iran-war-environment-toxic-chemical-exposure

[6] rilling-in-greenland-without-official-permission

[7] ttps://wikimediafoundation.org/public-policy/#Defending%20free%20expression

[8] ttps://wikimediafoundation.org/public-policy/#Upholding%20human%20rights

[9] ttps://wikimediafoundation.org/public-policy/#Protecting%20privacy

[10] ttps://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2023/02/21/u-s-supreme-court-declines-to-hear-wikimedia-foundations-challenge-to-nsa-mass-surveillance

[11] ttps://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2019/10/01/wikimedia-foundation-diversity-and-inclusion-information-about-our-workers-2019-by-the-numbers

[12] Sustainability

[13] Sustainability_Initiative

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