Wikimedia Foundation/Legal/Global Advocacy/Documentation
Global Advocacy
Archive and Documentation
This page gives an overview and quick access to documents relating to core public policy priorities of the Wikimedia Foundation. All of these documents have been published by WMF. The topic archives are non-exhaustive; their purpose is to demonstrate the type of work that the Foundation pursues on core policy issues, as well as to provide examples of talking points used on these issues.
The "Resources" tab includes policy briefs, position papers, templates, how-to guides and best-practice of campaigns, open-letters and more. These are not all published by WMF and include examples from others in the free knowledge space. For EU-specific policy resources see Wikimedia Europe's archive and documentation page. All material is stored in this category on Wikimedia Commons.
Online Safety
[edit]Topic overview
We are committed to the aim of protecting children and all users of our projects. This is in line with our human rights obligations, as well as in the DNA of our movement. Wikimedia projects are educational platforms that aim to offer everyone, everywhere, access to encyclopedic knowledge, freely and openly. That means free of fear, whether from surveillance, harmful content or interactions with fellow community members.
However, increasing legislation on the topic is often designed with commercial actors in mind and inadvertently harms key values of our projects. These laws can negatively impact children’s rights to access information online, as well as our principles of community-led governance and user privacy.
Examples of legislative concerns:
- Brazil's Digital Statute of the Child and Adolescent (Digital ECA), which would require an age-verification system for any online platform
- Australia's Basic Online Safety Expectations
- USA: Kid's Online Safety Act
- France: under-15 social media ban
Topic archive
- Blog posts related to WMF and WMUK campaign on the UK Online Safety Act: Early impressions in 2022; 2023 our requests as Bill headed into final stages in the House of Lords; open letter call to action; final analysis as bill became law; 2025 legal challenge.
- WMF Consultation Response on "Protecting Children from Harms Online" related to UK Online Safety Act, 2024.
- WMF and WM Australia submission to the Basic Online Safety Expectations Amendment, 2024
Further reading & resources
- 2026 series of blog posts explaining age-verification.
- 2026 analysis of Recommendation from the European Commission on EU-wide age verification.
- Electronic Frontier Foundation writeup with criticisms of the KIDS Act in the US.
- Amicus brief submitted to the USA Supreme Court urging the Court to stop Texas social media law, May 2022.
- Wikimedia Foundation's and Wikimedia Chile's comments on the Chile Digital Platform Bill, March 2022. Read a summary of our concerns in this blog post.
- 2022 series of blog posts explaining the challenges with online safety laws for Wikimedia projects.
- Wikimedia Foundation Child Rights Impact Assessment, 2023. Articulates the low level of risks to child rights that exist across Wikimedia projects and what can be do to make projects as safe as possible, as well as the benefits to children's rights that come with access to Wikimedia projects.
- WMF's official policy on combatting online child exploitation
- WMF's official human rights policy
Liability Protections
[edit]Topic overview
Without liability protections, Wikimedia and project contributors could be held liable for content added by other users. If Wikimedia had to defend itself in court every time a user contributed something inaccurate or upsetting, we wouldn’t be able to maintain and grow the world’s largest free encyclopedia. Discussions about liability protections may also refer to 'intermediary liability', or 'platform responsibility.'
Examples of legislative concerns:
- Reforms to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in the USA. This was a topic around 2017 and again in 2023. See our position overviews from 2017 and three-part blog post series from 2023: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.This blog post from the Electronic Frontier Foundation spells out why it matters for Wikipedia.
- Bills introduced to advance online safety, often with new content moderation requirements for platforms.
Topic archive
- Wikimedia Foundation Submission to UNESCO Guidance for platform regulation, 2022.
- Wikimedia Foundation submission to UNESCO Guidelines for Regulating Digital Platforms 2023.
- Letter of a coalition urging USA Senate to drop EARN IT Act, February 2022.
- Amicus brief submitted to the USA Supreme Court in response to the case Gonzalez v. Google LLC, January 2023. Read our analysis of the case.
Copyright
[edit]Topic overview
Copyright matters because overly restrictive copyright laws block people from accessing and sharing information online. Wikimedia projects depend on laws and policies that balance copyright protections with protections for speech and access to information.
Examples of legislative concerns:
- EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, 2017/2018. Read WMF position and see Wikimedia Europe's campaign.
- Wikimedia Foundation’s Responses to the US Copyright Office Request for Comments on AI and Copyright, 2023.
Topic archive
- Free knowledge for research. Open norms, science and AI This 2024 report by WM Sweden covers essential copyright topics such as the three-step test and freedom of panorama, open science and open access, as well as text and data mining and AI.
- See the Copyright advocacy repository. This is a centralized resource that contains open letters, official comments, webinars, position papers, and other campaign materials that Wikimedians have used to advocate for copyright reform since 2016. It should be used alongside this report, which summarizes the findings of the mapping: how Wikimedians run advocacy campaigns, their motivations for doing so, the common challenges and successes they may have experienced, as well as the capacity and resources they invested in this work. It also includes recommendations.
- Let's Connect workshop on copyright reform and advocacy featuring experiences from Wikimedia Colombia and Wikimedia Italia. January 30, 2024. See slide deck and video recording.
- Presentation on Wikimedia copyright reform in Europe by Dimi Dimitar from WM Europe, 2022. See slide deck.
Further reading & resources
- Communia policy recommendations and blog, as well as their Public Domain Manifesto.
- Infojustice blog from the American University Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property.
- IPKat blog.
- Harvard's CopyrightX course (free & online) is a twelve-week networked course, offered from January to May each year by Harvard Law School and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society.
- University of Amsterdam Summer School course on International Copyright Law and Policy. This is a 5-day course and has reduced fees for civil society organizations.
- WIPO-CIPPM & Bournemouth University Summer School on IP. This is an online course that tends to run in May, and acceps registration from January to March. It is taught in English and you need to pay.
- Creative Commons webinars and trainings.
- Additional open access allies: Knowledge Rights 21; Arcadia Fund; Open Future; Open Data Institute; International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.
Anti-Surveillance & Pro-Privacy
[edit]Topic overview
Mass surveillance robs people on our projects of privacy, safety, and freedom - especially people in vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. We must change the deeply invasive surveillance programs around the world to make sure our people are protected.
Examples of legislative concerns:
- Bills that call for the elimination of anonymous accounts or require platforms to collect, store, and share personal information of contributors. See our analysis of the Australian draft legislation on online safety from 2022, and comments we submitted to the government in 2021.
- Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in the USA. Read our position from 2023, and this overview from our allies about what it is and why it matters.
Topic archive
- Joint letter by civil society groups requesting Veto of the SIM Card Registration Bill in the Philippines, 2022.
- Statement by the Global Network Initiative (GNI) calling for the withdrawal of the Myanmar Draft Cybersecurity Law, 2022.
- Statement on the 10 principles that must guide the reform of USA Section 702, by Wikimedia and allies, 2023. See our full position.
- Wikimedia Foundation lawsuit of the USA National Security Agency, 2015-2023. Read the original filing and analysis, 2022 request for the Supreme Court to take the case, and 2023 court decision not to hear the case. This is part of our work on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
- Wikimedia Foundation Comments to the Privacy Civil Liberties Oversight Board in its Oversight of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,November 2022.
- Wikimedia Foundation comments to the Federal Trade Commission in its Commercial Surveillance and Data Security Rulemaking, October 2022.
- Petition the USA Supreme Court to hear challenge to National Security Agency’s mass surveillance of Americans, alongside the American Civil Liberties Union and Knight Institute, August 2022.
- Wikimedia Foundation Letter to U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee for its hearing on "Protecting American Consumers: Bipartisan Legislation to Strengthen Data Privacy and Security", June 2022.
- Letter to Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission to withdraw the Regulation for Digital, Social Media, and OTT Platforms, alongside Access Now and others, March 2022.
- Amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina in a right to be forgotten case (Denegri v. Google Inc), July 2022.
Further reading & resources
- Bi-annual Wikimedia Foundation Transparency Report.
- Wikimedia Foundation Privacy Policy.
- Demos article on why online anonymity is vital in a healthy democratic society, 2022.
- Digital Rights Watch explainer - anonymity online is important, 2021.
Information Integrity
[edit]Topic overview
Information integrity is essential to democratic processes and human rights around the world, but the wrong response can threaten freedom of expression. Wikipedia and the wikimedia projects are critical for the information ecosystem. We must secure information integrity on our projects and make sure policies around the world protect freedom of expression.
Examples of legislative concerns:
- Combatting election disinformation
- Media and information literacy initiatives
- Co-chairing the Task Force on Trustworthy Information as part of the Freedom Online Coalition, 2023.
- Supporting active and diverse online communities to fact-check content with initiatives like Open the Knowledge Journalism Awards & Wikimedia Knowledge Equity Fund.
Topic archive
- See the anti-disinformation repository! This is a centralized resource that compiles anti-disinformation initiatives and tools that Wikimedians have developed at the local level across Wikimedia projects.
- Wikimedia Research programme to improve knowledge integrity.
- Wikimedia Foundation submission to Chilean Committee of Experts Against Disinformation.
Human Rights
[edit]Topic overview
Free knowledge, along with the fundamental right to freedom of expression, empowers people to exercise many other rights, such as the rights to education; artistic expression; economic advancement; and social, political, and cultural participation. There are a number of internal and external threats facing Wikimedians that could prevent them from participating in Wikimedia projects safely and, therefore, fully realizing their human rights. The Global Advocacy team works with stakeholders across the Foundation and the movement to proactively identify these threats and to find ways to protect Wikimedians from them.
Examples of legislative concerns:
- Wikimedia submission to UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, 2023.
- Joint letter by civil society groups requesting Veto of the SIM Card Registration Bill in the Philippines, 2022.
- Blog post on wave of bills banning topics in US schools threatening Human Rights and Free Knowledge, 2022.
Topic archive
- Wikimedia Human Rights Impact Assessment of 2020, published in 2022 and article describing what it means for the movement.
- Wikimedia Human Rights Policy, 2021 and article describing what the new policy means for the Wikimedia movement.
- Support page for resources to promote digital and physical security.
- Blog post: Celebrating Human Rights Day 2022 with Action: Reflecting on 2022, Preparing for the Future.
Additional Resources
[edit]Outputs related to access to knowledge & other topics aligned with our mission.
Preserving and protecting the digital commons in the age of AI
- 2026 article explaining how bots and crawlers are compromising WMF's infrastructure. See also 2025 piece.
- 2026 article explaining how Wikimedia Enterprise protects Wikipedia in the AI era.
- 2026 publication by the Digital Public Goods Alliance on how open platforms can mitigate AI exploitation.
- 2026 whitepaper by Open Future Foundation and Wikimedia Switzerland explores the ongoing structural transformation of the open knowledge ecosystem due to AI crawlers and what responses are available to the Wikimedia Movement.
- 2025 article explaining Wikipedia's value in the age of AI.
- Wikimedia Foundation submission to Digital Public Goods Alliance Strategy.
- 2023 Wikimedia 'Knowledge is Human' Campaign emphasizing that human work to ensure free and neutral information is more important in the AI and bots era.
Preserving and protecting Wikimedia's community-led model
- 2023 Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander's speech at the UN on inclusive and rights-respecting digital policy.
- 2023 official contributions from WMF and Wikimedia Coalition on the UN Global Digital Compact. Covers essential positions on issues related to: AI, data protection, digital commons as digital public goods, copyright, and intermediary liability. For a simplified overview, see written input on decentralized decision-making and protecting digital public goods.
Internet access
Other policy-related wikis and discussion spaces
[edit]- Commons Category: Free Knowledge Advocacy: Category on Wikimedia Commons that contains files related to public policy advocacy actions taken across the movement (from affiliates and the Foundation). It includes infographics, statements given at the United Nations, examples of letters to MEPs, statements to Parliament, public comments, and more.
- ESEAP hub public policy page: Meta-Wiki page for public policy initiatives and projects for the ESEAP region.
- Wikimedia Europe public policy page: Meta-Wiki page that documents all of the advocacy work of the European Wikimedia chapters. The "Documentation" and "Handouts" tabs are particularly useful.
- Old Advocacy page: Meta-Wiki page that was last consistently updated in 2015, which documents some of the advocacy work that has taken place across the movement from 2011-2017.
- Public Policy Mailing List: Mailing list about public policy that is used by Wikimedia affiliates, Foundation staff, and allies from the broader free knowledge and digital rights ecosystem to share updates, resources, discuss policy developments, and more.
