Wikipedia fights the UK’s ‘flawed’ and ‘burdensome’ online safety rules

The non-profit Wikimedia Foundation is challenging the United Kingdom’s online safety rules in court over concerns they may enable “vandalism, disinformation, or abuse” to go unchecked on its Wikipedia platform.

Wikimedia announced on Thursday that its legal challenge specifically targets the Online Safety Act’s (OSA) categorization regulations, which the foundation says are written broadly enough to hold Wikipedia to the strictest duties that websites can be subject to. OSA is a set of safety regulations passed in 2023 that aim to protect both children and adults from harmful online content. While it was largely created to hold social media platforms, video sharing platforms, and online communications platforms accountable for user safety, the bill is so broad that services like Wikipedia can also fall under its requirements.

Platforms designated as a “category 1 service” — which the OSA defines as a platform that attracts over seven million monthly UK users, uses content recommendation algorithms, and allows users to share user-generated content with other users on the service — are required to provide tools that allow users to verify their identity and block other users. Some obvious examples of a category 1 service would be platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and Discord.

“As a Category 1 service, Wikipedia could face the most burdensome compliance obligations, which were designed to tackle some of the UK’s riskiest websites,” said Wikimedia senior advocacy manager Franziska Putz. “Someone reading an online encyclopaedia article about a historical figure or cultural landmark is not exposed to the same level of risk as someone scrolling on social media.”

Wikimedia says that even content forwarding Wikipedia features, like allowing users to choose the daily “Picture of the day,” places it at risk of being designated as a category 1 service. While not every Wikipedia user would be required to verify their identity under these rules, Wikimedia says the regulations could enable malicious users to prevent unverified volunteers from fixing or removing any harmful content or disinformation they publish.

Companies can be fined up to £18 million (around $24 million) or ten percent of their global turnover for breaching OSA rules, and risk their services being blocked in the UK in extreme cases. OSA regulations for categorized services are expected to be in effect by 2026. Wikimedia says it has requested to expedite its legal challenge, and that UK communications regulator Ofcom is already demanding the information required to make a preliminary category 1 assessment for Wikipedia.

“We regret that circumstances have forced us to seek judicial review of the OSA’s Categorisation Regulations,” said Bradley-Schmieg. “Given that the OSA intends to make the UK a safer place to be online, it is particularly unfortunate that we must now defend the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer editors from flawed legislation.”