Category: Public policy

Update (May 6, 2020): In 2016, the Wikimedia Foundation intervened in support of Google’s efforts to define the scope of the “right to be forgotten” in France. Faced with an order from the French data protection authority (“CNIL”) to delist information worldwide in response to a right to be forgotten request, Google challenged the order….

Earlier this year, the European Parliament voted to pass a new copyright directive that will take effect across the European Union (EU) and likely affect all online activities. At Wikimedia’s 18 July summer legal fellow panel, “EU Copyright & You,” technology law scholars and practitioners discussed the directive itself, events leading up to its passing, and….

Last February, the European Commission defined (pdf) two Creative Commons (CC) licenses as the default for most of what it publishes: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (“CC BY 4.0”) for all content. Commons Universal Public Domain Dedication deed (“CC0”) for raw data, metadata or other documents of comparable nature.   The European Commission’s….

Today, the Wikimedia Foundation welcomes the news that our case brought before  the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to lift the block of Wikipedia in Turkey has been communicated to the Turkish Government and given priority status by the court, just two months after the case was filed with the court. Priority status is….

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has decided to expedite a case brought by the Wikimedia Foundation against the government of Turkey for blocking Wikipedia in the country. The case contends that the longstanding ban amounts to impermissible censorship and limits peoples’ fundamental rights to free expression and access to knowledge. The ban was….

Avrupa İnsan Hakları Mahkemesi (AİHM), Wikimedia Vakfı’nın ülkedeki Vikipedi’ye erişim engelinden ötürü Türk hükûmetine karşı açtığı bir davayı hızlandırmaya karar verdi. Davada, uzun zamandır devam eden yasağın kabul edilemez bir sansür boyutuna ulaştığı ve insanların ifade özgürlüğü ve bilgiye erişim temel haklarının sınırlandığı ileri sürülmekte. Erişim engeli Türk hükümeti tarafından Nisan 2017’de yürürlüğe kondu. Vikipedi’yi….

For more than two years, the people of Turkey have been unable to access or participate on Wikipedia—what Ege, a high school student in the country, calls the “source of the sources.” And they’re not the only ones affected. Without Wikipedia, the rest of the world is missing the voices, perspectives, and knowledge of Turkey’s….

On Thursday, 30 May, Wikimedia Foundation lawyers were in a courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia, to watch oral arguments in our ongoing case against the United States government’s mass surveillance practices. As our counsel from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) rose to stand before the Judge, we rehearsed in our heads the arguments we knew….

This week, the Wikimedia Foundation was invited to provide opening remarks for the third annual Global Conference of the Internet Jurisdiction and Policy Network in Berlin, Germany. This conference represents a place for civil society, platforms, elected representatives, policymakers, and other stakeholders to come together and discuss how we can manage tensions between competing national….

At the Wikimedia Foundation, we believe that free access to knowledge and freedom of expression are fundamental human rights. We believe that when people have good information, they can make better decisions. Free access to information creates economic opportunity and empowers people to build sustainable livelihoods. Knowledge makes our societies more informed, more connected, and….