Secretariat Building, New Delhi

India’s proposed intermediary liability rules could limit everyone’s access to information online

Honorable Minister Prasad: I am writing today on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation to express our concerns regarding the Ministry’s proposed changes to the intermediary liability rules and its negative impact on access to knowledge and participation for Indians online. The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit that hosts and operates Wikipedia, along with a number….

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Türkiye Anayasa Mahkemesi, Vikipedi’nin iki buçuk yıllık engelinin anayasaya aykırı olduğuna karar verdi

Anayasa Mahkemesi bugün, Türkiye’de iki buçuk yıldan fazladır süren Vikipedi’ye erişim engelinin anayasaya aykırı olduğuna hükmetti. Türkiye’nin en yüksek mahkemesinin aldığı bu yeni karar ışığında Türkiye’de erişimin yakında yeniden sağlanacağını ve engelin kalktığına dair güncel bilgi aldığımızda bu bildiriyi yeniden güncellemeyi umuyoruz. Bilgiye evrensel erişime verilen bu önemli onayı memnuniyetle karşılama hususunda Türk halkına, ve….

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Turkish Constitutional Court rules that the two and a half year block of Wikipedia is unconstitutional

Today, the Turkish Constitutional Court has held that the more than two and a half year access ban of Wikipedia in Turkey was unconstitutional. We hope that access will be restored in Turkey soon in the light of this new ruling from Turkey’s highest court and will update this statement if we receive notification that….

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Wikimedia Foundation Servers

Why the Wikimedia Foundation has not signed on to the Contract for the Web

In November 2019, Tim Berners-Lee and the Web Foundation launched the Contract for the Web, a set of rules designed to address the challenges facing digital communication and participation— from threats to online privacy and security to connectivity and digital inclusion.  The multi-stakeholder effort outlines nine principles for governments, companies and citizens designed to safeguard….

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Judge's gavel in a courtroom with a stack of law books

District Court rules for government in Wikimedia Foundation’s mass surveillance case against the NSA

Update: On February 14, 2020, the Wikimedia Foundation filed a notice of appeal in this case before the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. We respectfully disagree with the District Court’s ruling, and believe that information in the public domain shows that the NSA is using Upstream surveillance to copy and search Wikimedia’s communications.….

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Wikimedia Foundation welcomes Amanda Keton as General Counsel

The Wikimedia Foundation is excited to announce the appointment of Amanda Keton as General Counsel. Amanda brings more than a decade of legal, nonprofit management, and compliance experience to the role. She will join the organization on 7 October. The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects. Together,….

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Do Europeans have a right to be globally delisted? The Court of Justice of the European Union says no.

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….

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Wikimedia panelists discuss EU copyright reform and its effects

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….

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The European Commission chooses truly free licenses for its content

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….

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Our legal case against Turkey’s block of Wikipedia has been expedited. Here’s what that means.

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….

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