Online Safety Act: Wikipedia could ‘introduce cap’ on British visitors - amid OSA high court challenge
Wikipedia has challenged part of the Online Safety Act in the High Court 🚨
- Wikipedia could be forced to cap UK users, it has claimed.
- The website has raised privacy concerns about a part of the Online Safety Act.
- Wikimedia Foundation has challenged part of the bill in the High Court.
A cap on the number of visitors able to use Wikipedia could be introduced, it has been warned.
Wikimedia Foundation, the outfit behind the website, is challenging the Government’s new Online Safety Act in the High Court over concerns about how it could impact the privacy of its volunteers. The case was heard last week, but a decision has yet to be returned.
The nonprofit is particularly concerned about the Categorisation Regulations contained within the bill, and how the website could be in the top tier: category one. It would require Wikipedia to enforce ID verification on its anonymous voluntary moderators, as well as visitors.
In a statement announcing the legal challenge earlier this year, Wikimedia said: “Category 1 demands would undermine the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer contributors, expose the encyclopedia to manipulation and vandalism, and divert essential resources from protecting people and improving Wikipedia, one of the world’s most trusted and widely used digital public goods.”
The foundation does add that it is not “bringing a general challenge to the OSA as a whole”, simply to the categorisation regulations. Wikipedia would fall under category one - which includes websites that have an average number of monthly UK users that 34 million and uses a content recommender system, or has more than 7 million monthly users, uses a content recommender system, and provides a functionality for users to forward or share regulated user-generated content on the service with other users of that service.
Stephen LaPorte, General Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation, said: “The Court has an opportunity in this case to set a global precedent for protecting public interest projects online.”
Biometric Update reports that the foundation has warned category one rules would “undermine the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer contributors, expose the encyclopedia to manipulation and vandalism, and divert essential resources from protecting people and improving Wikipedia, one of the world’s most trusted and widely used digital public goods.”
The website added that in court, Wikipedia’s lawyers floated the idea of a monthly quota to keep it below the Category 1 threshold, meaning that UK access to Wikipedia could become less like browsing the web and more like trying to buy a concert ticket, with a cap on how many people get in.
Phil Bradley-Schmieg, Lead Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation, explained: “We are taking action now to protect Wikipedia’s volunteers, as well as the global accessibility and integrity of free knowledge. We call on the Court to defend the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer contributors from flawed legislation”.
Find out what happens next as a petition to repeal the Online Safety Act passes 300,000 signatures. Let me know your thoughts on the OSA by email: [email protected].