An independent audit required for EU regulation of Wikipedia as a Very Large Online Platform (see prior Signpost coverage) was conducted by an outside entity, named Holistic AI, for the Wikimedia Foundation, as reported by Holistic's press release.

The audit, which has been posted at this link, found some non-material non-compliance in the area of providing the Terms of Use in every official national language of the EU member states, to affect Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Romania, and further requested that Wikimedia-controlled translations be made for all languages other than English, rather than community translations, in order to avoid unintentional changes in meaning; and to provide email emergency and other regulation-relevant contacts directly, rather than through separately linked web pages. The auditors also noted:

Another recommendation is to establish a separate ToU for the EU, free from references to non-EU legislation or mechanisms, to better align with the access requirements under Article 14.
— Holistic AI 2024 DSA audit, Article 14 response, page 25

This recommendation that Wikimedia Foundation ought to provide nation-specific Terms of Use appears to have been rebuffed with this response from the Foundation, referring to a singular ToU: "The Wikimedia Foundation will review the ToU to make it less US-centric and to ensure contact information is easily accessible." – B

In other EU news, on November 27, a new European Commission was officially approved by the European Parliament to start a five-year term from December 1. The Commission, once again led by Germany's Ursula von der Leyen, was the least supported by the Parliament since the assembly had gained the right to vote on the cohort, having received 370 votes in favor, whereas 282 MEPs voted against it and 36 abstained. Although the most notable Commissioners, namely Spain's Teresa Ribera and Italy's Raffaele Fitto, were also the ones who caused the most controversy – so much that their respective inclusions had almost made negotiations fall through entirely – there are a bunch of other names, kindly highlighted by euronews, who will likely become more and more familiar to tech experts and Wikipedia members in the next few years.

First up, it's Finland's Henna Virkkunen (EPP), who will serve as Executive Vice President and European Commissioner for Digital and Frontier Technologies. After serving two terms as an MEP and being elected for a third term last June, Virkkunen will be tasked to manage the Commission's digitalisation strategy, including matters such as copyright issues and the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA), which she had led the EU Parliament's work on. Then, there’s Bulgaria's Ekaterina Zaharieva (also from the EPP), who will be the European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, whose primary targets will include improving conditions for start-up and scale-up companies and setting up a new research council on AI.

In their analysis of Zaharieva and Virkkunen's November hearings, Communia highlighted a few key insights on copyright policy:

"From a copyright perspective, there was nothing surprising or unexpected in the hearings. While we understand the heavy emphasis on generative AI, we would like to see more work being done to promote the public interest.

The commitment to the idea of a 'fifth freedom' for knowledge and the support for a European Research Area Act are commendable. We fully support this proposal, but would encourage the incoming Commission to be even bolder and, in addition, propose a more comprehensive intervention – a Digital Knowledge Act – that benefits all kinds of knowledge institutions, including universities and research institutions, but also libraries, archives and cultural heritage institutions. If we want to unlock the full potential of European knowledge institutions, we need to address the barriers that currently prevent them from fulfilling their public service mission, including in the field of copyright."

Ireland's Michael McGrath (RE) will serve as the European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, and the Rule of Law: although his portfolio is quite wide, The Irish Times reported that McGrath will have responsibility on developing the Digital Fairness Act – which aims to tackle dark patterns and influencer marketing – and improve co-operation between national data protection regulators. – O