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The Wikimedia Foundation's legal challenge to the UK's new Online Safety Act rules has been dismissed. The Foundation had asked for a judicial review of regulations which could mean Wikipedia has to verify the identities of its users. This, the Foundation argued, would be burdensome and "could expose users to data breaches, stalking, vexatious lawsuits or even imprisonment by authoritarian regimes".

The news isn't all bad, however; as Techdirt pointed out, there are two ways one can look at the result. They are reflected in different headlines – while the BBC titled its article "Wikipedia loses challenge against Online Safety Act verification rules", The Guardian went with the rather more optimistic "Wikipedia can challenge Online Safety Act if strictest rules apply to it, says judge".

This was also the view of the Wikimedia Foundation, which said that the ruling "does not provide the immediate legal protections for Wikipedia that we hoped for", but welcomed the court's comments emphasising what it said was "the responsibility of Ofcom and the UK government to ensure Wikipedia is protected".

The judge recognized the "significant value" of Wikipedia, its safety for users, as well as the damages that wrongly-assigned OSA categorisations and duties could have on the human rights of Wikipedia's volunteer contributors. The Court stressed that this ruling "does not give Ofcom and the Secretary of State a green light to implement a regime that would significantly impede Wikipedia's operations", and indicated they could face legal repercussions if they fail to protect Wikipedia and the rights of its users. In order to achieve that outcome, he suggested that Ofcom may need to find a particularly flexible interpretation of the rules in question, or that the rules themselves may need amendment in Parliament.

If the ruling stands, the first categorization decisions from Ofcom are expected this summer. The Foundation will continue to seek solutions to protect Wikipedia and the rights of its users as the OSA continues to be implemented.

Many other outlets reported on the matter, among them Reuters, Ars Technica, Courthouse News Service and Forbes.

For background, see also the Foundation's Diff post or the more detailed version of the post on Medium; for the risk of imprisonment, see previous Signpost coverage and List of people imprisoned for editing Wikipedia. – AK

Mayree Clark is the newest member of the WMF Board of Trustees. She is also on the the Board of the Wikimedia Endowment and since 2024 is Chair of its Finance Committee. She is also a member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank AG. Her career in finance has included a vice-presidency at Morgan Stanley overseeing international brokerage services for high-net-worth clients, founding her own firm Eachwin Capital, and service as a director of the Stanford University Endowment. She earned an MBA from Stanford in 1981 and has also served on the faculty.

Two new trustees to the endowment board are (from Diff article)

Voting for two community seats on the WMF board will be held from October 8 - 23 . Six candidates give on three-minute video statements here.

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