“Don’t Blink”: Protecting the Wikimedia model, its people, and its values in June 2025

Welcome to “Don’t Blink”! Every month we share developments from around the world that shape people’s ability to participate in the free knowledge movement. In case you blinked last month, here are the most important public policy advocacy topics that have kept the Wikimedia Foundation busy.

The Global Advocacy team works to advocate laws and government policies that protect the volunteer community-led Wikimedia model, Wikimedia’s people, and the Wikimedia movement’s core values. To learn more about us and the work we do with the rest of the Foundation: visit our Meta-Wiki webpage; follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and Bluesky; and, sign up for our quarterly newsletter or Wikimedia public policy mailing list.

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Launching the Wikipedia Test!
[Explore our blog post about the Test, and read about it in the Internet Exchange newsletter]

The Global Advocacy team has launched an exciting new tool for regulators and allies of Wikipedia to evaluate and discuss the consequences of different internet policies. The tool, called the Wikipedia Test, asks policymakers to imagine the potential impact of proposed internet regulation on Wikipedia and, by extension, on other community-led public interest projects on the internet. This test is both a tool and a call to action to not forget the best parts of the internet while trying to fix the worst.

Across several criteria, including accessibility of information, privacy, safety, and freedom of expression, the Wikipedia Test asks questions like: “Could the policy limit the ability of volunteer editors to govern Wikipedia’s content and guidelines?” or “Could the policy lead to potential surveillance and cause a chilling effect that discourages people from reading or editing Wikipedia?” These questions represent important considerations, which are not unique to Wikipedia, but important to all projects sharing information in the public interest—like the educational resources at Project Gutenberg or the citizen journalism platforms hosted by Global Voices.

Like everything in the Wikimedia ecosystem, the Wikipedia Test is free to access and share. Policy advocates both inside and outside the Wikimedia movement can use the Wikipedia Test to spark better conversations with lawmakers. Regulators can use it to spot potential red flags early in the drafting process. And best of all, it is not a pass-fail assessment: it is an invitation to think more critically, to ask better questions, and to reach out to others that are also concerned about making sure that the internet is the best that it can be.

Explore our blog post about the Test, and read about it in technology and human rights expert Mallory Knodel’s Internet Exchange newsletter.

Wikimedians around the world participate in the United Nation’s Internet Governance Forum
[Read more about this year’s Internet Governance Forum]

From 23–27 June, the United Nations (UN) hosted their annual Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Lillestrøm, Norway, bringing together representatives from civil society, industry, and government to discuss the future of internet governance. IGF is an important event that brings together many different groups that may not regularly gather to present their perspective on how the internet is, and should be, regulated.

Members of the Wikimedia Foundation’s Global Advocacy, Legal Affairs, and Communications teams joined Wikimedians from Wikimedia Norge, Wikimedia Italia, and Wikimedia Europe at IGF to share how rules and regulations regarding the internet can impact—and ideally promote—projects like Wikipedia. They presented the newly debuted Wikipedia Test at panels and a booth where participants could drop in throughout the conference. Through the Test, they shared how even well-intentioned regulation can have harmful impacts on Wikipedia and other public interest projects on the internet. Between the booth and a well-attended reception at the beginning of the conference, the teams were able to connect with representatives from governments, intergovernmental organizations, and other civil society organizations to advance the cause of free knowledge beyond the event.

In advance of the global forum, many countries and regions hold their own national and regional IGFs to discuss regional issues and initiatives related to the internet and how it is governed. Wikimedians from Brazil, Nigeria, Ghana, and Australia all joined their local IGFs, ensuring that the concerns of public interest projects like Wikipedia were represented in all of these important conversations. This coordinated effort is an exciting glimpse into how powerful Wikimedians can be as advocates and experts in conversations about internet policy!

Read more about this year’s Internet Governance Forum.

Promoting open access at the UN Open Source Week and Open Indonesia
[Read more about our edit-a-thon, watch the video of our panel during UN Open Source Week, and watch video highlights from Open Indonesia]

This June featured several opportunities for the Global Advocacy team and Wikimedians to showcase the importance of the broader open source movement to open, public interest projects like Wikipedia.

At the UN Open Source Week, the team kicked off their participation by cohosting a Wikipedia edit-a-thon with the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technology, the Permanent Mission of Italy to the UN, the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN, and Wikimedia New York City. The edit-a-thon gathered UN experts and staff, students, and open-source advocates to improve articles about important topics related to the UN, internet policy, and digital public goods. In total, over 1,000 edits were made and 16,500 words (~60 printed pages) were added to Wikipedia articles during the event; the hands-on demonstration for the policymakers at the UN of how Wikipedia works served as an example of the volunteer-led model we are trying to protect.

Later that week, Rebecca MacKinnon (Vice President of Global Advocacy) spoke on a conference panel titled “AI and Open Source: Building Ethical and Transparent Systems.” She highlighted how Wikipedia is part of an interdependent information ecosystem, including open source software and content like open data, open science, and independent journalism. At a time of geopolitical conflict and upheaval, multi-stakeholder activities like UN Open Source Week offer hope for how global networks of people working to create and maintain open data sets and open software can build bridges and understanding with national governments.

Read more about our edit-a-thon and watch a video of Rebecca’s panel during UN Open Source Week.

Open Indonesia presented another opportunity to make connections between advocates of policies that support open knowledge. The event, hosted by Wikimedia Indonesia and Creative Commons Indonesia gathered 25 NGOs, universities, independent media, donor organisations, and free and open-source software (FOSS) movements to strategize about how to shape advocacy around internet regulation in Indonesia.

Rachel Judhistari (Lead Public Policy Specialist for Asia) facilitated a session about public policy advocacy, sharing how the Foundation approaches advocacy on these topics, and the regulatory trends that we are tracking. At the end of the event, the group of invited experts had crafted plans to promote progressive copyrights and to engage in advocacy around online safety, privacy, and free speech regulations.

Watch video highlights from Open Indonesia.

Jimmy Wales’ fireside chat about AI and the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act at London Tech Week
[Watch an interview from London Tech Week with Jimmy Wales]

London Tech Week is an annual event that brings together technologists, investors, and innovators in the United Kingdom (UK) tech space. Wikipedia founder and Foundation Board Member Jimmy Wales joined the event to share Wikipedia’s perspective on some of the most hotly debated topics in internet policy today. Jimmy gave a fireside chat about “Empowering Communities and Enriching Knowledge with AI,” where he discussed what lessons could be learned from Wikipedia about developing sustainable emerging technologies that benefit the public, and how the Foundation’s AI strategy focuses on supporting human editors, not replacing them. He also explained to the industry representatives in the crowd how Wikimedia Enterprise supports appropriate, attributed, and sustainable reuse of Wikimedia content through technical partnerships. This fireside chat was facilitated by Her Royal Highness, Princess Beatrice, who brought her expertise with emerging AI to the discussion. 

Watch an interview from London Tech Week with Jimmy on LinkedIn.

Workshop on information integrity held by Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
[Learn more about the workshop and read the project briefs on the UN’s website]

Costanza Sciubba Caniglia (Anti-Disinformation Strategy Lead) participated in an expert workshop held by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in New York this month. The workshop focused on how to uphold information integrity online while ensuring that human rights are still protected. At the event, information offered by participants was gathered to prepare a report that will be presented at the UN Human Rights Council to inform future policies.

Costanza presented at a session focused on community-driven efforts to promote information integrity and to counter false information and narratives. She highlighted the difference between Wikipedia’s robust model and more ad hoc fact-checking solutions like community notes, and explained how Wikipedia’s system of governance and foundational content policies contribute to a healthy information environment on the projects.

Learn more about the workshop and read the project briefs on the UN’s website.

Supporting youth online at the Wikimedia Youth Conference and at the launch of UNICEF’s digital Child Rights Impact Assessment toolkit 
[Read more about the Wikimedia Youth Conference and learn more about using the digital toolkit]

Ricky Gaines (Human Rights Policy and Advocacy Lead) recently presented at two important events related to youth participation online, both on the Wikimedia projects and beyond. Ricky attended the first global Wikimedia Youth Conference in Prague, a gathering of young Wikimedians aimed at building support networks, encouraging skill development, and giving youth a voice in the broader network of Wikimedia affiliates. Ricky led an “Advocacy 101” session at the conference, where he taught attendees the basics of how they could engage in public policy advocacy related to their work on the Wikimedia projects, and shared some of the Foundation’s advocacy priorities. As more and more lawmakers seek to make policies that impact youth online with little regard for including youth voices in those decisions, events like these—where young people can provide real input about their desires and struggles online—are critical to shaping a digital future that works for everyone.

Read more about the Wikimedia Youth Conference.

Ricky also spoke on a panel for the launch of the UN Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) digital Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) toolkit. This accessible toolkit guides businesses through the process of conducting thorough and robust CRIAs in relation to digital environments and services. Ricky discussed the Foundation’s experience carrying out a CRIA for the Wikimedia projects, the value that it has brought to our organization, and the improvements that we have already made based on the assessment. We hope that our experiences will help to inform and inspire others seeking to use this new toolkit, creating safer and more rights-respecting environments for youth and children online.

Learn more about using UNICEF’s digital toolkit.

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Follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and Bluesky; visit our Meta-Wiki webpage; sign up for our quarterly newsletter to receive updates; and, join our Wikipedia policy mailing list. We hope to see you there!