The foundation, the non-profit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, announced its legal challenge earlier this year, arguing that the regulations endanger Wikipedia and the global community of volunteer contributors who create the information on the site.

“The court has an opportunity in this case to set a global precedent for protecting public interest projects online,” said Stephen LaPorte, general counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation. 

“Wikipedia is the backbone of knowledge on the internet. It’s the only top-10 website operated by a non-profit and one of the highest-quality datasets used in training Large Language Models (LLMs). We trust the court will protect Wikipedia from rules crafted for the internet’s riskiest commercial sites and, in doing so, safeguard the open internet for everyone.”

The organisation is not bringing a general challenge to the OSA as a whole, nor to the existence of the Category 1 duties themselves. Rather, the legal challenge focuses solely on the new Categorisation Regulations that risk imposing Category 1 duties – the OSA’s most stringent obligations – on Wikipedia.

If enforced on Wikipedia, Category 1 demands “could expose contributors to data breaches, stalking, lawsuits, or even imprisonment by authoritarian regimes”.

The Wikimedia Foundation will be joined in the case by longtime UK-based volunteer Wikipedia contributor User:Zzuuzz, who will remain anonymous, as a joint claimant. Their voluntary participation highlights what is at stake in this case for the everyday people who read and contribute to Wikimedia projects. It presents the perspective of a Wikipedia volunteer on how the OSA Categorisation Regulations directly threaten the ability of contributors to participate in knowledge sharing on Wikipedia, as well as compromising their rights to privacy, safety, free speech, and association. 

“Our concerns on the looming threats to Wikipedia and its contributors remain unaddressed”, said Phil Bradley-Schmieg, lead counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation. “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”.