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The Wikimedia Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, said it will not appeal a dismissal last month of its legal challenge to the UK’s Online Safety Act, a set of rules for online services that it argued could threaten its ability to continue operating the site.
In May the Foundation took its case to London’s High Court to ask for a judicial review of the Online Safety Act, saying that the same stringent rules that apply to social media sites could also wrongly be applied to Wikipedia, since both rely on user-generated content.
The Foundation and a Wikipedia editor challenged the way the government made regulations that decide which sites should be classed as Category 1, implementing the strictest level of rules.
Legal loss
In particular, the Foundation said that such a classification would force it to verify the identity of its contributors, posing a threat to their privacy and safety.
In order to avoid Category 1 classification it would be forced to either cut the number of people in the UK who could access Wikipedia by about three-quarters, or disable key functions on the site, the Foundation said.
The government’s lawyers said ministers had considered whether Wikipedia should be exempt from the regulations but reasonably rejected the idea.
The Foundation’s challenge was rejected in August.
Judge Jeremy Johnson said the ruling did not, however, give regulator Ofcom or the government “a green light to implement a regime that would significantly impede Wikipedia’s operations”.
Johnson said that if Ofcom does not assign Wikipedia a Category 1 classification, no further issue would arise.
But the judgement also made it clear that if the service is categorised in this way, other legal challenges could follow, with the Foundation able to potentially challenge Ofcom’s decision-making.
Future challenges
If the effect of being assigned such a classification meant Wikipedia could not continue to operate, it would open the way to additional legal challenges.
The Foundation said at the time that the judgement “emphasised the responsibility of Ofcom and the UK government to ensure Wikipedia is protected”.
“The Foundation will continue to monitor how the court’s guidance is followed, and Wikipedia is protected as the OSA moves forward,” the Foundation said.
Ofcom is currently in the process of deciding Category 1 classifications.
The regulator said last month that it would “continue to progress our work in relation to categorised services and the associated extra online safety rules for those companies”.
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