Wikipedia has announced that it will not comply with the age verification requirements of the UK’s Online Safety Bill. This decision could potentially lead to the free encyclopedia shutting down in the UK. The Online Safety Bill is a new regulatory framework designed to combat illegal content online. The bill mandates social media and search engines to conduct “robust” age checks for sites featuring pornography.
Lucy Crompton-Reid, CEO of Wikimedia UK, has voiced concerns about the legislation, stating that some material on the site could trigger age verification. She also highlighted that educational content on Wikipedia about sexuality may be “misinterpreted” as pornography. As a result, the Wikimedia Foundation has said it will not age-gate the platform, claiming that the requirements of the Bill in terms of content moderation, age gating, and user verification are incompatible with Wikipedia’s model.
In January, Wikipedia warned that the Bill could restrict freedom of expression. The website has urged the government to follow the EU Digital Services Act, which distinguishes between centralized content moderation carried out by employees and the community volunteer-based model used by Wikipedia.
However, the government has stated that it is unlikely that Wikipedia will be classified as a category one service, which would be subject to the Bill’s strictest rules. The bill’s enforcer, Ofcom, has also said that it would concentrate on services where the risk of harm is the highest.
Other tech platforms, including WhatsApp, Signal, and Element, have also criticized the Online Safety Bill for being too heavy-handed. Last month, the three companies released a public statement denouncing the Online Safety Bill as an unparalleled danger to the privacy, well-being, and security of all UK citizens and the individuals they communicate with worldwide. They cautioned that the legislation could strengthen the positions of antagonistic regimes, which could seek to emulate the law’s provisions.