In the first half of 2024 the Wikimedia Foundation continued its support of Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wiktionary and other projects that further the overarching goal of free access to all knowledge. Providing that access would be impossible without the dedicated members of the Wikimedia community. Volunteer editors, admins, and other functionaries are essential to keeping Wikimedia projects running smoothly. Not only do they contribute articles and other content, volunteers also remove harmful content and misinformation, create policies to protect user rights, and decide what content is allowed on each project. Wikimedia projects are essential sources of knowledge, and the volunteer community is vital to providing that resource to people all over the world.
Biannually, we publish the transparency report so as to provide transparency into the work we do. This transparency report contains a sample of interesting cases received by the Wikimedia Foundation during the applicable reporting period, as well as a FAQ. It also details various types of requests the Wikimedia Foundation received during the reporting period, as well their countries of origin, and other information.
This transparency report details the period from January to June 2024.
Unfortunately, the Wikimedia Foundation’s goal of promoting freely accessible information can sometimes be incompatible with the aims of state and private entities. These entities may seek to alter or delete Wikimedia project information, or by attempting to acquire nonpublic information. In such situations, the Foundation steps in to protect the vital movement principles of user privacy and freedom of expression. It also emphasizes and defends the volunteer community’s right to decide what educational content is available through the projects. These first principles are key when the Foundation evaluates incoming requests.
Below, we highlight some high-level details from the latest transparency report.
Takedown requests (including content alteration). From January to June 2024, we received 350 requests to alter or remove project content. 11 of these requests were Right to Erasure-based requests related to user accounts. When we receive such a request, we provide the user information on the community-driven vanishing process.
Copyright requests. The Wikimedia volunteer communities work diligently to ensure that copyrighted material is not uploaded to the projects without an appropriate free license or exception, such as fair use. Most Wikimedia project content is therefore freely licensed or in the public domain. When we receive Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices asking us to remove allegedly infringing material, we conduct thorough investigations to make sure the claims are valid. From January to June of 2024, we received 10 DMCA requests, and granted only two. Some stories in the Transparency Report share more about the kinds of DMCA requests we received and how they were handled. With projects as large in scope as ours, the low number of DMCA requests we receive is due to the hard work of community volunteers who ensure that content on the projects is properly licensed.
Requests for user information. The Wikimedia Foundation only grants requests for user data that comply with our requests for user information procedures and guidelines (which includes a provision for emergency conditions). Moreover, the Foundation collects very little nonpublic user information as part of our commitment to user privacy. Any information we do collect is retained for a short amount of time. Of the 26 user data requests we received, 2 resulted in disclosure of nonpublic user information
This transparency report reaffirms the Wikimedia Foundation’s commitment to the principles of transparency, privacy, and freedom of expression. It also represents the diligent work of Wikimedia volunteers, who build Wikimedia projects and the knowledge available on them. If you are interested in learning about the requests sent to the Foundation in greater depth, please access the comprehensive January to June 2024 transparency report. You can also see past reports by viewing previous blog posts.
The transparency report would not be possible without the contributions of Julianne Alberto, Aly Marino, Amanda Jardine, Riddy Khan, Ed Erhart, Jim Buatti, Leighanna Mixter, Sara Campos, Laura Pulecio Duarte, Lauren Dickinson, Justin Gonzales, Mackenzie Rhine, and Noah Usman.
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