Wikipedia is taking legal action against new Online Safety Act regulations it says could threaten the safety of its volunteer editors and their ability to keep harmful content off the site.
The Wikimedia Foundation - the non-profit which supports the online encyclopaedia - is seeking a judicial review of rules which could mean Wikipedia is subjected to the toughest duties required of websites under the act.
It’s thought this is the first judicial review to be brought against the new online safety laws - albeit a narrow part of them - but experts say it may not be the last.
“The Online Safety Act is vast in scope and incredibly complex,” Ben Packer, a partner at law firm Linklaters, told the BBC.
The law would inevitably have impacts on UK citizens’ freedom of expression and other human rights, so as more of it comes into force “we can expect that more challenges may be forthcoming”, he told the BBC.
The whole thing is mostly an information harvesting scheme. It’s the same thing that’s causing Discord to test out facial reckognition for age verifiction in the UK.
It’s one of the most “WONT SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!=!=!!/16111???” things in recent years, that has almost nothing to do with children and is mostly fearmongering to enact draconic survelliance.
Rule #1 for being one of the good guys: Don’t fuck with Wikipedia!
Edit: Ok, maybe not #1, that’s probably “don’t kill people”, but top 100 for sure.
