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Wikipedia's new code of conduct targets harassment and misinformation
The Wikimedia Foundation aims to bolster inclusivity and stamp out 'negative behavior.'
Wikipedia adds page previews to prevent endless link clicking
If you absolutely love spending your Friday nights going down rabbit holes on Wikipedia (don't judge), then this week's news from the Wikimedia Foundation may be a bit of a mixed bag for you. If you hover over a link on Wikipedia, you'll now see a new page preview, which allows you to explore related topics on the site without leaving the entry you're currently viewing.
Wikipedia had no idea it would become a YouTube fact checker
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said during a SXSW talk this week that the company would be making a more concerted effort to stem the spread of misinformation on its site. Specifically, YouTube plans to start adding "information cues," including text boxes that link to third-party sources like Wikipedia, to videos covering hoaxes and conspiracy theories. But in a statement, Wikimedia Foundation has now said that neither it nor Wikipedia were told about YouTube's announcement ahead of time. "In this case, neither Wikipedia nor the Wikimedia Foundation are part of a formal partnership with YouTube," the company said. "We were not given advance notice of this announcement."
Wikipedia ends no-cost mobile access for developing countries
The Wikimedia Foundation launched Wikipedia Zero in 2012 with the hopes of democratizing information through a simple concept: cellular carriers in developing countries would offer access to its crowdsourced knowledge without charging data fees. However, it appears to have run its course. The organization has discontinued Zero with plans to phase it out through 2018. Wikimedia has stopped forming new carrier partnerships, and will let its existing alliances end over time. There has been a "significant drop off" in involvement since 2016, Wikimedia said, and that participation is necessary to keep Zero alive.
Anti-sex trafficking law could unintentionally cripple Wikipedia
After historically opposing changes to the Communications Decency Act's Section 230, web giants came out in favor of a proposed amendment to the law, which would punish a website for knowingly facilitating sexual exploitation. But, unlike the Internet Association (which includes Amazon, Google, and Facebook), Wikipedia stands opposed to the provision. Mainly, it's worried about the negative impact the broad-brush legislation may have on the little guy. In a Medium post, the Wikemedia Foundation's legal fellow Leighanna Mixter claims the the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA) could threaten its entire existence -- which may be overstressing it.
Afghanistan will soon have free mobile access to Wikipedia
Afghanistan has been rapidly improving its technological infrastructure since the Taliban was ousted in 2001. A group of film historians in the country recently digitized films that had been saved from destruction during Taliban rule. An all-girl robotics team fought a recent travel ban and finally got the chance to compete in the US. And in 2010, the country moved ahead with plans for national electronic ID cards. Now, thanks to a partnership between regional provider Roshan and the Wikimedia Foundation, people in Afghanistan will get free access to Wikipedia via their phones for the next year.
Wikimedia is clear to sue the NSA
A federal appeals court has ruled the Wikimedia Foundation does have grounds to sue the National Security Agency over its use of warrantless surveillance tools. A district judge shot down Wikimedia's case in 2015, saying the group hadn't proved the NSA was actually illegally spying on its communications. In this case, proof was a tall order, considering information about the targeted surveillance system, Upstream, remains classified.
Turkish court backs censorship of Wikipedia
When Turkey blocked Wikipedia last week, its co-founder Jimmy Wales promised to push for a judicial review of the online censorship. Today, however, Ankara's 1st Criminal Court of Peace rejected Wikimedia Foundation's appeal, saying that popular crowdsourced site contained entries that link Turkey to terrorist groups. The court ruled that since the "offending" Wikipedia pages remain on the site, it would not remove the country-wide block.
Wikipedia issues near-total ban on Daily Mail sources
As a rule, Wikipedia accepts most any publication as an article source. If the information is credible and verifiable, it doesn't usually matter where it comes from. However, it just made one giant exception. The online encyclopedia has issued a near-total ban on using the Daily Mail as a source after editors came to the consensus that the British tabloid is "generally unreliable." It has a history of "poor fact checking, sensationalism and flat-out fabrication," editors say, and things it reports as true can usually be found elsewhere.
Wikipedia fund gives the site a long-term future
Wikipedia just turned 15 years old, but you wouldn't know it from the nigh-on inescapable donation drives -- the crowdsourced encyclopedia often seems as if it's months away from extinction. The Wikimedia Foundation (its parent organization) may have a way to keep the site around for the long haul, however. It's launching the Wikimedia Endowment, a "perpetual" support fund for Wikipedia and other Foundation efforts. The goal is to raise $100 million over the next 10 years, or enough to both improve its independence and give it room to grow.
Wikipedia's secure pages stop others from tracking your fact finding
You may not think that the security of your Wikipedia research is a big deal, but it can be. You don't want spies to misinterpret your searches for potassium nitrate and the Gunpowder Plot as evidence of a terrorist conspiracy, after all. Appropriately, the Wikimedia Foundation is starting to encrypt all web traffic on Wikipedia and other associated websites through HTTPS, making it decidedly harder to monitor your knowledge hunts. The initiative should also make it at least a bit tougher for censorship-happy governments to block inconvenient facts. Encryption isn't new on the organization's sites (you've had a manual HTTPS option since 2011), but this always-on policy means that you never have to think about it -- you can assume that there's a basic level of privacy.
German court says Wikimedia is liable for article contents after they're published (updated)
The Wikimedia Foundation positions Wikipedia as a hub for unfettered knowledge, but it's now obligated to police that content in the wake of a newly published German ruling. Stuttgart's Higher Regional Court has determined that the organization is liable for Wikipedia articles. While Wikimedia won't have to screen content, it will have to verify any disputed passages and remove them if they're known to be false. The court isn't telling Wikimedia how to handle this verification, although the legal presumption of innocence will still apply. We're not expecting a chilling effect on Wikipedia given that takedowns will only be necessary in a handful of circumstances. However, it gives Wikimedia's moderators an extra level of responsibility -- they'll now have to pull some content quickly to minimize the chances of lawsuits. Updated: Wikimedia has clarified the ruling. The court sees Wikimedia as a service provider that, on a basic level, isn't liable for content. However, the site will only maintain its immunity so long as it pulls any content that allegedly violates German laws. If it declines, it risks opening itself to legal action.
Wikimedia's small-screen future
The office is silent when our small film crew arrives at Wikimedia's San Francisco headquarters. There's none of the newsroom buzz one might associate with the operators of one of the world's largest sites. Hell, the day I started at AOL, there was a bulldog skateboarding through the halls. There are a few subtle, telltale internet startup signs, like several bottles of liquor hastily packed in a filing box on the lower floor, sitting next to a small CD mixer. While it's Friday afternoon, the company's resident mixologist is out at the moment. The celebration will have to wait. Just to the right of the party box is Song Yingxing, a conference room named for the Chinese encyclopedist, which has more recently adopted the "Mushroom Kingdom" name, owing to a slew of gaming consoles and peripherals housed inside. It won't stay that way for long, according to Matthew Roth, the foundation's global communications manager, who's kindly devoted much of his afternoon to chaperoning us around the two floors. "No one really plays the games," he says. The hammock, too, is empty for our visit. It would be easy enough to chalk up such good behavior to the presence of a visiting media outlet, but sometimes the simplest answer is the best: Friday afternoon or not, the folks seated at these desks are hard at work. In the lower of two levels occupied by the foundation, developers have their heads down, rushing to get the soon-to-be-released in-house Wikipedia app out the door. The project has only been on the drawing board since January, and the foundation only hired its first dedicated iOS developer in the past month. The move is the next step in expanding the site's already massive reach to corners of the world that it hasn't quite penetrated, an attempt to help the organization approach its utopian vision of free information for all. On its face, it's a simple photo uploader -- but it's more than that, really. It's a chance to open up Wikipedia editing to an even larger global audience. It's as good a reason as any to be inside on a beautiful mid-April Friday afternoon in Northern California.
Mobile Miscellany: week of April 2nd, 2012
Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you're like us and really want to know what's going on, then you've come to the right place. This past week, CyanogenMod gained a new logo, Google acquired a mobile payments company and we learned that the HTC EVO 4G LTE for Sprint will include an embedded SIM card. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of April 2nd, 2012.
