Hi, Isn't the legal status of the foundation a web host? If it
intervenes on projects within the framework of what the law expects from
hosting companies, everything is fine. If it does more at the level of
project governance and publishing, then it runs the risk of being
recognized one day as a publisher and having to assume the
responsibilities that come with it. Kind regards,
Lionel Scheepmans
Le 23-08-2021 0:32, Mike Godwin a écrit :
I think you're indulging in the common tendency of inferring that if
WMF did not do something a decade ago that it had the legal right to
do, it follows that it lacked the moral courage to do that thing (or
else that it had moral courage then but lacks it now--the
moral-judgment fantasy can run in both directions).
Given that concern about disinformation on Wikipedia and elsewhere was
less prominent in public discourse a decade ago, Occam's Razor suggests
that the primary reason for any change in willingness to engage in
top-down intervention was that disinformation was perceived, rightly or
wrongly, as less of problem. In addition, you assert (without any facts
offered in support) that WMF was just as well-positioned to directly
intervene in disinformation problems a decade ago as they may be now,
or as they may soon be. This doesn't seem to be grounded in anything
other than prejudgment.
But if moral condemnation based on presumption of a lack of ... some
virtue or other ... floats your boat, who am I to detract from your
innocent fun?
Mike
On Sun, Aug 22, 2021 at 12:59 PM Andreas Kolbe <jayen...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Well, that was the difference I was referring to. (I wasn't really
thinking of content found libellous in court, child pornography etc.)
What is new is that the WMF is expressing an interest in the actual
integrity of the _encyclopedic_ content, hiring staff to address
"misleading content", "disinformation", etc., rather than restricting
itself to deletions required by law.
The WMF's recent action concerning the Croatian Wikipedia surely is an
example of this shift. The WMF had the means - but not the will - to do
what it has done now, ten years ago.
In a similar way, I understand that content added by ISIS sympathisers
is a problem in the Arabic and Farsi Wikipedia versions that the WMF is
now trying to address.
Andreas
On Sun, Aug 22, 2021 at 1:31 PM Mike Godwin <mnemo...@gmail.com> wrote:
Andreas Kolbe writes:
It's worth noting that Yumiko's article (now also on fastcompany.com
[1])
quotes the WMF as saying it "does *not often* get involved in issues
related to the creation and maintenance of content on the site."
That "not often" actually indicates a little publicised but significant
departure from past practice when the WMF would disclaim all
responsibility
for content ....
WMF did not "disclaim all responsibility for content." Instead, WMF
disclaimed primary responsibility for content, and still does. When WMF
was understaffed, as it typically was during Wikipedia's first decade,
we made a point of steering certain complaints and legal demands to the
editor community as a default choice. The policy reasons for this
choice were straightforward. But WMF directly intervened on a number of
occasions, typically as required by law.
Mike Godwin
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[1] http://fastcompany.com
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