Wikimedia Foundation Global Advocacy Newsletter (Issue 10)
As we mark Wikipedia’s 25th birthday and the 10th issue of our newsletter, we are sharing the latest public policy updates shaping the future of open knowledge and the digital commons.
At a time when questions about internet regulation, AI tools, and the sustainability of public interest platforms are becoming more urgent, these conversations deserve close attention.
Read the latest issue of our newsletter and, if you find it useful, subscribe to join the digital policy conversation and take action to protect an open, human-powered internet.
Subject line : The future of the internet needs … ⁉️ Preview text: Humans. Humans. Humans. Sender: Jan Gerlach, Wikimedia Foundation globaladvocacynewsletter@wikimedia.org
Dear friend,
This year is Wikipedia’s 25th birthday: a milestone that celebrates millions of Wikipedia volunteers and the 65 million articles in over 300 languages they have written. Collaboration and trust have given the world a reliable online space where people everywhere can read, share, debate, reach consensus, and curate open knowledge — without giving in to polarization or special interests.
However, the world and internet are changing rapidly. Wikipedia’s anniversary raises an important question: How do we protect online open knowledge for the next 25 years?
Public policies must be smart and flexible, recognizing the diversity of online platforms and content and their unique strengths. Multistakeholder internet governance can better adapt to a changing world by learning from alternative, nonprofit, public interest platform models.
The world needs digital public goods like Wikipedia and Wikidata to remain sustainable. Emerging technologies such as AI tools — which hold immense potential to contribute in the public interest — rely on human-created content to train responsibly and maintain information integrity. People across the world benefit from reliable information being multilingual, inclusive, and diverse, besides open and free.
Public interest projects can offer unique contributions to roadmaps for the future of internet and AI governance, demonstrating how transparency, collaboration, and deliberate human work create value and resilience online — and stay true to the promise of the internet and technology closing divides, democratizing information, and empowering people.
— Jan Gerlach, Director of Public Policy at the Wikimedia Foundation
In this issue of our newsletter, we share how we are continuing to create the future of the internet we want, together. We highlight our remarks to the United Nations; explain our latest partnerships with technology companies that want to integrate human knowledge into their platforms at scale; and share how the world celebrated 25 years of Wikipedia. Enjoy reading, and we hope you are as excited about the future as we are!
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Engaging with the UN is key to protecting free knowledge
Our movement’s voice is helping shape global internet rules
In December 2025, the Wikimedia Foundation spoke from the UN General Assembly podium. After years of showcasing the value of the Wikimedia community-led model and volunteer’s contributions, we are not only observers, but also a constructive voice, positively influencing the future of the internet.
Wikipedia and Wikidata are now recognized digital public goods, with more than 15 billion visits each month across more than 300 languages.
The stakes, however, are getting higher. Proliferation of AI models. Vastly different visions of internet governance. Regulations threatening Wikimedia volunteers’ contributions.
That’s why we show up at the UN over and over, to fight for the people behind free and open knowledge and the digital commons that serve everyone, everywhere.
Learn how we earned our seat at the global table
The importance of partnerships with technology companies
Sharing human-created and governed knowledge at scale
Web scraping, where data is extracted through bots from websites, has increased significantly on the Wikimedia projects, as more and more companies collect data to train AI models. As a result, Wikimedia servers and resources — as well as those of many other public interest platforms — are suffering: Wikipedia’s content may be free, but its infrastructure is not.
Tech companies that rely on free and open knowledge must use it responsibly and help sustain Wikipedia and others for the future. One key way to do this is through Wikimedia Enterprise, a commercial product for large-scale reusers and distributors of content from Wikimedia projects.
On Wikipedia’s birthday, Wikimedia Enterprise announced new partnerships with several technology companies, including Amazon, Meta, Perplexity, Mistral AI, and more. These partners can now access content from Wikimedia projects at a volume and speed designed specifically for their needs, while directly supporting our nonprofit mission and Wikipedia’s sustainability for the future.
Read more about Wikimedia Enterprise’s new partnerships
Heading to RightsCon this May
Join us to champion digital rights and free knowledge
The Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia affiliates will be at the world’s leading summit on human rights in the digital age: RightsCon. From 5–8 May, the hybrid conference will bring civil society leaders, technologists, researchers, and policymakers to Lusaka, Zambia.
We have attended RightsCon for more than a decade, continually reinforcing our commitment to strengthening human rights through open collaboration, community governance, and free and open knowledge. After all, public interest projects like Wikipedia depend on freedom of expression, privacy, and protections for digital spaces and communities.
This year, we will host and join sessions on AI governance, information integrity, coalition building, and expanding access to open knowledge. You can join us by registering online and watching our sessions — as well as that of our allies — on tackling gender gaps in AI datasets, rethinking and strengthening civil society coalitions, and safeguarding the digital commons. If you are there in person, please visit our booth for great conversation and Wikipedia swag.
Read more on our sessions and visit our booth
What we’re following
Ideas that kept us thinking
- “Wikipedia is needed now more than ever, 25 years on”: Nature is one of the world’s most prestigious research journals. When its editorial board called Wikipedia’s birthday a “remarkable milestone,” highlighted its commitment to evidence and transparency, and called upon academic researchers to help nourish and support it, we took note!
- “The Internet Still Works: Wikipedia Defends Its Editors”: As Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act turned 30, the Electronic Frontier Foundation spoke with us about the sharp rise in content removal requests on Wikimedia projects. That is over a 400% increase during the past decade, even as takedowns remain rare. We discussed how Wikimedia’s volunteer editor community, not legal pressure, drives content decisions and keeps the projects fact-based, independent, and collaboratively governed.
- “In Search of Wikipedia’s Saviors”: A UK reporter from The Dial attended two “edit-a-thons,” where Wikipedia volunteers gathered in person to learn about and edit the encyclopedia. After speaking with several volunteers, the reporter went on to write: “Wikipedia is among the best of an imperfect set of tools we have for gathering what might be thought of as the truth about how things are and have been.”
Events on our radar
- 14–16 April Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum 2026 (DRIF26) (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire)
- 15–18 April International Journalism Festival (Perugia, Italy)
- 4–5 May World Press Freedom Day (Lusaka, Zambia)
- 5–8 May RightsCon 2026 (Lusaka, Zambia)
⌨️ Are you active on LinkedIn? You can follow our Wikimedia Foundation Policy LinkedIn webpage.
Down the Rabbit Hole
Celebrating Wikipedia’s first quarter century
A time capsule and quiz recognize Wikipedia’s birthday
You can see all the things we are doing to celebrate Wikipedia turning 25 over on our dedicated webpage. This includes a docuseries covering why people volunteer on the website, a look back at the online encyclopedia’s journey through the years, as well as an entertaining quiz to figure out which Wikipedia of the future you are. If you have five minutes to spare, check it out!
Take the short quiz and explore the future of the internet!
👋 This newsletter comes from the Wikimedia Foundation’s Global Advocacy team. You can read about who we are, support our work, or learn about editing Wikipedia.
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The text of this Wikimedia Foundation email is available under the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. The header image is by Wikimedia Foundation | Nielander, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Wikimedia Foundation Global Advocacy Newsletter (Issue 10) was originally published in Wikimedia Foundation Policy on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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