“Don’t Blink”: Protecting the Wikimedia model, its people, and its values in March 2026

Welcome to “Don’t Blink”! Every month we share developments from around the world that shape people’s ability to participate in the free knowledge movement. In case you blinked last month, here are the most important public policy advocacy topics that have kept the Wikimedia Foundation busy.

The Global Advocacy team works to advocate laws and government policies that protect the volunteer community-led Wikimedia model, Wikimedia’s people, and the Wikimedia movement’s core values. To learn more about us and the work we do with the rest of the Foundation: visit our Meta-Wiki webpage; follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and Bluesky; and, sign up for our quarterly newsletter or Wikimedia public policy mailing list.

On the verge of change: Imagining possible futures for digital policy in a rapidly evolving world

When Wikipedia was founded 25 years ago, the internet as the world knows it today was just emerging. Early social media websites began to compete with other ways to connect online like forums and direct messaging. Expanding broadband internet access meant many internet users were moving away from using dial-up connections, gaining speed and convenience. Some key regulations designed to help the internet grow had already been put in place, and international policy bodies began to invest more in topics related to digital development and regulation.

In the decades since, more trends that have reshaped the internet have emerged. Wi-Fi and data plans meant internet browsing could be mobile. Social media rapidly evolved from a place where users shared personal updates to somewhere billions go to get their news and participate in the global digital economy. Smartphones put the internet in everyone’s hands, accessible from almost anywhere. Now, with the growing popularity of artificial intelligence, the world sits on the verge of another major change online.

The present is the perfect moment to think about the potential risks and opportunities presented by these emerging technologies, and how to protect the best parts of the internet in a rapidly evolving world. The Wikimedia Foundation brings a unique perspective to these conversations. As the steward of several free and open source projects that have stood the test of time, our advocacy work to shape the future of digital policy focuses on something crucial: ensuring the latest technological developments are handled responsibly and bring about a positive impact on the world and the internet.

Examining Global Risks at the World Economic Forum

[Learn more about the key findings in the 2026 Global Risks Report]

Each year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) publishes its annual Global Risks Report, which analyzes future risks on a number of subjects through the survey answers of over 1300 experts worldwide. This year, as a part of her work on the WEF’s Global Future Council on Information Integrity, Costanza Sciubba Caniglia (Knowledge Integrity Strategy Lead), joined an expert briefing in the WEF’s Network of Global Future Councils to talk about the risks identified in the 2026 report. In particular, misinformation and disinformation were identified by experts as the second-ranked threat by severity in the short-term (i.e., next two years) and the fourth-ranked threat in the long term (i.e., next ten years).

The discussion that followed the briefing examined how upholding information integrity has recently become more complex: new technologies make it easier to spread false information, but they also make it easier to identify. Misinformation and disinformation can amplify the severity of other identified risks, such as societal polarization, state-based armed conflict, and economic uncertainty. Costanza gave expert input based on her experience upholding information integrity on the Wikimedia projects, sharing how the Wikimedia model—decentralized, volunteer community-led, and committed to the public interest—acts as an “antidote to disinformation.” With the report stating that “uncertainty is the defining theme” of the global risks identified, it is more important than ever that successful public interest projects become examples of how to address risks in a changing world.

Learn more about the key findings in the 2026 Global Risks Report.

Discussing how web scraping affects the future of the open web

[Learn more about the Future of the Open Web event and the Foundation’s approach to web scraping**]**

On 26 March, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) and Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) hosted an event examining how web scraping to train artificial intelligence could impact the “Future of the Open Web.” Stan Adams (Lead Public Policy Specialist for North America) presented Foundation’s perspective at the event, which gathered representatives from a wide array of fields, including academic repositories, web scraping companies, AI developers, and policy think tanks. Stan’s presentation built upon our message from the 2026 State of the Net, where we called for ideas to protect the open web from the financial and technological strain of web scraping, especially important services like the Internet Archive.

Stan shared information about the Wikimedia Enterprise model, where companies pay for faster and easier access to data from the Wikimedia projects. The Enterprise model is one potential way for organizations that provide free information online to remain sustainable under the pressures of web scraping. From policymakers to industry groups to public interest organizations, everyone is confronted with imagining new ways of responding to AI and its rising popularity. Events like this present a unique opportunity to bring together many crucial perspectives and try to come to a consensus about what shape our responses should take.

Learn more about the Future of the Open Web event and the Foundation’s approach to web scraping.

Discussing regional cooperation to protect the future of cybersecurity and secure connectivity

[Learn more about our work exploring knowledge as Critical Digital Infrastructure**]**

In March, Amalia Toledo (Lead Public Policy Specialist for Latin America and the Caribbean) joined a policy dialogue and tabletop exercise hosted by the EU-LAC Digital Alliance, an organization that connects policy experts across the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean to deepen cooperation across the regions.

The policy dialogue focused on the future of cybersecurity and secure connectivity infrastructure, and explored how the group could cooperate more closely on priorities related to exchanging technical knowledge and investing in infrastructure. The dialogue also provided an important opportunity for Amalia to gain feedback from experts and policymakers about the Foundation’s joint initiative with the Open Knowledge Foundation: one which is asking the question of what it would look like to treat knowledge as critical digital infrastructure and give it the same protections and investment as other public services like water or electricity. We will continue to seek feedback on this initiative through a series of regional policy dialogues throughout April and June 2026.

Learn more about our work exploring knowledge as critical digital infrastructure (CDI).

Tracing “The Web of Knowledge” at King’s College London book launch

[Learn more about Giota Alevizou’s book about the past and future of online encyclopedias**]**

“The Web of Knowledge: Authority, Encyclopedias, and Power in the Digital Age” is a recently released book where Giota Alevizou (lecturer in digital humanities and culture at King’s College London) provides a detailed history of online encyclopedias, including Wikipedia, from their advent to the present day. At the book’s launch, which we attended, the author explained that it examines how encyclopedias have shaped what information is presented online and what is considered “credible.” She also describes the risks involved with Wikimedia projects being used to power proprietary AI technology that does not share similar values like transparency or collective decision-making. Lastly, Alevizou spoke about how Wikipedia’s first 25 years can provide important lessons for the way in which we build AI at this crucial moment for the world.

Learn more about Dr Giota Alevizou’s book about the past and future of online encyclopedias.

Securing a collective voice for free knowledge

Digital policy has increasingly become a topic of discussion and decision-making in inter-governmental bodies like the UN as digital technologies continue to affect all aspects of individuals’ lives. Unfortunately, in many policy spaces, the voices of advocates for free knowledge are still underrepresented. We have been working to change this by sharing the Wikimedia movement’s perspective in key conversations about the future of digital policy, building coalitions with other free knowledge advocates, and bringing Wikimedians into spaces where they can share the impact of certain policies on their work directly with policymakers. In the last decade, advocacy efforts from the Foundation and the Wikimedia volunteer communities have progressed significantly. We are helping to make sure public interest and community-led projects do not get overlooked when setting digital policy and have a voice in shaping their own futures.

Sharing a timeline of our work with the United Nations

[Read our blog post about why engaging with the UN is key to protecting free knowledge]

In March, we shared a blog detailing our activities at the UN and how we have worked toward bringing attention to public interest projects like ours on the world’s biggest international policy stage.

In the blog post, we discuss some of our early engagement, from a collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) to share accurate health information during the COVID-19 pandemic to serving as an official observer on the UN’s Economic and Social Counsel (ECOSOC). We recap our campaign to influence the Global Digital Compact, an important international framework dictating the future of digital policy, which was approved by the UN General Assembly last year. We also highlight the importance of connecting Wikimedians with policymakers at the UN so they can demonstrate how Wikimedia projects work and show the value of collaboration online.

All of this groundwork allowed us a recent opportunity to address the UN General Assembly. Jan Gerlach (Public Policy Director) spoke in his remarks about the importance of the UN maintaining a multistakeholder model, where civil society groups like the Foundation have a say in how the internet can contribute to the public good. He also advocated protecting digital public goods like Wikipedia and Wikidata that support equitable access to information, innovation, and participation in the global digital economy.

Read our blog post about why engaging with the United Nation is key to protecting free knowledge.

Check out the latest issue of the Global Advocacy quarterly newsletter!

[Read the latest edition of the newsletter on Medium or LinkedIn and subscribe for quarterly updates**]**

The tenth edition of our Global Advocacy quarterly newsletter celebrated Wikipedia’s 25th birthday, and examined what it would take to make the next 25 years of sharing open knowledge as successful as our first two decades and a half.

Among various topics, the newsletter discusses how we engage with the United Nations, how our partnerships with technology companies are helping us to remain sustainable in the future, and what to expect from Wikimedia volunteers as well as our open knowledge partners at RightsCon 2026, which will be held this May in Lusaka, Zambia.

Read the latest edition of the newsletter on Medium or LinkedIn and subscribe for quarterly updates!

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