=== Digital Services Act ===
WE ARE VLOP. Officially. [1] For those less acquainted with EU terminology: Wikipedia has been designated as a Very Large Online Platform by the European Commission, which means that the WMF will have to comply with the strictest obligations under the Digital Services Act, including regular risk assessments for systemic risks (including things like public health, kids’ safety and freedom of expression), publishing mitigation measures based on them, and then undergoing an external audit. Wikipedia is the only not-for-profit service that has been designated as a VLOP; the other 18 are for-profit.
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This is a chance for Wikimedia to demonstrate that compliance with such rules can be done in a manner that respects user rights and keeps communities - not the platform operator - in the driving seat. The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) is working on compliance and dedicating significant resources to this. The challenges are serious too. If regulators cannot be convinced that Wikipedia is properly addressing “systemic risks”, like election manipulation, then WMF and the community will be challenged to find additional responses to that. There’s also substantial “bureaucracy”: VLOP designation means that the WMF needs to appoint a legal representative in the EU. It needs to adjust internal processes so they are in line with the new “notice & action” framework, it has to set up a process on how to conduct risk assessments and mitigation reports (annually, and before making significant changes to things), and to find an appropriate auditor who will grill it on all of these things.
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VLOPs are also expected to contribute to the European Commission’s moderation decision database (though whether and how such a database can comply with EU privacy laws, remains to be seen). Plus, there remains the not inconsequential task of ensuring all of the other Wikimedia projects - such as Commons - comply with the DSA’s more general rules. That’s a lot of work - and so is convincing the regulators to not forget our model when they’re writing the guidance and implementing rules - and it is handled by very lean teams (as openly and collaboratively as they can manage - witness the TOU update).