Hi,
Much is going on, but first things first, we celebrated Wikipedia’s 25th in
Brussels this month and it was a blast
<https://wikimedia.brussels/25-years-of-wikipedia/>! Wikimedia Europe and
Wikimedia Belgium invited everyone we could think of from Wikipedians to
collecting societies, from journalists to lobbyists, from institution
staffers to scientists. There was a mini-exhibition, a Wikicheese station,
cake and Annie Rauwerda (Depths of Wikipedia) brought down the house. We
also talked about the Wikipedia Test
<https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2025/06/27/the-wikipedia-test/>. We
have uploaded the photos
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_25_in_Brussels> on
Commons.
=== Stop-Gap CSA Law ===
What was meant to be a quiet extension of a temporary law turned into one
of the messiest institutional showdowns of the year. The temporary ePrivacy
derogation which has allowed platforms like Meta, Google, and Microsoft to
voluntarily scan private messages for child sexual abuse material (CSAM),
expires on 3 April. The European Parliament has voted against
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20260325IPR39207/child-se…>
extending it.
—
The ePrivacy derogation was supposed to be replaced by the CSA Regulation,
also called by its critics chat control
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chat_Control>. However this file has been
stuck in the legislative pipes since before the last European Parliament
elections. The wrangling is specifically about how and when encrypted
private messages can be scanned for CSAM. The Wikimedia Foundation’s public
feedback
<https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/1…>
on the entire proposal expresses strong concerns about this part, although
the WMF does not itself operate such services.
—
To buy more time, the EU institutions decided to go for an extension of the
temporary patch. It was going rather quickly until, in plenary, an amendment
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-10-2026-0070_EN.html> by
the Greens/EFA group that limits any future voluntary scanning of private
communications to messages from specific suspects identified by a judicial
authority was adopted. This, in essence, replicates the Parliament's
position on the permanent regulation, that one that is currently stuck in
trilogue.
—
In trilogue negotiations between the Parliament and Council, the latter
couldn’t accept this amendment. The center-right EPP then tabled another
amendment in plenary, trying to revert the parliament’s recent change. The
move was widely condemned across political groups as an attack on the
institution's integrity. In the end, a plenary vote last week rejected the
extension with 228 votes in favour, 311 against, and 92 abstentions. The
temporary derogation will lapse on midnight of 3 April.
=== Panel of Experts on Child Safety ===
Commission President von der Leyen has finally convened a panel of experts
<https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/panel-child-safety-online>
to deliver a recommendation on how to protect minors from online harms,
including the option of a social media ban.
Work will be led by chairs Maria Melchior and Jörg Fegert, who represent
France and Germany, the two largest EU countries.
—
This was supposed to get started last year after her “state of union”
speech, but the timeline slipped. The panel is set to deliver its
recommendation by the summer. It is widely expected that the Commission
will use the output to kick off whatever legislative or non-legislative
action it decides on. It is public information by now that DG Connect has
already drafted an EU law to restrict children’s access to social media.
Two key decisions are yet to be made: Which platforms should be in scope
and what the actual age limits should be.
—
A related action is the Commission’s work to overhaul the Audiovisual Media
Services Directive
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audiovisual_Media_Services_Directive_2010>.
The risk for Wikimedia is that Wikimedia Commons gets categorised as a
video sharing platform, which comes with age verification obligations.
Frankly speaking, some of the content on Commons makes it a real challenge
to argue that it is solely educational content.
=== Age Verification Updates from France & Austria ===
The French social media ban for under-15s
<https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/dyn/17/textes/l17b2107_proposition-loi#>
is in its final legislative stretches. The bill, drafted by Laure Miller
and adopted by the National Assembly in January, is now before the Senate.
Amendments are under discussion in the Culture Committee, including a
proposal by committee chair Catherine Morin-Desailly to require platforms
to obtain parental authorisation for 13–15 year olds to sign up — a
provision from her own rival bill adopted by the Senate in December. A
further change in the Senate version will risk dragging the final adoption
into autumn or later.
=== European Democracy Shield ===
The European Democracy Shield
<https://commission.europa.eu/document/2539eb53-9485-4199-bfdc-97166893ff45_…>is
a non-binding communication, identifying a whole range of measures that
should protect EU democracy, focusing on safeguarding the information
space, strengthening democratic institutions, elections and media, as well
as boosting citizens’ engagement.
—
Among the more relevant measures are the setting up of the European Centre
for Democratic resilience, the full implementation of the current
legislation (DSA, EMFA) as well as a revision of the anti-SLAPP
recommendation.
—
Several MEPs from different groups (S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA, The
Left) tabled amendments aimed at safeguarding community-governed platforms
and volunteers. The texts are in AM 807
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/EUDS-AM-784406_EN.pdf>, AMs
926 & 980
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/EUDS-AM-784407_EN.pdf>, and AMs
1133, 1135, 1137, 1140, 1143 & 1273
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/EUDS-AM-784408_EN.pdf>.
=== Parliament Report on AI & Copyright ===
On 10 March, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding, own-initiative
report on
copyright and generative AI
<https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-10-2026-0019_EN.html> led
by rapporteur Axel Voss (EPP, DE) with 460 votes in favour, 71 against, and
88 abstentions. No amendments were tabled after the committee
vote, so the plenary text is identical to what we reported on in February.
—
The headline positive: the report confirms that the text and data mining
(TDM) exceptions in EU copyright law apply to AI training. This reduces
legal uncertainty for researchers and developers of public-interest AI
systems, and is consistent with the interpretation reflected in the AI Act.
It also moves from an irrebuttable to a rebuttable presumption of use by AI
developers, which is a more proportionate approach.
—
The headline concern: the report calls for extending both the press
publishers' right and broadcasting rights to give news media "full control"
over the use of their content for AI training, requiring "explicit
consent." Communia, of which WMEU is a member, warns
<https://communia-association.org/2026/03/10/parliament-adopts-ini-report-on…>
that this framing risks being read as excluding press and news media
content from TDM exceptions altogether — which would significantly
constrain AI training on publicly available information and set a worrying
precedent for the Commission's forthcoming review of the 2019 Copyright
Directive. Open Future also has a useful analysis
<https://openfuture.eu/blog/copyright-ai-and-the-limits-of-voluntary-licensi…>
of what the report means for voluntary licensing schemes.
—
The report takes partially contradictory positions. It is hard to see how
these can be reconciled in an actual legislative proposal by the
Commission.
=== Data Retention ===
Two developments worth tracking this month, both touching on data retention
from different angles.
—
The Digital Networks Act (DNA), proposed
<https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/digital-networks-act> by
the Commission in January, contains several provisions with data retention
implications. Most notably, Recital 44 and Article 9 list data retention
among the conditions of the general authorisation regime for telecoms.
Article 38 allows implementing acts to set data retention obligations as
conditions for EU satellite authorisation. And the impact assessment points
to BEREC coordination as a mechanism to
address fragmentation in national data retention rules — language that
could lay the groundwork for a future EU harmonisation push. MEPs and
Council may yet make the text worse on this front, so amendments will need
close watching. The EP lead committee is ITRE, with MEP Kobosko (Renew, PL)
as rapporteur.
—
The preliminary reference
<https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:C_202600937> from
the court in Gdańsk flagged last month continues to make its way to the
CJEU. The question — whether a national obligation to retain traffic and
location data for 12 months is compatible with the ePrivacy Directive and
the Charter — will be an important reference point for any future EU data
retention legislation.
=== Irish Council Presidency ===
The Irish Council Presidency is planning to organise an Online Safety
Summit in September. Online safety is a stated priority for Ireland's
upcoming 2026 Presidency, focusing on child protection, age verification
solutions, and combating harmful and illegal content. The Irish government
states
<https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-the-taoiseach/publications/empower-onli…>
that it is committed “to work actively with like-minded EU Member States to
explore options to introduce age restrictions on the use of social media”.
It is also working on its own Government Digital Wallet.
—
A cybersecurity-focused week is penciled in for the week of 5 October. An
AI summit is planned for 14 October.
===END===
--
Wikimedia Europe ivzw
Dear free knowledge friends,
It has been a while! I hope you've enjoyed the excellent monthly policy
debriefs from the WMEU team via this mailing list, I know I have. But now,
I finally have something to share. Hold your expectations, it is not that
exciting.
*=Will RightsCon be sick of Wikimedians by the end of this year's
conference?=*
Of course not, we're delightful! Every year I put together a blog post that
announces all the wonderful sessions that feature Wikimedians at RightsCon,
the world's largest digital rights conference. This might just be our
biggest turn-out yet with over 10 sessions. And I'm sure I'm missing some.
In this Diff blog post
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2026/03/16/wikimedians-champion-digital-rights-a…>
you
can see all the topics we'll be sharing with the RightsCon audience,
including: Building alliances for information integrity, building alliances
to influence UN negotiations, bridging gender gaps in AI, and more [1].
Join us, either in-person or online! RightsCon is taking place in Lusaka,
Zambia this year. It is a hybrid conference; online tickets are available
on a pay-what-you-desire basis. Details in the blog post.
*=What can we improve? Survey to refresh policy advocacy support=*
Apologies to those who were already contacted for cross-posting here, but
this is big! We're refreshing the programmatic support and communications
channels that WMF uses and runs to connect with Wikimedians interest in
public policy advocacy. The last time we did this was 3 years ago. Since
then we piloted working groups, launched grants and various resources on
Meta-Wiki, posted monthly recaps of our work on Diff, and have held a
series of different types of calls. What did you like? What didn’t work?
We would greatly benefit from your feedback via this survey. Please click
the following link to participate in the survey:
https://forms.gle/JzqZ6ZBRMobehfRR8.
We will be accepting responses until Friday, March 27, 2026.
Warm wishes,
Ziski
- - -
[1]
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2026/03/16/wikimedians-champion-digital-rights-a…
*Please note that this survey will be conducted via a third-party service,
which may subject it to additional terms. For more information on privacy
and data-handling, see the survey privacy statement:
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal:Affiliate_Feedback_Survey_Priva…
.
Franziska Putz (she/her)
Senior Movement Advocacy Manager
Global Advocacy, Wikimedia Foundation
Fputz(a)wikimedia.org
UTC Timezone