Andreas Kolbe writes:

It's worth noting that Yumiko's article (now also on fastcompany.com)
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