Well, that was the difference I was referring to. (I wasn't really thinking
of content found libellous in court, child pornography etc.)
What is new is that the WMF is expressing an interest in the actual
integrity of the *encyclopedic* content, hiring staff to address
"misleading content", "disinformation", etc., rather than restricting
itself to deletions required by law.
The WMF's recent action concerning the Croatian Wikipedia surely is an
example of this shift. The WMF had the means – but not the will – to do
what it has done now, ten years ago.
In a similar way, I understand that content added by ISIS sympathisers is a
problem in the Arabic and Farsi Wikipedia versions that the WMF is now
trying to address.
Andreas
On Sun, Aug 22, 2021 at 1:31 PM Mike Godwin <mnemonic(a)gmail.com> wrote:
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
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