Hello everyone,
The war in Gaza and Israel and the danger it has posed and continues to
pose for community members is of deep concern. We are examining ways to
support our communities and any threats to our projects as it continues. We
wanted to provide you with an update on these efforts and direct your
attention to this Meta Wiki page
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Team/Impact_of_the_war_in_Gaza_and_Israel>
with advice to enhance the safety and well-being of individuals at risk.
The Human Rights Team <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Team>
in cooperation with other teams at the Foundation is actively monitoring
the conflict and human rights concerns for Wikimedia volunteers, while
consistently refining our safety and security plans. Proactively, we
reached out to administrators and community members of the Arabic and
Hebrew Wikipedia platforms, offering support, conducting safety check-ins,
and ensuring them of our availability to assist through the Human Rights
and Trust and Safety Teams with issues where we can support.
The Foundation has joined the #KeepItOn coalition
<https://www.accessnow.org/campaign/keepiton/> to raise awareness and take
action against internet shutdowns. The Foundation is also in communication
with the Freedom Online Coalition
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Online_Coalition> about efforts to
maintain internet access in Gaza.
Additionally, we have created a comprehensive guide
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/10/25/the-internet-outages-guide/> with
resources on how community members can stay connected during internet
outages.
The Foundation's Disinformation Team
<https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/10/03/challenging-disinformation-in-the-wikimedia-ecosystem/>
and wider Trust and Safety
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety> are working to respond
to reports related to the conflict from the community and other
organizations. They are also monitoring pages related to the conflict,
particularly in English, Arabic, Hebrew and Farsi, for any coordinated
efforts to manipulate content. When such coordinated efforts have been
identified in the past, we have connected with local functionaries to
discuss approaches and are ready to do so again if such coordinated
activity is detected in relation to this crisis. Maintaining vigilance
against any coordinated efforts to manipulate information on Wikimedia
projects is a collective responsibility shared by both the Foundation and
Wikipedia's dedicated volunteers.
We are here to support you. You can reach the Human Rights team for
non-urgent human rights issues at talktohumanrights(a)wikimedia.org or for
emergencies involving Wikimedians at humanrights(a)wikimedia.org (monitored
24/7).
We encourage everyone to be cautious and alert us to any safety and human
rights concerns through private channels to avoid putting our fellow
volunteers at risk.
--
Stephen LaPorte (he/him/his)
General Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
*NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical
reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community
members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more
on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.*