The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today. Will you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to sign on to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From congress and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New Deal, and Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to "Pledge to vote for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".
Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so I don't think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should immediately take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't happen again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious action to fix this constant stream of terrible failures.
-- Yair Rand
Hello, I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands. Which is strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... An explanation about this link would be interesting. Kind regards Ziko
Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand yyairrand@gmail.com:
The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today. Will you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to sign on to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From congress and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New Deal, and Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to "Pledge to vote for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".
Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so I don't think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should immediately take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't happen again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious action to fix this constant stream of terrible failures.
-- Yair Rand _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped it and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit, for the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of propaganda promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the American left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that link has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is the host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com wrote:
Hello, I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands. Which is strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... An explanation about this link would be interesting. Kind regards Ziko
Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <yyairrand@gmail.com
:
The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today. Will you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to sign
on
to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From
congress
and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New Deal,
and
Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to "Pledge to
vote
for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".
Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so I don't think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should immediately take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't happen again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious action
to
fix this constant stream of terrible failures.
-- Yair Rand _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped it and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit, for the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of propaganda promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the American left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that link has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is the host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com wrote:
Hello, I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands. Which is strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... An explanation about this link would be interesting. Kind regards Ziko
Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <yyairrand@gmail.com
:
The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today. Will you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to sign
on
to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From
congress
and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New Deal,
and
Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to "Pledge to
vote
for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".
Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so I don't think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should immediately take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't happen again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious action
to
fix this constant stream of terrible failures.
-- Yair Rand _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
OPEN LETTER
Dear Katherine Maher,
The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org) yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.
Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please explain exactly how this happened?
There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.
If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for the CEO.
Thank you in advance.
Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508 CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.
Fae
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey p858snake@gmail.com wrote:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped it and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit, for the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of propaganda promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the American left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that link has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is the host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com wrote:
Hello, I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands. Which is strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... An explanation about this link would be interesting. Kind regards Ziko
Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <yyairrand@gmail.com
:
The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today. Will you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to sign
on
to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From
congress
and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New Deal,
and
Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to "Pledge to
vote
for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".
Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so I don't think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should immediately take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't happen again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious action
to
fix this constant stream of terrible failures.
-- Yair Rand
Should this be posted on wiki for others to sign?
Samuel
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 07:51, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
OPEN LETTER
Dear Katherine Maher,
The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org) yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.
Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please explain exactly how this happened?
There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.
If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for the CEO.
Thank you in advance.
Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508 CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.
Fae
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey p858snake@gmail.com wrote:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped
it
and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit,
for
the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of
propaganda
promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the American left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that
link
has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is the host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com
wrote:
Hello, I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands.
Which is
strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... An explanation about this link would be interesting. Kind regards Ziko
Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <
yyairrand@gmail.com
:
The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today.
Will
you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to
sign
on
to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From
congress
and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New
Deal,
and
Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to
"Pledge to
vote
for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".
Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so
I don't
think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should
immediately
take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't
happen
again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious
action
to
fix this constant stream of terrible failures.
-- Yair Rand
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Hi all,
I am responding on behalf of the Foundation in my capacity handling movement communications, including managing any campaigns on wikimediafoundation.org.
As others from the Foundation have stated on this mailing list in the past, from time to time the Wikimedia Foundation engages in public policy matters which are aligned with the advancement of the Wikimedia mission or our values as an organization.
Having said that, we agree with some of the criticisms you have raised. We had understood the Earth Day Live campaign to be both global and apolitical. However, we agree that the final campaign was both more US-centric and more political than we had understood in advance. The banner is no longer running, and in the future we will do more thorough due diligence.
We remain strongly committed to climate sustainability as a value of the Wikimedia Foundation. We will continue to advocate on behalf of it and other values that uplift and advance free knowledge globally.
I hope you all had a productive and safe Earth Day, and wish you all continued health and safety.
Yours, -greg
------- Gregory Varnum Communications Strategist Wikimedia Foundation https://wikimediafoundation.org/ gvarnum@wikimedia.org Pronouns: He/Him/His
On Apr 23, 2020, at 3:07 AM, RhinosF1 - rhinosf1@gmail.com wrote:
Should this be posted on wiki for others to sign?
Samuel
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 07:51, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
OPEN LETTER
Dear Katherine Maher,
The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org) yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.
Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please explain exactly how this happened?
There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.
If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for the CEO.
Thank you in advance.
Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508 CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.
Fae
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey p858snake@gmail.com wrote:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped
it
and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit,
for
the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of
propaganda
promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the American left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that
link
has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is the host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com
wrote:
Hello, I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands.
Which is
strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... An explanation about this link would be interesting. Kind regards Ziko
Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <
yyairrand@gmail.com
:
The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today.
Will
you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to
sign
on
to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From
congress
and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New
Deal,
and
Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to
"Pledge to
vote
for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".
Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so
I don't
think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should
immediately
take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't
happen
again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious
action
to
fix this constant stream of terrible failures.
-- Yair Rand
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
-- Thanks, Samuel _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
On Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 1:18 AM Gregory Varnum gvarnum@wikimedia.org wrote:
Having said that, we agree with some of the criticisms you have raised. We had understood the Earth Day Live campaign to be both global and apolitical. However, we agree that the final campaign was both more US-centric and more political than we had understood in advance. The banner is no longer running, and in the future we will do more thorough due diligence.
Will that due diligence include advance notice to the community? In this case, the Phabricator task, https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508, appears to have been opened the same day that the banner was to be deployed, meaning that nobody had any chance to voice concerns before it went live. For banners on the projects, we have < https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/CentralNotice/Calendar%3E. I am not saying that every change to wikimediafoundation.org needs to be screened in advance, of course, but I think we should avoid keeping "campaign" banners (even those which aren't expected to be controversial) hidden away until the last minute.
Emufarmers
This would not have happened had there been any oversight (community or otherwise), and it could have been pulled down quickly enough had there been any community members with the ability to edit the site. Perhaps it's time to reconsider how the WMF corporate site operates.
I appreciate that the WMF is committed doing more thorough due diligence in the future. It's very important to do so. There's a very good reason why community consultation is required when dealing with any Collaborative Advocacy, but given that even existing requirements weren't followed, I'm not very optimistic that this new commitment holds weight.
Also importantly, the Foundation's Policy and Political Association Guideline, which was written by WMF Legal in the aftermath of SOPA to iron out clear boundaries on activism, explicitly rules out any political activism relating to environmental issues, stating:
Policy and political associations should protect and advance Wikimedia’s
mission “to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.” Accordingly, we will not support causes unrelated to or inconsistent with that mission. For example, no support should be given to: environmental issues; [...]"
The WMF just inadvertently threw its weight behind dozens of controversial causes that have nothing to do with our mission. I hope that the WMF will manage to operate more appropriately in the future.
--Yair Rand
בתאריך יום ו׳, 24 באפר׳ 2020 ב-1:18 מאת Gregory Varnum < gvarnum@wikimedia.org>:
Hi all,
I am responding on behalf of the Foundation in my capacity handling movement communications, including managing any campaigns on wikimediafoundation.org.
As others from the Foundation have stated on this mailing list in the past, from time to time the Wikimedia Foundation engages in public policy matters which are aligned with the advancement of the Wikimedia mission or our values as an organization.
Having said that, we agree with some of the criticisms you have raised. We had understood the Earth Day Live campaign to be both global and apolitical. However, we agree that the final campaign was both more US-centric and more political than we had understood in advance. The banner is no longer running, and in the future we will do more thorough due diligence.
We remain strongly committed to climate sustainability as a value of the Wikimedia Foundation. We will continue to advocate on behalf of it and other values that uplift and advance free knowledge globally.
I hope you all had a productive and safe Earth Day, and wish you all continued health and safety.
Yours, -greg
Gregory Varnum Communications Strategist Wikimedia Foundation https://wikimediafoundation.org/ gvarnum@wikimedia.org Pronouns: He/Him/His
On Apr 23, 2020, at 3:07 AM, RhinosF1 - rhinosf1@gmail.com wrote:
Should this be posted on wiki for others to sign?
Samuel
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 07:51, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
OPEN LETTER
Dear Katherine Maher,
The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org) yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.
Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please explain exactly how this happened?
There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.
If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for the CEO.
Thank you in advance.
Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508 CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.
Fae
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey p858snake@gmail.com wrote:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped
it
and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit,
for
the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of
propaganda
promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the
American
left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that
link
has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is
the
host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com
wrote:
Hello, I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands.
Which is
strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... An explanation about this link would be interesting. Kind regards Ziko
Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <
yyairrand@gmail.com
> :
> The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a > full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today.
Will
> you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to
sign
on > to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From congress > and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New
Deal,
and > Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to
"Pledge to
vote > for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike". > > Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so
I don't
> think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should
immediately
> take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't
happen
> again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate > political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious
action
to > fix this constant stream of terrible failures. > > -- Yair Rand
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
-- Thanks, Samuel _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
The concept "apolitical" does not exist if there is a goal.
Nevertheless, for the future, a link to the article about "Earth" in all the languages Wikimedia has would be the best solution.
Cheers,
Galder ________________________________ From: Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org on behalf of Yair Rand yyairrand@gmail.com Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 8:27 AM To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism
This would not have happened had there been any oversight (community or otherwise), and it could have been pulled down quickly enough had there been any community members with the ability to edit the site. Perhaps it's time to reconsider how the WMF corporate site operates.
I appreciate that the WMF is committed doing more thorough due diligence in the future. It's very important to do so. There's a very good reason why community consultation is required when dealing with any Collaborative Advocacy, but given that even existing requirements weren't followed, I'm not very optimistic that this new commitment holds weight.
Also importantly, the Foundation's Policy and Political Association Guideline, which was written by WMF Legal in the aftermath of SOPA to iron out clear boundaries on activism, explicitly rules out any political activism relating to environmental issues, stating:
Policy and political associations should protect and advance Wikimedia’s
mission “to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.” Accordingly, we will not support causes unrelated to or inconsistent with that mission. For example, no support should be given to: environmental issues; [...]"
The WMF just inadvertently threw its weight behind dozens of controversial causes that have nothing to do with our mission. I hope that the WMF will manage to operate more appropriately in the future.
--Yair Rand
בתאריך יום ו׳, 24 באפר׳ 2020 ב-1:18 מאת Gregory Varnum < gvarnum@wikimedia.org>:
Hi all,
I am responding on behalf of the Foundation in my capacity handling movement communications, including managing any campaigns on wikimediafoundation.org.
As others from the Foundation have stated on this mailing list in the past, from time to time the Wikimedia Foundation engages in public policy matters which are aligned with the advancement of the Wikimedia mission or our values as an organization.
Having said that, we agree with some of the criticisms you have raised. We had understood the Earth Day Live campaign to be both global and apolitical. However, we agree that the final campaign was both more US-centric and more political than we had understood in advance. The banner is no longer running, and in the future we will do more thorough due diligence.
We remain strongly committed to climate sustainability as a value of the Wikimedia Foundation. We will continue to advocate on behalf of it and other values that uplift and advance free knowledge globally.
I hope you all had a productive and safe Earth Day, and wish you all continued health and safety.
Yours, -greg
Gregory Varnum Communications Strategist Wikimedia Foundation https://wikimediafoundation.org/ gvarnum@wikimedia.org Pronouns: He/Him/His
On Apr 23, 2020, at 3:07 AM, RhinosF1 - rhinosf1@gmail.com wrote:
Should this be posted on wiki for others to sign?
Samuel
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 07:51, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
OPEN LETTER
Dear Katherine Maher,
The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org) yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.
Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please explain exactly how this happened?
There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.
If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for the CEO.
Thank you in advance.
Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508 CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.
Fae
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey p858snake@gmail.com wrote:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped
it
and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit,
for
the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of
propaganda
promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the
American
left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that
link
has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is
the
host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com
wrote:
Hello, I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands.
Which is
strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... An explanation about this link would be interesting. Kind regards Ziko
Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <
yyairrand@gmail.com
> :
> The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a > full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today.
Will
> you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to
sign
on > to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From congress > and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New
Deal,
and > Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to
"Pledge to
vote > for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike". > > Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so
I don't
> think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should
immediately
> take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't
happen
> again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate > political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious
action
to > fix this constant stream of terrible failures. > > -- Yair Rand
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
-- Thanks, Samuel _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
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_______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Mmm... again? https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/1253670025426202624 ________________________________ From: Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org on behalf of Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga galder158@hotmail.com Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 11:26 AM To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism
The concept "apolitical" does not exist if there is a goal.
Nevertheless, for the future, a link to the article about "Earth" in all the languages Wikimedia has would be the best solution.
Cheers,
Galder ________________________________ From: Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org on behalf of Yair Rand yyairrand@gmail.com Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 8:27 AM To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism
This would not have happened had there been any oversight (community or otherwise), and it could have been pulled down quickly enough had there been any community members with the ability to edit the site. Perhaps it's time to reconsider how the WMF corporate site operates.
I appreciate that the WMF is committed doing more thorough due diligence in the future. It's very important to do so. There's a very good reason why community consultation is required when dealing with any Collaborative Advocacy, but given that even existing requirements weren't followed, I'm not very optimistic that this new commitment holds weight.
Also importantly, the Foundation's Policy and Political Association Guideline, which was written by WMF Legal in the aftermath of SOPA to iron out clear boundaries on activism, explicitly rules out any political activism relating to environmental issues, stating:
Policy and political associations should protect and advance Wikimedia’s
mission “to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.” Accordingly, we will not support causes unrelated to or inconsistent with that mission. For example, no support should be given to: environmental issues; [...]"
The WMF just inadvertently threw its weight behind dozens of controversial causes that have nothing to do with our mission. I hope that the WMF will manage to operate more appropriately in the future.
--Yair Rand
בתאריך יום ו׳, 24 באפר׳ 2020 ב-1:18 מאת Gregory Varnum < gvarnum@wikimedia.org>:
Hi all,
I am responding on behalf of the Foundation in my capacity handling movement communications, including managing any campaigns on wikimediafoundation.org.
As others from the Foundation have stated on this mailing list in the past, from time to time the Wikimedia Foundation engages in public policy matters which are aligned with the advancement of the Wikimedia mission or our values as an organization.
Having said that, we agree with some of the criticisms you have raised. We had understood the Earth Day Live campaign to be both global and apolitical. However, we agree that the final campaign was both more US-centric and more political than we had understood in advance. The banner is no longer running, and in the future we will do more thorough due diligence.
We remain strongly committed to climate sustainability as a value of the Wikimedia Foundation. We will continue to advocate on behalf of it and other values that uplift and advance free knowledge globally.
I hope you all had a productive and safe Earth Day, and wish you all continued health and safety.
Yours, -greg
Gregory Varnum Communications Strategist Wikimedia Foundation https://wikimediafoundation.org/ gvarnum@wikimedia.org Pronouns: He/Him/His
On Apr 23, 2020, at 3:07 AM, RhinosF1 - rhinosf1@gmail.com wrote:
Should this be posted on wiki for others to sign?
Samuel
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 07:51, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
OPEN LETTER
Dear Katherine Maher,
The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org) yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.
Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please explain exactly how this happened?
There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.
If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for the CEO.
Thank you in advance.
Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508 CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.
Fae
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey p858snake@gmail.com wrote:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped
it
and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit,
for
the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of
propaganda
promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the
American
left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that
link
has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is
the
host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com
wrote:
Hello, I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands.
Which is
strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... An explanation about this link would be interesting. Kind regards Ziko
Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <
yyairrand@gmail.com
> :
> The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a > full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today.
Will
> you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to
sign
on > to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From congress > and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New
Deal,
and > Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to
"Pledge to
vote > for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike". > > Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so
I don't
> think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should
immediately
> take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't
happen
> again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate > political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious
action
to > fix this constant stream of terrible failures. > > -- Yair Rand
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
-- Thanks, Samuel _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
_______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
The Twitter link does not work.
Am 24.04.2020 um 15:16 schrieb Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga:
Mmm... again? https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/1253670025426202624 ________________________________ From: Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org on behalf of Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga galder158@hotmail.com Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 11:26 AM To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism
The concept "apolitical" does not exist if there is a goal.
Nevertheless, for the future, a link to the article about "Earth" in all the languages Wikimedia has would be the best solution.
Cheers,
Galder ________________________________ From: Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org on behalf of Yair Rand yyairrand@gmail.com Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 8:27 AM To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism
This would not have happened had there been any oversight (community or otherwise), and it could have been pulled down quickly enough had there been any community members with the ability to edit the site. Perhaps it's time to reconsider how the WMF corporate site operates.
I appreciate that the WMF is committed doing more thorough due diligence in the future. It's very important to do so. There's a very good reason why community consultation is required when dealing with any Collaborative Advocacy, but given that even existing requirements weren't followed, I'm not very optimistic that this new commitment holds weight.
Also importantly, the Foundation's Policy and Political Association Guideline, which was written by WMF Legal in the aftermath of SOPA to iron out clear boundaries on activism, explicitly rules out any political activism relating to environmental issues, stating:
Policy and political associations should protect and advance Wikimedia’s
mission “to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.” Accordingly, we will not support causes unrelated to or inconsistent with that mission. For example, no support should be given to: environmental issues; [...]"
The WMF just inadvertently threw its weight behind dozens of controversial causes that have nothing to do with our mission. I hope that the WMF will manage to operate more appropriately in the future.
--Yair Rand
בתאריך יום ו׳, 24 באפר׳ 2020 ב-1:18 מאת Gregory Varnum < gvarnum@wikimedia.org>:
Hi all,
I am responding on behalf of the Foundation in my capacity handling movement communications, including managing any campaigns on wikimediafoundation.org.
As others from the Foundation have stated on this mailing list in the past, from time to time the Wikimedia Foundation engages in public policy matters which are aligned with the advancement of the Wikimedia mission or our values as an organization.
Having said that, we agree with some of the criticisms you have raised. We had understood the Earth Day Live campaign to be both global and apolitical. However, we agree that the final campaign was both more US-centric and more political than we had understood in advance. The banner is no longer running, and in the future we will do more thorough due diligence.
We remain strongly committed to climate sustainability as a value of the Wikimedia Foundation. We will continue to advocate on behalf of it and other values that uplift and advance free knowledge globally.
I hope you all had a productive and safe Earth Day, and wish you all continued health and safety.
Yours, -greg
Gregory Varnum Communications Strategist Wikimedia Foundation https://wikimediafoundation.org/ gvarnum@wikimedia.org Pronouns: He/Him/His
On Apr 23, 2020, at 3:07 AM, RhinosF1 - rhinosf1@gmail.com wrote:
Should this be posted on wiki for others to sign?
Samuel
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 07:51, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
OPEN LETTER
Dear Katherine Maher,
The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org) yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.
Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please explain exactly how this happened?
There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.
If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for the CEO.
Thank you in advance.
Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508 CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.
Fae
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey p858snake@gmail.com wrote:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped
it
and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit,
for
the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of
propaganda
promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the
American
left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that
link
has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is
the
host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com
wrote:
> Hello, > I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands.
Which is
> strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... > An explanation about this link would be interesting. > Kind regards > Ziko > > > > > > > Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <
yyairrand@gmail.com
>> : >> The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a >> full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today.
Will
>> you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to
sign
> on >> to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From > congress >> and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New
Deal,
> and >> Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to
"Pledge to
> vote >> for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike". >> >> Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so
I don't
>> think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should
immediately
>> take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't
happen
>> again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate >> political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious
action
> to >> fix this constant stream of terrible failures. >> >> -- Yair Rand
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
-- Thanks, Samuel _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
It has been deleted. They TL has some RTs done in the previous days. ________________________________ From: Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org on behalf of Gereon Kalkuhl gkalkuhl@freenet.de Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 4:47 PM To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism
The Twitter link does not work.
Am 24.04.2020 um 15:16 schrieb Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga:
Mmm... again? https://twitter.com/Wikimedia/status/1253670025426202624 ________________________________ From: Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org on behalf of Galder Gonzalez Larrañaga galder158@hotmail.com Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 11:26 AM To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism
The concept "apolitical" does not exist if there is a goal.
Nevertheless, for the future, a link to the article about "Earth" in all the languages Wikimedia has would be the best solution.
Cheers,
Galder ________________________________ From: Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org on behalf of Yair Rand yyairrand@gmail.com Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 8:27 AM To: Wikimedia Mailing List wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] WMF political activism
This would not have happened had there been any oversight (community or otherwise), and it could have been pulled down quickly enough had there been any community members with the ability to edit the site. Perhaps it's time to reconsider how the WMF corporate site operates.
I appreciate that the WMF is committed doing more thorough due diligence in the future. It's very important to do so. There's a very good reason why community consultation is required when dealing with any Collaborative Advocacy, but given that even existing requirements weren't followed, I'm not very optimistic that this new commitment holds weight.
Also importantly, the Foundation's Policy and Political Association Guideline, which was written by WMF Legal in the aftermath of SOPA to iron out clear boundaries on activism, explicitly rules out any political activism relating to environmental issues, stating:
Policy and political associations should protect and advance Wikimedia’s
mission “to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.” Accordingly, we will not support causes unrelated to or inconsistent with that mission. For example, no support should be given to: environmental issues; [...]"
The WMF just inadvertently threw its weight behind dozens of controversial causes that have nothing to do with our mission. I hope that the WMF will manage to operate more appropriately in the future.
--Yair Rand
בתאריך יום ו׳, 24 באפר׳ 2020 ב-1:18 מאת Gregory Varnum < gvarnum@wikimedia.org>:
Hi all,
I am responding on behalf of the Foundation in my capacity handling movement communications, including managing any campaigns on wikimediafoundation.org.
As others from the Foundation have stated on this mailing list in the past, from time to time the Wikimedia Foundation engages in public policy matters which are aligned with the advancement of the Wikimedia mission or our values as an organization.
Having said that, we agree with some of the criticisms you have raised. We had understood the Earth Day Live campaign to be both global and apolitical. However, we agree that the final campaign was both more US-centric and more political than we had understood in advance. The banner is no longer running, and in the future we will do more thorough due diligence.
We remain strongly committed to climate sustainability as a value of the Wikimedia Foundation. We will continue to advocate on behalf of it and other values that uplift and advance free knowledge globally.
I hope you all had a productive and safe Earth Day, and wish you all continued health and safety.
Yours, -greg
Gregory Varnum Communications Strategist Wikimedia Foundation https://wikimediafoundation.org/ gvarnum@wikimedia.org Pronouns: He/Him/His
On Apr 23, 2020, at 3:07 AM, RhinosF1 - rhinosf1@gmail.com wrote:
Should this be posted on wiki for others to sign?
Samuel
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 07:51, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
OPEN LETTER
Dear Katherine Maher,
The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org) yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.
Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please explain exactly how this happened?
There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.
If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for the CEO.
Thank you in advance.
Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508 CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.
Fae
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey p858snake@gmail.com wrote:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped
it
and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit,
for
the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of
propaganda
promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the
American
left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that
link
has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is
the
host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com
wrote:
> Hello, > I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands.
Which is
> strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... > An explanation about this link would be interesting. > Kind regards > Ziko > > > > > > > Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <
yyairrand@gmail.com
>> : >> The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a >> full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today.
Will
>> you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to
sign
> on >> to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From > congress >> and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New
Deal,
> and >> Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to
"Pledge to
> vote >> for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike". >> >> Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so
I don't
>> think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should
immediately
>> take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't
happen
>> again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate >> political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious
action
> to >> fix this constant stream of terrible failures. >> >> -- Yair Rand
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
-- Thanks, Samuel _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
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FFS who is against Earth Day? Every organization and company probably mentions it or observes it in some way. Get over yourselves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day is not the same as https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/ - but the link was to the latter.
Thanks, Mike
On 24 Apr 2020, at 21:26, Robert Fernandez wikigamaliel@gmail.com wrote:
FFS who is against Earth Day? Every organization and company probably mentions it or observes it in some way. Get over yourselves. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
We have this article as well:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day_Live
Best Yaroslav
On Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 10:31 PM Michael Peel email@mikepeel.net wrote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day is not the same as https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/ - but the link was to the latter.
Thanks, Mike
On 24 Apr 2020, at 21:26, Robert Fernandez wikigamaliel@gmail.com
wrote:
FFS who is against Earth Day? Every organization and company probably mentions it or observes it in some way. Get over yourselves. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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Hello, this is about different things. One is an opinion about Earth Day, one is an opinion about the organization behind a specific event, and one is an opinion about whether the WMF should link to this specific event. For example, I am not against protecting the climate. I might have some criticism about certain aspects of "Fridays for Future". I would be definitely against my "Association of Historians in Germany" linking in such a way to "Fridays for Future". Kind regards Ziko
Am Fr., 24. Apr. 2020 um 22:27 Uhr schrieb Robert Fernandez < wikigamaliel@gmail.com>:
FFS who is against Earth Day? Every organization and company probably mentions it or observes it in some way. Get over yourselves. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Had the WMF just mentioned Earth Day, I don't think there would have been any trouble with that. The issue here is the support of an explicitly political organization, not just of Earth Day. I can't imagine anyone could have had an issue with an anodyne banner saying something like "Remember our environment on Earth Day!".
On Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 2:27 PM Robert Fernandez wikigamaliel@gmail.com wrote:
FFS who is against Earth Day? Every organization and company probably mentions it or observes it in some way. Get over yourselves. _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
the Foundation's Policy and Political Association Guideline, which was written by WMF Legal in the aftermath of SOPA to iron out clear boundaries on activism, explicitly rules out any political activism relating to environmental issues, stating:
Policy and political associations should protect and advance Wikimedia’s mission “to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.” Accordingly, we will not support causes unrelated to or inconsistent with that mission. For example, no support should be given to: environmental issues; [...]"
That can't be right, because there was a project to try to procure green power when it was available, going back to at least 2009 if I remember it's still ongoing but really hasn't made much progress because the datacenters don't want to by renewables. They are less expensive to produce than fossil fuel power, but tariffs still allow electric companies to charge more for them, in order to speed their transition, supposedly.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sustainability_Initiative
Also, it should go without saying that people are less likely to be engaged in producing free educational content when they are battling increasing fires, extreme weather events, and floods from encroaching sea levels. I guess whomever wrote "Accordingly...." in that Guideline didn't think of that.
On Fri, 24 Apr 2020 at 07:27, Yair Rand yyairrand@gmail.com wrote:
Also importantly, the Foundation's Policy and Political Association Guideline, which was written by WMF Legal in the aftermath of SOPA
Link, please.
On Sat, 25 Apr 2020 at 16:44, Andy Mabbett andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk wrote:
On Fri, 24 Apr 2020 at 07:27, Yair Rand yyairrand@gmail.com wrote:
Also importantly, the Foundation's Policy and Political Association Guideline, which was written by WMF Legal in the aftermath of SOPA
Link, please.
A link has been provided, off-list:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal/Foundation_Policy_and_Political_Associ...
The top of that page has an FAQ, which includes:
Is this guideline binding?
No. Though we intend for this guideline to be our normal operating procedure, the Wikimedia Foundation reserves the right to take the best action as circumstances require. This guideline is not a contract or binding policy.
and the foot of the page has:
WMF reserves the right to deviate from this policy depending on the circumstances. The General Counsel must approve any such deviation.
Gregory,
Thank you for your response.
I am happy to hear that the intent was apolitical. However, it was quite clear from the minute the campaign went live that they had no intention of being apolitical. Though most of the political propaganda was propagated by people in the live-streams, the website literally had a form asking people to pledge to vote in the American presidential elections.
If there was any intention to keep to the Foundation’s own policy, if there was any oversight, or even just asking the operators of Earth Day Live before allowing them to place the WMF’s logo under “participants”, this would not have happened.
On the 18th of this month, this was recorded by the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20200418204146/https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/
The webpage quite plainly states, “Strike, divest, and vote for our future.” That’s political.
It also states, “...we must strive toward the longer term goal of building a society rooted in sustainability and justice.” Sustainability, sure; justice, a very subjective adjective, is clearly political.
The “RSVP to the livestream” but also appears to refer to the managing organization as the US Climate Strike.
Also, of the two press links given, one is for “strikewithus.org” and the other “stopthemoneypipeline.org”. Those are inherently political. Considering that the WMF is listed as one of the program’s participants/supporters, I’d assume that at some point a WMF employee emailed one of those addresses to inform them. Did they think it was apolitical?
It is, of course, too late now to change anything. However, in the future, please stray away from political activism not directly and specifically related to the movement.
Best Regards, Chris Gates (User:Vermont)
On Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 01:18 Gregory Varnum gvarnum@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi all,
I am responding on behalf of the Foundation in my capacity handling movement communications, including managing any campaigns on wikimediafoundation.org.
As others from the Foundation have stated on this mailing list in the past, from time to time the Wikimedia Foundation engages in public policy matters which are aligned with the advancement of the Wikimedia mission or our values as an organization.
Having said that, we agree with some of the criticisms you have raised. We had understood the Earth Day Live campaign to be both global and apolitical. However, we agree that the final campaign was both more US-centric and more political than we had understood in advance. The banner is no longer running, and in the future we will do more thorough due diligence.
We remain strongly committed to climate sustainability as a value of the Wikimedia Foundation. We will continue to advocate on behalf of it and other values that uplift and advance free knowledge globally.
I hope you all had a productive and safe Earth Day, and wish you all continued health and safety.
Yours, -greg
Gregory Varnum Communications Strategist Wikimedia Foundation https://wikimediafoundation.org/ gvarnum@wikimedia.org Pronouns: He/Him/His
On Apr 23, 2020, at 3:07 AM, RhinosF1 - rhinosf1@gmail.com wrote:
Should this be posted on wiki for others to sign?
Samuel
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 07:51, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
OPEN LETTER
Dear Katherine Maher,
The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org) yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.
Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please explain exactly how this happened?
There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.
If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for the CEO.
Thank you in advance.
Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508 CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.
Fae
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey p858snake@gmail.com wrote:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped
it
and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit,
for
the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of
propaganda
promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the
American
left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that
link
has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is
the
host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com
wrote:
Hello, I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands.
Which is
strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... An explanation about this link would be interesting. Kind regards Ziko
Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <
yyairrand@gmail.com
> :
> The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a > full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today.
Will
> you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to
sign
on > to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From congress > and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New
Deal,
and > Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to
"Pledge to
vote > for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike". > > Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so
I don't
> think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should
immediately
> take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't
happen
> again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate > political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious
action
to > fix this constant stream of terrible failures. > > -- Yair Rand
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
-- Thanks, Samuel _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l
New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l,
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Thanks to Greg for the quick official response from the WMF which includes the active recognition and acceptance of the problem.
The open letter was also published on meta at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Foundation_website#Website_fu... for anyone wishing to comment or add notes on wiki rather than using email.
Noting "in the future we will do more thorough due diligence". It may be of benefit for the WMF to respond on Meta with any details about what will change to ensure preventative due diligence measures have been put in place, such as the one suggested in this email thread of early engagement with the community rather than a Phabricator task on the day.
Thanks, Fae
On Fri, 24 Apr 2020 at 06:18, Gregory Varnum gvarnum@wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi all,
I am responding on behalf of the Foundation in my capacity handling movement communications, including managing any campaigns on wikimediafoundation.org.
As others from the Foundation have stated on this mailing list in the past, from time to time the Wikimedia Foundation engages in public policy matters which are aligned with the advancement of the Wikimedia mission or our values as an organization.
Having said that, we agree with some of the criticisms you have raised. We had understood the Earth Day Live campaign to be both global and apolitical. However, we agree that the final campaign was both more US-centric and more political than we had understood in advance. The banner is no longer running, and in the future we will do more thorough due diligence.
We remain strongly committed to climate sustainability as a value of the Wikimedia Foundation. We will continue to advocate on behalf of it and other values that uplift and advance free knowledge globally.
I hope you all had a productive and safe Earth Day, and wish you all continued health and safety.
Yours, -greg
Gregory Varnum Communications Strategist Wikimedia Foundation https://wikimediafoundation.org/ gvarnum@wikimedia.org Pronouns: He/Him/His
On Apr 23, 2020, at 3:07 AM, RhinosF1 - rhinosf1@gmail.com wrote:
Should this be posted on wiki for others to sign?
Samuel
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 07:51, Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
OPEN LETTER
Dear Katherine Maher,
The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org) yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.
Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please explain exactly how this happened?
There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.
If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for the CEO.
Thank you in advance.
Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508 CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.
Fae
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey p858snake@gmail.com wrote:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped
it
and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit,
for
the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of
propaganda
promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the American left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that
link
has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is the host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com
wrote:
Hello, I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands.
Which is
strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... An explanation about this link would be interesting. Kind regards Ziko
Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <
yyairrand@gmail.com
> :
> The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a > full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today.
Will
> you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to
sign
on > to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From congress > and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New
Deal,
and > Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to
"Pledge to
vote > for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike". > > Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so
I don't
> think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should
immediately
> take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't
happen
> again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate > political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious
action
to > fix this constant stream of terrible failures. > > -- Yair Rand
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimediPersonal and confidential, please do not circulate or re-quote.a.org?subject=unsubscribe>
-- Thanks, Samuel _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Adding onto this, it appears the WMF is proudly and publicly displayed on the participants, which may as well be endorsements, page for Earth Day Live: https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/get-involved/
I'm simply astounded by this. Never would I have expected the WMF to take such a strong political position on the American left. If the WMF wants to rethink their branding strategy towards "interconnection", perhaps stop isolating those who disagree with the radical positions endorsed by participating in Earth Day Live. It wasn't even a small thing on the website; t took up the entire page, and the purpose of Earth Day Live is explicitly not only about Earth. It has a number of other policies it supports entirely entirely unrelated to the climate, and even includes a call to vote in the American presidential election, by implication a Democrat.
At the very least, someone at the WMF should respond to the concerns outlined here.
Regards, Vermont
On Thu, Apr 23, 2020 at 2:51 AM Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
OPEN LETTER
Dear Katherine Maher,
The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org) yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.
Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please explain exactly how this happened?
There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.
If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for the CEO.
Thank you in advance.
Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508 CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.
Fae
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey p858snake@gmail.com wrote:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped
it
and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit,
for
the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of
propaganda
promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the American left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that
link
has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is the host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com
wrote:
Hello, I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands.
Which is
strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... An explanation about this link would be interesting. Kind regards Ziko
Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <
yyairrand@gmail.com
:
The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today.
Will
you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to
sign
on
to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From
congress
and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New
Deal,
and
Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to
"Pledge to
vote
for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".
Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so
I don't
think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should
immediately
take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't
happen
again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious
action
to
fix this constant stream of terrible failures.
-- Yair Rand
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Everyone supports Earth Day. Earth Day Live was confusingly different... in a strange time.
On Thu, Apr 23, 2020 at 10:42 PM Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l < wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Adding onto this, it appears the WMF is proudly and publicly displayed on the participants, which may as well be endorsements, page for Earth Day Live: https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/get-involved/
I'm simply astounded by this. Never would I have expected the WMF to take such a strong political position on the American left.
Ah yes, alongside such noted pillars of the American left as... <checks> KDE, Vivaldi, Tumblr, Imgur, and Mapbox*.*
Benjamin Lees writes:
I think we should avoid keeping "campaign" banners (even those which
aren't expected to be controversial)
hidden away until the last minute.
Good point.
SJ
Given that this page
https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/vote/
clearly aims at influencing the election of political candidates to public office and "build political pressure", can we expect the Wikimedia Foundation to file Form 1120-POL as mandated by the IRS?
https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/political-activities-of-exempt-org...
Thanks,
Frank
Am Fr., 24. Apr. 2020 um 14:14 Uhr schrieb Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com:
Everyone supports Earth Day. Earth Day Live was confusingly different... in a strange time.
On Thu, Apr 23, 2020 at 10:42 PM Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l < wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org> wrote:
Adding onto this, it appears the WMF is proudly and publicly displayed on the participants, which may as well be endorsements, page for Earth Day Live: https://www.earthdaylive2020.org/get-involved/
I'm simply astounded by this. Never would I have expected the WMF to take such a strong political position on the American left.
Ah yes, alongside such noted pillars of the American left as... <checks> KDE, Vivaldi, Tumblr, Imgur, and Mapbox*.*
Benjamin Lees writes:
I think we should avoid keeping "campaign" banners (even those which
aren't expected to be controversial)
hidden away until the last minute.
Good point.
SJ _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
On Thu, Apr 23, 2020 at 8:51 AM Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please explain exactly how this happened?
As far as I know, criticism of political lobbying by the WMF is generally frowned upon here. Including aspersion casting against critics.
I don't think these lobbying activities would get a wide community consensus. Even the blackout for the EU produced a fair share of controversy within some Wikimedia projects, and it was actually related to our core mission.
Best,
Mario Gómez
On Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 10:54 AM Mario Gómez mariogomwiki@gmail.com wrote:
As far as I know, criticism of political lobbying by the WMF is generally frowned upon here. Including aspersion casting against critics.
Um, what? As a (volunteer) list administrator of this mailing list, and indeed a (paid) Foundation staff member, I can assure you that you are welcome to criticize any aspect of the Foundation's work here, within usual bounds of civility (no ad hominem attacks, obscenities, etc.).
While I wish we had substantive discussions here more often than we do, it is still an appropriate venue for discussions between the Foundation and the communities. Unlike more popular alternatives, this mailing list is public, tolerant of pseudonyms, and has an immutable public archive.
Asaf
Can everyone please calm down. This is (nearly) only hyperbole.
Thank you.
/jeblad
On Thu, Apr 23, 2020 at 8:51 AM Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
OPEN LETTER
Dear Katherine Maher,
The WMF home website landing page (https://wikimediafoundation.org) yesterday featured a full-page banner directing all visitors globally to https://www.earthdaylive2020.org. This is a site used for Americal political lobbying, refer to the email discussion attached.
Could you, or the responsible member of your management team, please explain exactly how this happened?
There is zero doubt that this was a serious operational error, misuse of WMF development time and a misuse of the Wikimedia brand. It is certain that you will agree that the buck stops with the CEO. The decision to use the Foundation's website for American lobbying is in conflict with your not for profit status and is in conflict with the charitable status promoted to donors worldwide.
If the management team and yourself are going to continuing political lobbying and using WMF resources to raise funds for Americal political organizations which have no agreed relevance to the mission of the Foundation, there must be a published transparent governance review by the WMF board of trustees to examine and agree on this significant operational change to the public Foundation strategy and the terms for the CEO.
Thank you in advance.
Link to Phabricator task to implement the banner: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508 CC: María Sefidari as WMF Chair.
Fae
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 05:50, K. Peachey p858snake@gmail.com wrote:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org wrote:
Hi,
It seems that they just gave a link to that website, which...eh... When I opened it, I heard one sentence of the stream before I stopped
it
and read the rest of the webpage: "and then we give thanks to spirit,
for
the air we breathe, for the earth..." After reading the rest of the webpage, I un-paused it, and am currently listening to a bit of
propaganda
promoting unions and more extensive labor laws.
The linked website is explicitly political, explicitly on the American left, and explicitly in favor of certain highly contentious American political proposals. I would like to hear the reasoning for why that
link
has been shown, and it seems to me simply unjustifiable. The WMF is the host of a series of community-built projects, not a political activism organization.
Regards, Vermont
On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 5:12 PM Ziko van Dijk zvandijk@gmail.com
wrote:
Hello, I can confirm that I see the same also here in the Netherlands.
Which is
strange, there are no general elections here before 2021... An explanation about this link would be interesting. Kind regards Ziko
Am Mi., 22. Apr. 2020 um 22:50 Uhr schrieb Yair Rand <
yyairrand@gmail.com
:
The WMF corporate site (wikimediafoundation.org) currently has a full-page ad with the text "We are watching Earth Day Live today.
Will
you?". This links to an external site with the text "Click here to
sign
on
to the US Youth Climate Strike Coalition Earth Day Demands - From
congress
and the next president, we demand a People’s Bailout, a Green New
Deal,
and
Land Back for Indigenous Peoples", and prompting readers to
"Pledge to
vote
for our future" and to subscribe to "US Climate Strike".
Everyone here already knows how unacceptable this is, and why, so
I don't
think this requires any further explanation. The WMF should
immediately
take this down, and make certain that this kind of thing can't
happen
again. They've failed yet again at preventing inappropriate political activism in WMF's communications, and must take serious
action
to
fix this constant stream of terrible failures.
-- Yair Rand
-- faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org