[Foundation-l] Re: Is Wikip/media politic?

[Michael Snow]

Jakob Voss wrote:

> A friend of mine is searching for a quote of Jimbo meantioning that 
> Wikipedia or Wikimedia is not political. Maybe Jimbo said something 
> like this during the Politics of Wikimedia panel at Wikimania or 
> related to comparing Wikimedia with the Red Cross or it's because 
> something with tax in the US. Does anybody has a quote with a source?

I have no idea what may have been said. However, as a legal matter the 
Wikimedia Foundation is limited by the rules that govern charitable 
organizations. In the US, these laws severely restrict the extent to 
which a charity can engage in political activity. Basically, I believe 
we should keep to those political issues that relate directly to our 
mission, such as possible changes in copyright laws.

Also to be considered in everything we do is the general commitment to a 
neutral point of view. So far people have had concerns even about 
promoting ideas that are fairly close in spirit to our projects. Things 
like promoting other charities (like the Red Cross) or other open source 
projects (such as Firefox) have not gone over well.

--Michael Snow