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:
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(a)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(a)gmail.com> wrote:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T250508
On Thu, 23 Apr 2020 at 09:53, Chris Gates via Wikimedia-l
<wikimedia-l(a)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(a)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(a)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(a)gmail.com
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae
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