Beacon detected the incident on 29 July 2026 and informed us on 3 August. Beacon’s current understanding is that compromised login details were used to access its systems and download copies of database backups. Their investigation is ongoing and, at this stage, we are not aware of the information having been published online or misused.

Beacon has secured its systems and is investigating the incident with external cyber-security specialists. It has also informed the relevant authorities.

Wikimedia UK has revoked and reconnected all Beacon integrations and security keys, including connections with forms, payment services and email platforms. We have also reported the incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Following an internal risk assessment, we have decided that the information currently available and the type of data we hold do not warrant contacting all members, donors and other contacts directly. We do not store sensitive personal information, dates of birth, bank details or full payment-card details in Beacon. We have contacted our volunteers directly because their records may include information about their volunteering relationship with Wikimedia UK, as well as basic contact details.

There is no action that individuals need to take at this time. However as a general precaution, please remain alert to unexpected emails or messages claiming to be from Wikimedia UK or Beacon. 

Beacon is continuing its investigation and strengthening its security measures. We will monitor developments closely and will contact individuals directly if further information identifies a specific risk or action they should take.

We recognise that incidents of this kind can be unsettling. Please be assured that we are doing everything within our control to protect your information and maintain the highest possible standards of data security.

Anyone with questions or concerns can contact us at: info@wikimedia.org.uk.

The post Statement on Beacon CRM security incident appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

The event brought together editors with two decades of contribution behind them alongside newer volunteers, partners, leaders from the open knowledge sector, policymakers, staff, trustees, members, funders and donors. It was a powerful reminder of the breadth, generosity and commitment of the community that has helped make Wikimedia’s mission real in the UK.

From its beginnings in 2001, Wikipedia has grown into a global public resource spanning more than 300 language editions and a vibrant network of sister projects. Every day, it helps billions of people explore ideas, answer questions and follow their curiosity.

At a time when reliable information, media literacy and public access to knowledge matter more than ever, the gathering was also an opportunity to reflect on the continuing importance of Wikimedia UK’s mission: enabling people in the UK to engage with open knowledge, access reliable information, develop their understanding of the world and make informed decisions about issues that affect them.

We were honoured to welcome Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales as our guest of honour. Jimmy presented Wikimedia UK’s Silver Jubilee Awards, recognising volunteers whose contributions have had a lasting impact on the UK Wikimedia community over the past 25 years.

Silver Jubilee Award nominees

There were more than 20 nominations for 18 potential recipients. The five award winners were proposed by a small subcommittee and approved by Wikimedia UK’s Board of Trustees.

Below is the full list of nominees:

Alice White, Andy Mabbett, Daria Cybulska, Ed Saperia, Ewan McAndrew, Femke Nijsse, Jason Evans, Jess Wade, Kelly Foster, Kirsty Ross, Lucy Hinnie, Lucy Moore, Martin Poulter, Mike Peel, User, Roger Bamkin, Sammy Fox and Zeyi He.

Silver Jubilee Award winners

Huge congratulations to the five Silver Jubilee Award winners.

Andy Mabbett

Andy’s volunteer work is a huge part of Wikimedia UK’s story, and of Wikimedia more broadly, since he began editing in 2003. He has given training, run events, built partnerships and been a mine of knowledge and insight for other volunteers.

Andy was an early adopter of the Wikimedian in Residence model and pioneered ways for institutions to share open knowledge, including through residencies at the Royal Society of Chemistry, ARKive, a charity documenting threatened species, and the Disruptive Media Learning Lab at Coventry University.

Andy also set up the Voice Intro Project, encouraging the subjects of Wikipedia articles to record their own voices. The project famously resulted in a recording made aboard the International Space Station.

Throughout his work, Andy has consistently championed inclusion, particularly the accessibility of Wikimedia projects for users with disabilities. He has remained committed to the vision that we are not simply building websites, but sharing knowledge freely with everyone.

Kelly Foster

Kelly has been a driving force in supporting the addition of content about Black people, who have historically been underrepresented on Wikimedia projects, as well as in training new editors. She has been part of the Wikimedia movement since 2012 and began volunteering with Wikimedia UK in 2016.

Kelly exemplifies leadership and vision. She has served as a trustee of Wikimedia UK and worked as a Wikimedian in Residence with the Making African Connections research project. She is an excellent trainer and advocate, inspiring new contributors and helping organisations understand the value of Wikimedia.

Kelly combines enthusiasm with informed and necessary criticism. She has consistently encouraged the Wikimedia movement to engage with the legacy of colonialism in shaping the world we work in. She reminds us that open knowledge is a transformative project that should challenge, rather than perpetuate, the dominance of Western culture and the best-resourced institutions.

Kirsty Ross

Dr Kirsty Ross’s involvement with Wikimedia UK since 2020 has created an important connection between the charity and higher education. Kirsty is a public engagement professional at the University of St Andrews. She founded the IDEA Network with Dr Abd Alsattar Ardati, which aims to “make knowledge production inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible to all people, regardless of their background, location, or culture”.

Kirsty’s insight into public engagement is invaluable, and she brings fantastic ideas about how to engage people with Wikimedia. Her work shows a deep determination to widen opportunities to contribute to open knowledge, helping ensure that the shared knowledge represented through Wikimedia projects is more reflective of society as a whole.

She also works generously to recognise and champion those around her and those working alongside her.

Lucy Moore

Since joining the Wikimedia movement in 2019, Dr Lucy Moore has become a hugely valued part of the community. She is active in initiatives including Women in Red and has written a Wikipedia article for a woman from every country in the world.

Lucy is innovative and creative as an editor, trainer and colleague. With her deep knowledge of Wikimedia and the GLAM sector, she is able to identify gaps and ways of working that bring real benefit to communities and institutions.

Her activism and attention to marginalised experiences and voices make many Wikimedia projects richer and more equitable. Whether she is investigating ontologies of smell, celebrating queer and trans lives, or getting stuck into talk pages to address systemic bias, Lucy brings care, rigour and imagination to her work.

She also contributes a considerable amount of volunteer time to movement-wide Wikimedia bodies, including the Global Resource Distribution Committee.

Martin Poulter

With a depth of knowledge built through involvement in the movement since 2005, Dr Martin Poulter has been connected with Wikimedia UK from its early days and was part of the push to have it recognised as a charity.

Alongside his role in governance, Martin has been a highly active trainer, supporting Wikimedia UK’s Train the Trainer programme and helping people learn about Wikimedia. He is an excellent communicator, able to help institutions see the value of sharing information openly.

His work as a Wikimedian in Residence across a range of settings, including the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries, has led the way on important Wikidata work and inspired other volunteers to share collections data. His ongoing work with the Khalili Foundation has supported the release of many unique items onto Wikimedia platforms and helped the movement reflect on its coverage of non-Western topics.

Martin is a generous advocate for open knowledge across many different communities. He is kind, thoughtful and has been a huge help to many people over the past two decades.

Gift Knowledge, Your Way

As we mark these landmark anniversaries, we are also inviting everyone to be part of Wikimedia UK’s Gift Knowledge Your Way birthday campaign. Not everyone wants to edit Wikipedia, and that’s completely okay. There are many ways to support open knowledge, and one of the most powerful is by making a donation. Your support helps Wikimedia UK continue its work with volunteers, educators, cultural institutions and communities across the UK to make reliable information more open, accessible and representative. Please consider making a gift today and helping us build the next chapter of open knowledge.

Thank you

Many thanks to everyone who joined us, contributed to the milestone celebrations and continues to make open knowledge possible. Particular thanks go to our Chief Executive, Lucy Crompton-Reid, our Chair, Lucy Yu, and our Vice Chair and Treasurer, Alex Ashby, for helping make the occasion so special.

Here’s to the next chapter: more knowledge, more participation and more people empowered to make informed decisions about the world around them.

The post Celebrating 25 years of Wikipedia and 15 years of Wikimedia UK appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Hints and tips on the translation of articles

Translation plays a major role in expanding free knowledge on Wikimedia projects. Through translation, knowledge created in one language becomes accessible to speakers of other languages, thereby promoting linguistic diversity, inclusiveness, and knowledge equity.

Despite the availability of translation tools on Wikimedia platforms, many translated articles suffer from poor language structure, direct machine translation, and lack of proper references. This reduces the quality and reliability of translated content. Many new translators also lack proper orientation on best practices for article translation. Hence, this event intends to provide practical hints and tips that can improve the quality of translated articles on Wikimedia projects.

Come and find out effective methods and best practices for translating articles on Wikimedia platforms and how Wikimedia translation tools can be effectively utilised.

CHINWEDU PEACE ANYAWU

15 JUL 2026 | 5 pm

Duration: 1.5 hrS

Register Here →

About Chinwedu

Chinwendu Peace Anyanwu (Akwugo) is a language preservation advocate, and Wikimedia contributor passionate about promoting free knowledge in digital spaces. She actively supports initiatives focused on indigenous language documentation, Women digital literacy  and community engagement. She contributes to expanding access to knowledge while empowering individuals and communities to preserve and share their cultural heritage.

Improving Wikidata references: A hands-on workshop with the Reference Validator tool

This session will introduce the Wikidata Reference Validator tool, which helps identify whether references used in Wikidata items are still accessible or have gone offline. Reliable references are essential for ensuring the quality and trustworthiness of Wikidata, and this session will focus on practical ways to improve them.

Participants will learn how to:

1. Use the Reference Validator tool to check if references are active or broken

2. Understand why maintaining valid references is important for Wikidata

3. Navigate from the tool to Wikidata to fix and update references

This will be a hands-on, beginner-friendly workshop where participants can follow along, explore the tool, and work on real Wikidata items together. By the end of the session, participants will have improved references and gained confidence in maintaining data quality on Wikidata.

JOSEF ANTONY & NURAH WAKILI

15 Aug | 5-6 pm

Duration: 1 hr

Register Here →

About the presenters

Josef Anthony is a Wikimedian focused on Wikidata, technical contributions, and community capacity building. He is the founder of the Arewa TechCom initiative and has led training sessions focused on Wikimedia tools, data quality, and underrepresented knowledge. 

Nurah Wakili is an emerging Wikimedian from the Arewa Techcom community with an interest in Wikidata, Wikimedia tools, and technical skills development. She will be co-facilitating the session as part of ongoing community capacity-building efforts.

Exploring the Wikidata Toolbox

Wikidata tools are software applications and interfaces that allow users to interact with and utilise the data stored in Wikidata. Wikidata gadgets are optional user scripts that enhance the functionality and user experience. Overall, these tools and gadgets generally help to facilitate data contribution, querying, visualization and other forms of editing on Wikidata.

The session is focused on exploring the functionality and use cases of selected Wikidata tools/gadgets (about 4 – 5), with a live demo. 

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1. Identify and understand the key features and functionality of Wikidata tools.

2. Manage and contribute to Wikidata using the explored tools.

CHINONSO CHIDI

16 SEP | 5 pm (UTC)

Duration: 1 hr

Register Here →

About Chinonso

Chinonso Chidi (User:King ChristLike) is an administrator on the Igbo Wikipedia & Igbo Wiktionary, and rollbacker on Wikidata. He is a member of the Wikidata Weekly Summary Team, a technical contributor and event manager with many impactful projects. With over 200 articles created on the English Wikipedia, he has served as a jury member in several photography contests and is committed to the open knowledge movement.

The post Community Sandbox Events 2026 appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

This major investment in our digital future has been made possible through a generous legacy gift from the late Mr Nicholas Timothy David Stone. We’re deeply grateful to Mr Stone for this lasting contribution to our work, and to his estate for ensuring that the gift was safely received. It’s thanks to this generosity that we’re able to move forward with a project that will strengthen how people access, understand and support our work.

The new website will create a more accessible, engaging and effective digital home for Wikimedia UK. It will make it easier for people to discover our programmes and partnerships and learn more about the importance of free and open knowledge. We’ll have easier ways to get involved through volunteering, donating and participating in our work.

Accessibility and participation sits at the heart of the redevelopment. The new site will help us better serve our communities, communicate our impact, and provide stronger pathways for supporters, partners, contributors and the wider public to engage with our mission.

We’re excited to be working with the Hotfoot team over the coming months and look forward to sharing updates as the project progresses.

Wikimedia UK extends its sincere thanks once again to the late Mr Nicholas Timothy David Stone and his estate for making this important project possible.

The post Honouring a legacy, building our future appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Gemma Coleman | Wales

I love nature and I’m always taking photos of things that strike me or of plants I want to identify. But for some reason, “Wiki Loves Earth” didn’t feel immediately relevant. Making time to travel to a protected area felt hard, all I have is the phone on my camera and I’m not even really a competent photographer! 

But as someone who is always taking (bad) photographs it was fun going through the pictures on my phone. There was the strikingly moody sunset at Nant Gwrtheyrn on a drizzly November evening. I was in the area for a residential Welsh course rather than the nature but the Llŷn Peninsula coast is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty so eligible for Wiki Loves Earth! There was the cow parsley I snapped on a lunch time walk to feed into my plant ID app. And there was that time I came across a fin whale carcass! 

I’m still no photographer and these still aren’t the greatest pictures in the world. But it was fun to reminisce on what I’d already taken over the year (and it was an excuse to create the Beached whales in Wales category, which didn’t exist yet!) 

Wiki Loves Earth in Wales page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2026_in_Wales 

List of protected natural areas in Wales page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_in_Wales/Protected_natural_areas 

Richard Nevell | England

One of London’s highlights is the amount of green space. Even a megacity can have a place for nature. With that in mind I thought I’d see where the nearest eligible place for Wiki Loves Earth is. The first challenge is avoiding the red herrings. London has lots of parks, but the competition is specifically about protected places. The most common designation is Site of Special Scientific Interest, so was the best choice for something nearby. Just over 40 minutes on the bus took me within a short walk of the Chingford Reservoirs. I checked the route to the reservoirs on Google Maps and my plan was to go to the reservoirs and take a snap from the road.

So far so good!

On arrival, I was struck by the size of the embankment around the reservoirs which reminded me of the remains of Iron Age hillforts, and were calling out to be climbed. However, I couldn’t see the reservoir from the road. One thing I should have considered was whether I could get into the protected area and a large metal fence made it clear that wasn’t going to be possible. Though it’s not what I expected, I do quite like the photograph, though you probably wouldn’t know it’s a reservoir unless someone told you as much. The moral of the story is: if you are making a trip just to visit to take a photograph, check if there is access. And if that fails, find somewhere nearby to get a consolation snack.

Wiki Loves Earth in England competition page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2026_in_England

List of protected natural areas in England page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_in_England/Protected_natural_areas

Sara Thomas | Scotland

Living in Glasgow, I’m normally more of a Wiki Loves Monuments participant than Wiki Loves Earth.  But I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how the Wikimedia projects help us to interact with physical space and location, which led me to the Possil Marsh article on en.wiki.  If you’re familiar with the city you’ll know that North Glasgow often has a reputation primarily characterised by its experience of poverty rather than its rich community spirit or industrial history, but I know Possil Marsh (a Nature Reserve and a Special Site of Scientific Interest), Hamiltonhill Claypits, the nearby River Kelvin, and the Forth & Clyde Canal as havens for nature, and reminders of why Glasgow’s Dear Green Place nickname remains quite so apt. I guess that it may be unexpected to find SSSIs within city boundaries, but Glasgow has two! 

Pictures make a difference when it comes to Wikipedia, and the Possil Marsh article only had one image, which was taken in 2009.  I wanted to expand on that, to give more of a sense of what the place feels like, and what you can find there. With it being Wiki Loves Earth season, it seemed like an appropriate time to take a sunny Saturday morning wander.  

I got a few good shots (well, as good as I can get on a mobile phone) showing the wider location context, some close ups of interesting plants, and found a path I’ve not taken before that let me get closer to the water to show Possil Loch itself.  I’ve now added a few more images to the article, and created a new “Possil Marsh” category on Commons.  Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning! 

Wiki Loves Earth in Scotland competition page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_2026_in_Scotland

List of protected areas in Scotland page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Wiki_Loves_Earth_in_Scotland/Protected_natural_areas 
If you’re in Northern Ireland, you can find out more about the Irish competition here: https://wikimedia.ie/2026/05/01/wiki-loves-earth-2026-in-in-ireland-and-northern-ireland-photography-competitons-are-open/

The post Wiki Loves Earth 2026, get involved! appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

By Rupal Karia – Outreach & Community Coordinator | 22 Apr 2026

We are excited to announce a second season of the virtual Sandbox Session and invite community members to propose sessions they are interested in leading. Community Sandbox Sessions offer a space for community members to share their learning, meet other Wikimedians and try new things. They are volunteer-led events, supported by Wikimedia UK. 

Our first season featured sessions on the Wikidata tool Duplicity, how to edit calmly in controversial areas, a wikisource transcribe-a-thon, smell-related content on Wiki, and being an en.wiki admin!  Huge thanks to all our presenters – Josef Anthony, Femke Njise, Martin Poulter, Lucy Moore, and Harry Mitchell.

The type or format of an event is open; however, we’d like to encourage proposals which go beyond the traditional Wikipedia edit-a-thon. Maybe there is something you do on Wikimedia projects you’d like to do in community with others? Here are some session suggestions.

• A talk on how to advocate for the release of images from a collection
• Here’s how I overcame hurdles related to adding under-represented content
• Let’s add images to Wikipedia from this collection
• My special niche on Wikimedia projects
• Let’s spend an hour thanking people on Wikipedia
• Let’s build a worklist and find reliable sources for this under represented topic on Wikipedia
• Hints and tips on translation of articles
• Here’s a cool Wikidata tool I’ve found, let’s try it out
• How to add structured data to images
• Add pictures to articles together
• If you have extended user rights and are involved in the governance of Wikipedia tell us about your role 
• Here’s how I got this article to Featured Article status

We would love to hear any other ideas that you might have.

Support WMUK can offer 

• Advice on refining your format
• Setting up of Event Registration 
• Event promotion through UK listings & mailing lists
• Hosting on the WMUK Zoom account / Google Meet
• Friendly space support from a WMUK staff member (or volunteer) during the event 

Dates and times

Events can take place throughout the year, and can also be on an evening or weekend.  Suggested duration is an hour, but longer (or shorter!) events could be considered. We’re suggesting that these events are online in the first instance, to reach the widest possible audience, and all events should of course be run in line with the Wikimedia UK Safe Space policy.  

If you’re interested in running a session, please submit a proposal here.

Deadline

The initial deadline for submitting proposals is 18th May 2026. If you have any questions, please contact rupal.karia@wikimedia.org.uk

Season 1

By Dr. Sara Thomas – Programme Manager | 24 April 2025

Do you have an idea for a Wiki-learning session?  Have you found something that you’d like to share with other Wikimedians, or an idea that you’d like to try out?  And would you like some help from Wikimedia UK in sharing it? 

In response to feedback from the community around having opportunities to improve Wiki-skills, and connecting with other community members, and as part of the overall training package for 2025, we’re excited to introduce a new strand of event programming, called Community Sandbox Sessions.

We’re looking to programme up to 6 virtual events over the next year, which would be open to all members of the UK community, and supported by Wikimedia UK.  We’re asking community members to propose sessions that you’d like to lead.

Session suggestions

The type or format of any event is open; but we’d like to encourage proposals which go beyond the traditional Wikipedia editathon – for example: 

• Here’s a cool Wikidata tool I’ve found, let’s try it out
• Wikisource transcribe-a-thon
• A talk on how to run backstage pass events
• Here’s how I got this article to Featured Article status
• Let’s add images from this collection to Wikipedia
• A mobile meeting where we take pictures of our local area for Wikimedia Commons
• Minoritised language work – eg: adding Wikidata labels
• Building a worklist & finding reliable sources for future events

Dates and times

Events can take place throughout the year, and can also be on an evening or weekend.  Suggested duration is an hour, but longer (or shorter!) events could be considered.  We’re suggesting that these events are online in the first instance, to reach the widest possible audience, and all events should of course be run in line with the Wikimedia UK Safe Space policy.  

Support WMUK can offer 

• Advice on refining your format
• Setting up of Event Registration 
• Event promotion through UK listings & mailing lists
• Hosting on the WMUK Zoom account / Google Meet
• Friendly space support from a WMUK staff member (or volunteer) during the event 

This is very much an experiment, and we hope that the format will allow community members to share knowledge and skills, and get to know other UK Wikimedians, as well as test out new ideas!  If you’d be interested in running a session, please submit a proposal here.

Deadline

The initial deadline for submitting proposals is Tuesday 20th May. 

If you have any questions, please contact sara.thomas@wikimedia.org.uk.

The post Community Sandbox Sessions appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

I came to the role of Education Lead at Wikimedia UK after 20 years of teaching A level Philosophy in a Further Education college. I had always strongly felt that critical thinking skills should be taught to all young people, regardless of social or educational background. This will enable us to move toward a more equitable society and see more diversity in politics, media and society in general.

The changing face of education in the digital age

Over my many years of teaching, I saw gradual changes in how young people engage with the digital world. I also saw how those changes became drastic over time. Students have always been passionate about causes, always curious and keen to learn about the world they lived in. But they were increasingly being exposed to more information than ever before. That information came from more sources and also arrived at a faster pace than ever before.

The philosophical skills I was teaching them had always been about critically engaging with information they are given, learning how to spot good from bad arguments, questioning what they are told and having the confidence to articulate their own thoughts and opinions. But now these skills are crucial in navigating the digital world in an age of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories, and where developments in AI blur the boundaries of truth and fiction. Those students who did not develop these skills are increasingly at risk of polarisation, or at worst radicalisation. 

The digital divide and education.

During my time in education I was also involved in widening participation in Higher Education, running programmes to help students overcome barriers to reaching top universities. Many of our students were the first generation to go into post-compulsory education and came from a variety of challenging backgrounds. Socio-economic barriers had always existed, but now the digital divide added a new dimension to inequality.

Digital poverty includes a lack of access to technology and online information. It also needs to be understood as poor information literacy. If students cannot critically assess the digital information they encounter, they become vulnerable. They are more exposed to misinformation and disinformation. As a result, they are also more vulnerable to harm. Since 16-year-olds will soon be able to vote in general elections, they will become targets online. Fake news and conspiracy theories are likely to focus on them. Students also need to learn how to check sources. They must assess information for reliability. They also need to use AI responsibly and effectively. Without these skills, they may struggle academically at university. This can lead to higher dropout rates. It can also widen educational divides.

From the Classroom to Wikimedia UK

The move from teaching to Education Lead at Wikimedia UK was something that was very natural for me. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, a charity supporting all the Wiki projects and community of volunteers. The most well-known of these projects is of course Wikipedia. When I began teaching most teachers still warned against using Wikipedia as a research tool. Times have changed, although some misconceptions about Wikipedia do still exist.

Why Wikipedia should be used in the classroom

At the heart of Wikimedia UK’s work is the belief that every human should have free and equal access to the sum of all human knowledge. The charity works hard to break down barriers which prevent individuals and groups from accessing and shaping open knowledge. Wikipedia itself is the product of collaboration and the work of volunteers across the globe who produce, edit and monitor its content. Campaigns and projects work to increase representation on Wikipedia, both in those contributing and in the content, and young people play an important part in that process. 

Wikipedia also strives for the core principle of neutrality, with articles giving proportionate weight to different viewpoints when they exist and lacking bias or opinion. Combined with the principles of transparency (all edits are visible) and verifiability (articles strive to be clearly sourced) Wikipedia is one of the few places where young people can go for a neutral, unbiased perspective. In a world of fake news and influencers this is more important than ever. 

Where Wikimedia UK comes in

Wikimedia UK encourages critical evaluation of online information, including of Wikipedia itself. Some articles need improving in content or citation, and there are knowledge gaps to be filled. Debates occur on the talk pages about the best way to present information. But all of this encourages complexity resilience, being more comfortable with an increasingly ambiguous, complex, and difficult world, rather than simply offering definitive answers or actions (like conspiracies theories or answers given by AI often do). 

Following the Curriculum and Assessment Review of English schools, media and information literacy has been recognised as a crucial part of education. At Wikimedia UK we are committed to helping teachers and students navigate this increasingly complex and important topic by providing teacher training, classroom materials and workshops.

I am proud to be part of something that will empower young people to build digital resilience, safeguarding their wellbeing and allowing them to make informed decisions as they become the ones to shape the future. 

Interested in Workshops or Collaboration? Let’s Talk

My role as Education Lead at Wikimedia UK involves developing materials and workshops to teach young people crucial media literacy skills. If you are an educator interested in bringing this work to your school or college, or an organisation looking to collaborate on media literacy projects I would love to hear from you.

Dr Sally Latham (sally.latham@wikimedia.org.uk)

The post Why Wikimedia belongs in education appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Just like everything else Wiki, the “Wiki Loves” competitions every year couldn’t happen without the hard work and contributions of a flurry of volunteers who help us promote and judge the competitions and maximise the use of the subsequent images throughout the different Wiki projects.

2026 is no different and we’d love your help! We have three competitions this year… 

Wiki Loves Folklore – February and March 2026

Wiki Loves Earth – May and June 2026

Wiki Loves Monuments – September 2026

To help us with managing these competitions we’re looking for the following volunteers for any or all of the above competitions.

Comms & Community support – We need volunteers who can help us make sure we’re shouting about the “Wiki Loves” competitions in the right places, making it easy for people to take part and celebrating the efforts of those who do. 

Competition judge – Our judges help determine which are the best entries that have been submitted to a particular competition and which we should submit to any international panel. The role might suit people with photography experience themselves or who understand the importance of high quality images to Wiki projects

Data volunteer – And of course, we want these images to be useful and helpful in the wider Wikiverse which is where data volunteers come in. If you’re knowledgeable about Wikidata, we’d love your help!

Follow the links above for more information or for a no obligation chat email volunteering@wikimedia.org.uk

The post Wiki Loves Photography – volunteers wanted appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

Adam Harangozó stepped into the role in December 2025, combining sharing openly licensed content, training and preparing learning resources, with bibliometrics tools to help researchers make their work more visible. The project will last for two years and aims to support LSE and the wider international social science community in developing open knowledge and sharing insights and expertise through the Wikimedia projects. Adam has previously worked as a Wikimedian in Residence for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the Blinken Open Society Archives (based in Budapest).

At Wikimedia UK, we are very excited to be working with both LSE and Adam. This is the fourth residency active at a UK university – joining Edinburgh, Exeter, and Leeds – and the first to focus specifically on social science.

As well as joining LSE’s community, Adam joins Wikimedia UK’s community of Wikimedians in Residence who learn from and support each other. LSE’s ‘Research for the World’ strategy aligns closely with WMUK’s aims, setting out how LSE seeks to “generate the knowledge and insight the world needs to build a more sustainable, prosperous and equitable future.”

The post Introducing the new Wikimedian In Residence at LSE appeared first on Wikimedia UK.

With a decision on whether or not Wikipedia will be considered a category 1 service under the UK Online Safety Act 2023 expected in 2026, it seems like a timely moment to reflect on the journey to this point; including Wikimedia UK’s work to ensure that measures to improve online safety do not have detrimental consequences for public interest platforms like Wikipedia.

Overview of the Online Safety Act

The UK Online Safety Act 2023 (the Act) is a set of laws that aims to protect children and adults online by establishing a regulatory framework for certain online services, including user-to-user services (such as Facebook) and search services (such as Google). The Act gives providers new duties to create and implement systems to reduce the risk of their services being used for illegal activity, and to take down illegal content that does appear. There are specific duties related to child safety, with providers required to prevent children from accessing harmful or age-inappropriate content. The 2023 Act established Ofcom (the Office of Communications) as the regulator of online services, and gives it a broad range of powers to assess and enforce compliance with the framework. 

Background and history to the creation of the Act

The backdrop to the creation of the Online Safety Act was one of mounting concern about the risks children and young people face online, with calls for more regulation of online platforms becoming increasingly urgent following the tragic death of Molly Russell in 2017. The inquest concluded that Molly died from an act of self-harm whilst suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content, and a Prevention of Future Deaths report was sent by the Coroner to the government, Pinterest and Meta recommending the introduction of platform regulation. This led to an Internet Safety Strategy Green Paper, published by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in Autumn 2017, followed by the Online Harms White Paper in April 2019. 

Wikimedia’s concerns in relation to online safety regulation

Wikimedia UK strongly supports efforts to keep people safe online. Our charity has a strong focus on information literacy, with projects and programmes designed to equip young people with the skills needed to successfully navigate the online environment. However, the Online Safety Act was simply not designed for public interest, non profit and educational projects like Wikipedia. The Act has provisions around content moderation, age-gating, and user verification that are incompatible with the way in which information on Wikipedia is created and curated, as well as the website’s commitment to user privacy and freedom of speech. 

Advocating for changes to the proposed legislation

Wikimedia UK provided detailed responses to successive government consultations relating to Online Safety, stressing the need to balance safety with access. In particular, we emphasised that online providers should not be forced to take down content that would be legally protected as free speech in other contexts (an aspect of the proposed legislation that didn’t make it into the final Act). We argued that Wikipedia and other projects within the open internet movement should be outside the scope of the legislation, sharing our concerns in meetings with Ofcom and DCMS, alongside colleagues from the Wikimedia Foundation. 

How we tried to influence the Bill in Parliament

The Online Safety Bill was introduced to the House of Lords in January 2023, at which point Wikimedia UK’s advocacy efforts moved up a gear as we started communicating directly with Parliamentarians in a bid to make changes to the draft legislation. Working in partnership with staff from the Global Advocacy, Legal and Communications teams at the Wikimedia Foundation (the legal host of Wikipedia), our actions included: 

• Scrutinising the draft text to identify key areas that risked our movement and model 
• Drafting a series of amendments to the Bill that addressed these problematic areas
• Briefing peers (members of the House of Lords) about the unintended consequences of the Bill and our suggested amendments 
• Meetings with Parliamentarians, Ministers and the regulator to explain our position
• Drafting speeches for the Peers who sponsored our amendments in the House
• Working with civil society partners, including supporting joint briefings and campaigns

The response from Peers

As a result of this work we were able to ensure that our proposed amendments were debated during both the Committee and Reports stages of the Bill’s passage through the House of Lords. Ultimately, we focused on just one amendment, which was to introduce an exemption for public interest projects. Many members of the House of Lords shared our concern that access to open knowledge could be threatened if the Bill became law without such an exemption. The following quotes are all taken from the formal Parliamentary record:

Baroness Harding (Conservative): “There is unanimity of desire here to make sure that organisations such as Wikipedia and Streetmap are not captured.”

Baroness Kidron (Crossbench, Chair of the 5Rights Foundation): “I too am concerned at the answer that has been given. I can see the headline now, “Online Safety Bill Age-Gates Wikipedia”…there are some services that are inherently in a child’s best interests”

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara (Labour, frontbench): “Why is it that we are still worried about Wikipedia, a service for public good, which clearly has risks in it…but is definitely a good thing that should not be threatened by having to conform with a structure and a system which we think is capable of dealing with some of the biggest and most egregious companies that are pushing stuff at us in the way that we have talked about?”

Lord Clement-Jones (Lib Dem, Spokesperson for Digital Economy): “All of us are Wikipedia users; we all value the service. I particularly appreciated what was said by the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron: Wikipedia does not push its content at us—it is not algorithmically based.”

Baroness Stowell (Conservative, frontbench): “I have been very much persuaded by the various correspondence that I have received, which often uses Wikipedia as the example to illustrate the problem…(we must make sure) that there is a way of appropriately excluding organisations that should not be subject to these various regulations because they are not designed for them.”

The Open Letter

In June 2023 we also launched an open letter inviting knowledge institutions, Wikimedians, civil society and concerned members of the public to join us in calling on the UK Government and Parliament to exempt public interest projects from the Bill. The initial coalition of signatories included the Arcadia Foundation (one of the largest funders of open access world-wide), Creative Commons, Liberty (the UK’s foremost charity for human rights and civil liberties), Open Rights Group and The Heritage Alliance (England’s national umbrella body for heritage), among many others, with additional signatures added by over 800 individuals and organisations. You can read the open letter and see the signatories here. 

The Act is passed, and the work on implementation begins

Unfortunately, despite cross party support for some sort of exemption from the Bill for public interest projects, there was no softening of position from the government and the Act became law in October 2023, without any consideration for charities, educational or public interest projects. After this, the regulator Ofcom started developing and introducing secondary legislation to enforce the Act and in December 2024 the categorisation thresholds were published. Sadly, despite the many verbal assurances to the contrary, once the proposed thresholds were published it became clear that Wikipedia could be treated as a Category 1 service, and subject to the most stringent requirements of the Act which are fundamentally incompatible with Wikipedia’s community-led model of content generation, curation and governance. 

The Motion to Regret the Regulations is won

Working quickly before the Regulations were debated in the House of Lords, it was agreed with our colleagues at the Wikimedia Foundation that Wikimedia UK should write to a number of peers to highlight Wikimedia’s concerns, with Lord Clement-Jones subsequently tabling a ‘motion to regret’ in which he called on the Government ‘to withdraw the Regulations and establish a revised definition of Category 1 services. Introducing the motion, Lord Clement-Jones highlighted the importance of protecting Wikipedia: “Many sites with over 7 million users a month – including Wikipedia, a vital source of open knowledge and information in the UK – might be treated as a category 1 service, regardless of actual safety considerations….This makes it doubly important for the Government and Ofcom to examine, and make use of, powers to more appropriately tailor the scope and reach of the Act and the categorisations, to ensure that the UK does not put low-risk, low-resource, socially beneficial platforms in untenable positions.” Conservative peer Lord Moylan added, “I come back to the same question that I have been asking to no real effect now for two years. Perhaps when she comes to reply, the Minister can give me a definitive answer. Is Wikipedia in scope of this regulation? Is it covered by Section 3 or not? We would like to know.”

Lord Clement-Jones won the motion against the government by 86 to 55 votes. However a “motion to regret” is not legally binding, and despite heavy criticism from within and outside of Parliament – including from child safety organisations – the Categorisation Regulations became law on 26th February 2025. 

The legal challenge

If enforced on Wikipedia, Category 1 demands would undermine the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer contributors, expose the encyclopedia to manipulation and vandalism, and divert essential resources from protecting people and improving Wikipedia, one of the world’s most trusted and widely used digital public goods. Given the seriousness of the threat posed by Category 1 status, in May 2025 the Wikimedia Foundation announced that it was challenging the lawfulness of the OSA’s Categorisation Regulations, arguing that the regulations endanger Wikipedia and the global community of volunteer contributors who create the information on the site. The case was heard in the UK’s High Court in July, and was dismissed on 11th August.

While this decision did not provide the immediate legal protections for Wikipedia that were hoped for, the Court’s ruling emphasised the responsibility of Ofcom and the government to ensure Wikipedia is protected; acknowledging the “significant value” of Wikipedia, its safety for users, as well as the damages that wrongly-assigned OSA categorisations and duties could have on the human rights of volunteer contributors. The Court stressed that this ruling “does not give Ofcom and the Secretary of State a green light to implement a regime that would significantly impede Wikipedia’s operations”, and indicated they could face legal repercussions if they fail to protect Wikipedia and the rights of its users. 

The current situation and next steps

In November 2025, Ofcom published an update on the implementation of the Online Safety Act, noting the legal challenge to the Government’s secondary legislation setting the categorisation thresholds. Having considered the implications of the judgment, Ofcom has adjusted their plans for the categorisation register and the consultation on the additional duties that will apply to categorised services. There is a “representations process” planned for early 2026, giving services that Ofcom believe meet the threshold conditions an opportunity to comment on provisional decisions before the register is finalised. It’s worth noting that regardless of the secondary legislation passed, it is in the gift of both Ofcom and the Secretary of State to exercise their burden reduction powers under the Act, allowing low risk platforms such as Wikipedia to focus on ensuring every single person on the planet – including those living in the UK – has free access to the sum of all human knowledge. 

Personal reflections

Having worked on this issue since 2019, I believe that the value of Wikipedia and other public interest projects to UK society must be recognised and protected in law, not subject to shifts in the political agendas of future governments and regulators. The central paradigm of the UK Online Safety Act is that people are kept safe by denial of access to harmful content. But the notion of what is harmful is neither globally homogenous, nor apolitical. The current UK government may be most concerned about limiting access to pornography, and protecting children from sites that promote self-harm. But it’s not a huge stretch of the imagination to see future governments shifting the focus to “public order offences” or using the law to impose similarly repressive tactics which would be detrimental to free expression and civic life. We need to take a more holistic approach to user and societal wellbeing, with adequate safeguards for human rights and an emphasis on empowering people with the media and information literacy skills to become active curators of the knowledge they seek out, not passive consumers of information with no regard to the agenda or ideology of their sources.

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