Wikipedia will not appeal dismissal of its UK Online Safety Act challenge

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By Paul Sandle

LONDON (Reuters) -The operator of Wikipedia said on Friday it would not appeal its defeat last month in a legal challenge to Britain’s Online Safety Act, which sets tough new requirements for platforms and has been criticised for potentially curtailing free speech.

The U.S. government has criticised Britain’s new online law, along with a similar policy in the European Union, and President Donald Trump could bring it up in reference to his concerns around free speech during his state visit next week.

The Wikimedia Foundation took action at London’s High Court over regulations made under the law, which it said could impose the most stringent category of duties on the online encyclopaedia written and maintained by volunteers.

It said if it were subject to Category 1 duties – designed for the riskiest websites and which would require Wikipedia’s contributors’ identities to be verified – it would need to drastically reduce the number of British users who can access the site.

In dismissing the case, Judge Jeremy Johnson said he was not giving regulator Ofcom and the government a green light to implement a regime that would significantly impede Wikipedia’s operations, but said if Ofcom decides that Wikipedia was not a Category 1 service, then no further issue would arise.

Ofcom is in the process of deciding Category 1 designations.

“The Foundation will continue to monitor how the court’s guidance is followed, and Wikipedia is protected as the OSA moves forward,” it said.

Wikimedia Foundation’s lead counsel Phil Bradley-Schmieg said Judge Johnson had put the ball in Ofcom’s and the UK government’s court.

He said in an interview that the judgement indicated that Ofcom should take a flexible and proportionate approach to interpreting the rules.

But “there is a very real risk of Category 1 status being imposed based on the rules as they stand”, he said.

“The lasting solution is probably taking a good honest look at whether those rules fit the bill,” he said.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle)