Jump to content

Legal:Wikimedia Foundation EU Compliance

From Wikimedia Foundation Governance Wiki
(Redirected from Legal:EU Compliance)

This page provides specified information regarding the Wikimedia Foundation's compliance with:

  • the EU Digital Services Act (i.e. Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) - the "DSA", and
  • Regulation (EU) 2021/784 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2021 on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online - "TCOR" (also known as "TERREG")

Legal complaints or enquiries should be sent to us, by members of the public or by competent authorities:

  • By email: legal@wikimedia.org, and/or
  • By post: Wikimedia Foundation c/o CT Corporation System, 330 North Brand Boulevard, Glendale, California 91203-2336, USA

Competent authorities only (not members of the public), when acting in accordance with the DSA, may optionally also contact us indirectly, via our designated DSA Article 13 Representative, VeraSafe Netherlands B.V. ("VeraSafe"). VeraSafe is contactable by email at dsaeurepresentative@wikimedia.org, or by post at VeraSafe Netherlands B.V., Keizersgracht 555, Amsterdam 1017 DR, The Netherlands. Its telephone number is: +420 228 881 031.

If you are a competent authority asking for the removal of allegedly illegal content, we ask that your communications comply with DSA Article 9. If you are a private person/organization reporting allegedly illegal content on the sites that we host, we ask that you ensure that your report includes the information prescribed by DSA Article 16(2). In respect of user data requests, please read our Requests for User Information Procedures and Guidelines, and also note the requirements of DSA Article 10.

We invite you to consult our Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content (TVEC) Procedures and Guidelines when contacting us about TVEC. Our EU Legal Representative for the purposes of TCOR Article 17 is also VeraSafe Netherlands B.V.. We encourage EU/EEA competent authorities to contact tvecnotice@wikimedia.org directly, as indicated in the TVEC Procedures and Guidelines. However, they may in addition / alternatively contact our TCOR EU Legal Representative, either by email at tcoeurepresentative@wikimedia.org, or by post or telephone to the contact details set out above. -- Other contact details (e.g., for use in an emergency threatening the life of an individual) can be found at: Contacting the Wikimedia Foundation

If you are a user of the Wikimedia Projects, or you have participated in Wikimedia events or activities to which the Wikimedia Foundation Privacy Policy also applies, you can find information about your EU GDPR rights, and contact details for privacy questions and complaints, in the Wikimedia Foundation Privacy Policy.

DSA Transparency

The Wikimedia Foundation publishes data for the purposes of DSA Article 24(2). It can be found here: EU DSA - Userbase Statistics

Other DSA-mandated data is now included in our regular Wikimedia Foundation Transparency Reports. An interim EU data supplement was published for August-September 2023.

Independent audit reports and EU Systemic Risk Assessment and Mitigation (SRAM) documentation can be found here.

Office Action appeals

If you are in the EU and wish to make a formal complaint after the Wikimedia Foundation takes, or decides not to take, an Office Action (for example, suspending a user account, or removing content), then you can complain by emailing appeals@wikimedia.org.  Complaints should be sufficiently specific and backed up with supporting evidence. Complaints should be submitted as early as reasonably possible (no later than 6 months after the decision in question). As indicated in DSA Article 17(3)(f), there may also be out-of-court dispute settlement and judicial redress routes available to you, depending on applicable law and jurisdiction. We cannot advise you about these, although we ask that you first try to resolve the matter with us directly.

Supplemental notes

  1. The Wikimedia Foundation's working language is English, so we are grateful when English is used to correspond with us. However, you can communicate with us in other languages, such as Dutch, if you prefer; we will then rely on machine translation tools to the extent necessary. If you send us documents in a language other than English, we appreciate if they can be easily translated using machine translation tools. Badly scanned PDFs can be a particular source of problems for us.
  2. The Wikimedia Foundation's designation of EU Representatives for the purposes of the EU GDPR, TCOR or DSA does not create an EU establishment for the Wikimedia Foundation, nor are the Representatives expected to involve themselves personally in the resolution of complaints or requests under those laws. The key role of such Representatives is to offer relevant persons an additional way to contact the Wikimedia Foundation. Relevant complaints or requests will be forwarded to the Wikimedia Foundation, where they will usually be evaluated as they would be if you send them to the Wikimedia Foundation directly, and in line with the Wikimedia Foundation's legal obligations. This is a less direct method of contacting us, and it may therefore increase the time it takes to address your communication. Although the email addresses provided above for our EU DSA and TCOR Representative use the "@wikimedia.org" domain name, any emails sent to those addresses will be forwarded automatically to VeraSafe's own email system.
  3. Various user-groups and other entities in the wider Wikimedia Movement, including some in the EU, use the Wikimedia trademark in their name, but they are independent of the Wikimedia Foundation and do not represent it. They have no particular authority or responsibility for the Wikimedia Projects, and cannot be held liable for the content of the Projects. Accordingly, if you have a complaint or a request concerning content on the Wikimedia Projects (such as Wikipedia), you are encouraged to resolve it directly with the user community of that Project, using the help network they provide. If that does not work, please contact the Wikimedia Foundation directly, using the details provided above (typically: legal@wikimedia.org).