Syed Imran Haider 
Wikipedia Foundation has reportedly refused to perform any age checks demanded by the Online Safety Bill. Ms. Rebecca MacKinnon, the managing official of the Wikipedia website, said the move would breach the company’s pledge to gather minimal information regarding contributors and readers.
Another senior official in Wikipedia UK also shared their concerns saying refusing to abide by the requirements of the Online Safety Bill may lead to a ban on the website. On the other hand, the government clarifies the matter, saying services that pose the highest risk to minors will require them to perform age verification.
 The Online Safety Bill & Tech Companies
The official website of Wikipedia boasts the status of being the eighth most-visited website in the United Kingdom. It offers millions of articles written and edited in several languages by thousands of worldwide volunteers. The Online Safety Bill places several obligations on tech companies to protect users, especially children, from illegal or harmful content. It is before the British Parliament and will come into force by next year.
According to Mr. Neil Brown, a specialist solicitor in Internet & telecoms law, the Online Safety Bill will assess the services and whether they provide proportionate processes and systems to prevent children from harmful stuff. Tech companies should make age verification a part of their policies associated with the matter.
The UK-based charities also expressed their views on the bill. For example, Lucy Crompton-Reid, an independent charity affiliated with the Wikipedia Foundation, warns the site may have some material that could trigger the need for age verification. For instance, users could misinterpret educational images and text covering sex as pornography. Asking Wikipedia to collect its users’ data and check their ages will mean a drastic overhaul to the technical system.
Accordingly, Ms. MacKinnon says the Wikipedia Foundation will not verify the age of UK contributors and readers. Tech firms that do not comply with the Online Safety Bill will meet potential serious consequences, such as heavy fines, criminal sanctions for senior employees, and restricting the service in the country.
Wikimedia UK expressed its fear saying the Bill and age checks may cause the ban on the site. Ms. Crompton-Reid says it is probable that one of the most-visited sites by worldwide users, which is also an imperative source of freely accessible information for millions of users, may get banned in the UK. Wikipedia currently has 6.6 million articles and two edits per second across 300 plus languages. It seems impossible to imagine how the company will deal with the overall read-through of content to adhere to the bill. Wikipedia had previously told the media that the Online Safety Bill would essentially change how the website would operate by compelling it to moderate content rather than volunteers.
 Exemption of Encyclopaedia
The foundation requires the law to comply with the European Union Digital Service Act designed to distinguish between centralized content moderation by the staff and community volunteers’ Wikipedia-style model. Lord Parkinson, the heritage minister, says he does not find it feasible, though Wikipedia exemplifies how community moderation is a better and more effective option.
According to Parkinson, the Online Safety Bill does not specify that every tech service needs to have age checks. It expects services posing the highest risk to underage children will work with age verification tools to be on the safer side. Crompton-Reid commented on the Heritage Minister’s remarks, saying they reassured her that the charity does not want to rely on the future benevolence and interpretation of the law. She says the charity would keep urging that protection measures for community moderation are included in the Online Safety Bills with aspects like an exception for websites working for the public’s benefit, including Wikipedia.
