Global Advocacy/About

Role

We fight to keep knowledge free.

We exist to ensure that our projects can serve the public interest and enable people around the world to exercise their fundamental right to share and access knowledge. We believe that the ability to freely access and share knowledge is a human right; people cannot freely share in the sum of all knowledge without policies, laws, and regulations that protect their right to do so. We also recognize that Wikipedia is part of, and also depends upon, a much broader ecosystem of knowledge consumption, production, and dissemination. That's why we support volunteers and allied organizations around the world to advocate for laws and policies that enable a strong, diverse knowledge ecosystem that protects and respects human rights and supports the global free flow of information.

If you are looking to work with us, want to learn how we can support you, or are unsure whether you need support from Legal or Policy, please see Work With Us.

5 Policy Priorities

We focus on five policy areas that directly affect the vibrancy of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. Public policy in these priority areas have a real impact on Wikimedians’ ability to create, share, and remix free knowledge:

Censorship & Freedom of Expression: The freedom to share and access information is a foundation of free knowledge and therefore, is a fundamental value of the Wikimedia movement. Laws and regulations must protect individual freedom of expression while also protecting and supporting the right of groups and communities to build, operate, and govern open knowledge projects and platforms. It is not enough to fight censorship efforts only when they threaten Wikimedia. Information is an ecosystem, and ensuring everyone’s ability to freely uncover, examine, and create content is essential to our vision of delivering free knowledge to the world.
Privacy: We believe that everyone has the right to access and produce knowledge online, free of arbitrary interference with their fundamental right of privacy, and without fear of surveillance or reprisal. Where individuals fear state reprisal for their [work/speech/contributions] online, access to information is not free.
Access to Knowledge: Knowledge should be freely accessible to all—across borders, languages, and devices. Our team works to dismantle the structural, political, and economic barriers that perpetuate unequal access to information online. Equitable access is foundational to realizing our vision of a world in which every single person can freely share and participate in the sum of all knowledge.
Copyright: The right to access, create, share, and remix knowledge is essential to make free knowledge more widely available. As copyright law is modernized, we want to make sure it is fit for the digital age. To that end, we call for shorter copyright terms, stronger fair use exceptions, widespread freedom of panorama, more support for free licenses, greater support for free and open source software, and increased access to original as well as secondary sources.
Intermediary Liability: Websites should not be required to police user-generated content. The Wikimedia projects are built and maintained by extraordinary people around the world who contribute content, develop editorial policies, and resolve disputes. The Wikimedia Foundation hosts and supports Wikimedia projects, but does not control what people contribute. Protection from intermediary liability is the legal basis that makes these collaborative projects possible and allows the Wikimedia Foundation to waive editorial control.. Increasing a platform’s responsibility to monitor and proactively remove user generated content will make it impossible for free culture and open source groups to grow as an online community.

Your help is welcome. If you are organizing (or want to organize) a policy action that correlates to one of these five policy areas, please contact us at policywikimediaorg.

Staff

Rebecca MacKinnon (she/her), VP of Global Advocacy (rmackinnonwikimediaorg): Rebecca is an experienced advocate for privacy rights and media freedom who has had a long career in journalism, academia and public policy. As the Foundation's first-ever Vice President for Global Advocacy, she provides strategic leadership and direction on efforts to support the global movement of Wikimedia volunteers by promoting free expression and addressing national and regulatory threats that prevent access to knowledge. You can learn more about her from her staff profile or hiring announcement.
Jan Gerlach (he/him), Public Policy Director (jgerlachwikimediaorg): Jan leads our efforts to educate lawmakers and governments around the world about positive internet policy that promotes and protects Wikipedia and participation in knowledge. He steers the regional- and context-specific policy work of our public policy specialists. Learn more about Jan in his own words.
Allison Davenport (she/her), Manager, Public Policy Research and Analysis (adavenportwikimediaorg): Allison works on domestic and global policy issues related to copyright, intermediary liability, and freedom of expression. She helps develop value-based public policy positions while overseeing policy research and academic fellowships. Learn more about Allison in her own words.
Richard ("Ricky") Gaines (he/him), Senior Human Rights Advocacy Manager (rgaineswikimediaorg): Ricky leads the Advocacy and Activism team in strengthening the roles of the Movement and Foundation in advocating for public policies that support and protect human rights globally. He develops external and internal advocacy strategies that support and protect human rights of all members of the Wikimedia movement and also drives the implementation of the Human Rights Policy, including coordinating human rights impact assessments across Wikimedia projects. As part of this work, he works with staff and volunteers in the wider Wikimedia community. Learn more about Ricky in his own words.; Contact Ricky for: anything related to the Foundation's Human Rights Policy.
Franziska ("Ziski") Putz (she/her), Movement Advocacy Manager (fputzwikimediaorg): Ziski is in charge of driving community engagement around public policy. She works with community members to co-create capacity building and awareness programs so that Wikimedians around the world can leverage their voices to advocate for their own communities. Ziski also runs our community-facing communications including blogs and conversation hours. Learn more about Ziski in her own words.; Contact Ziski for: anything related to working with the public policy team – a campaign idea, workshop request, desire for more information, problem with our team's conversation hours, or feedback on how we can improve our partnership with the community.
Amalia Toledo (she/her), Lead Public Policy Specialist for Latin America & the Caribbean (atoledowikimediaorg): Amalia is our expert on public policy for Latin America & the Caribbean. She works with allied organizations and community members across the region to keep a pulse on country-specific issues related to free knowledge.; Contact Amalia for: public policy issues, speaking opportunities, or advocacy campaigns related to digital rights in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Kate Ruane (she/her), Lead Public Policy Specialist for the United States (kruanewikimediaorg): Kate is our expert on public policy for the United States of America. She works with allied organizations and community members across the country to keep a pulse on context-specific issues related to free knowledge.; Contact Kate for: public policy issues, speaking opportunities, or advocacy campaigns related to digital rights in the USA.
Rachel Arinii Judhistari (she/her), Lead Public Policy Specialist for Asia, (rjudhistariwikimediaorg): Rachel is our expert on public policy for Asia. She works with allied organizations and community members across the region to keep a pulse on country-specific issues related to free knowledge.; Contact Rachel for: public policy issues, speaking opportunities, or advocacy campaigns related to digital rights in Asia.
Costanza Sciubba Caniglia (she/her), Anti-Disinformation Strategy Lead (csciubbacanigliawikimediaorg): Costanza leads our efforts on anti-Disinformation and information integrity. She is responsible for coordinating across the Foundation on disinformation, liaising with the communities and affiliates, and maintaining open lines of communication with governments, civil society organizations, and academia. She works with these partners to advocate for effective policy responses to disinformation that support and protect free knowledge.; Contact Costanza for: anything related to information integrity or disinformation, speaking opportunities, or volunteer-led efforts to fight disinformation on Wiki.
Aly Marino (they/them), Technology Law & Policy Fellow (amarino-ctrwikimediaorg): Aly works on domestic and global policy issues related to free knowledge, free expression, and intermediary liability. They support the work of the lead public policy specialists and Global Advocacy staff.
Miguelángel ("Miguel") Verde Garrido (he/him), Senior Editor, Global Advocacy (mverde-ctrwikimediaorg): Miguel supports the ability of the team to communicate their efforts at global advocacy and helping develop public policy worldwide in a clear, accurate, and compelling manner. He manages, coordinates, and edits the team’s publications and communications for diverse audiences of external and internal stakeholders. Learn more about Miguel in his own words.; Contact Miguel for: anything related to publishing opportunities for the team and its members.
Katherine ("Kat") Gatewood (she/her), Senior Operations Manager (kgatewoodwikimediaorg): Kat helps to manage team expansion, drive strategic planning, put systems and processes in place to manage the work within the team as well as across other teams and departments, and refine our approaches to collaborating effectively with external partners.

Examples of our Work

Public policy and advocacy work is not always straightforward. What do we actually do when we say 'public policy and advocacy work'? We monitor policy developments, meet regularly with allied organizations, policy makers and legislators. We share how proposed legislations would impact WMF by writing articles and blogs, signing open letters, joining podcast discussions, and attending regional workshops. At major international conferences, we remind the world that open knowledge is a public good that has to be protected.

To learn more about what we do on a monthly basis, check-out our monthly retrospectives. Highlights include: The EU Digital Services Act, Myanmar Draft Cybersecurity Law, the EARN IT Act in the USA, and our work with Wikimedians to help them gain representation at UN agencies, counter a Chilean bill, and jointly advance the Foundation-wide Human Rights Policy.

Watch and listen to our team in action to learn more about what we do:

Content Moderation and Human Rights: [English langauge video] Allison Davenport speaking at the 2021 UN Internet Governance Forum about the importance of incorporating guiding principles from human rights law and participatory decision-making of users from developing countries in the governance of digital platforms.
EU Legislative Files Important to Wikimedia: [English langauge video] Dimi and Anna from the Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU present what EU legislative files matter for Wikimedia and why in a 10-minute lightning talk at Wikimania 2021.
Challenges to Freedom of Expression Online from the Perspective of Those Affected: [Spanish and English language video] Amalia Toledo moderating a panel discussion at the 2021 Americas Dialogue.
Unaccountable Online Platforms Impact Human Rights and Democratic Practices: [English language podcast] 'Internet of Humans' Podcast in which Jillian York and Konstantinos Komaitis talk to Rebecca MacKinnon about how the convergence of unchecked government actions and unaccountable government practices is threatening the future of democracy and human rights around the world...and where Wikimedia projects sit in relation to these trends. Podcast is available on PlayerFM, Spotify, and Apple Podcast.
Journalism and Competition Act in the USA: [Spanish and English language podcast] Kate Ruane interviewed by Wikimedia Small Projects for an episode of the SuenaWiki podcast to discuss how the JCPA runs counter to copyright standards that would support the free and open nature of the internet