- For background on Wikipedia and the UK Online Safety Act, see prior Signpost coverage:
- Phil Bradley-Schmieg is a Principal Counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation, focusing on litigation and regulatory compliance work.
The Online Safety Act 2023 (OSA) is legislation in the United Kingdom that aims to hold platform operators accountable for the safety of the people who use their apps and visit their websites. Though most obligations (like its child safety rules) are already in place and widely applicable (including to Wikipedia), additional duties are still to come.
In 2027, the law will impose extra obligations on the most popular services. They are being selected according to their userbase size and features, rather than their perceived level of risk to the public, with Category 1 subjected to most scrutiny and legislation.
We're pleased to announce that on 10 July 2026, the Wikimedia Foundation was notified by the UK's communications and post regulator, Office of Communications (Ofcom), that, based on a novel reading of the law, Wikipedia is not currently deemed a Category 1 service under the Online Safety Act (OSA). However, as part of that announcement, Ofcom informed the Foundation that Wikipedia must remain on a "watch list" of platforms that do not currently qualify as Category 1 services, but that could become Category 1 at any point in the future. Any future Category 1 designation remains an existential threat to Wikipedia, open knowledge, and the privacy and safety of the community of contributors. The Foundation will continue to advocate for safeguarding public-interest spaces like Wikipedia, pushing for a more formal and permanent exemption of these spaces under the OSA.
Background
While the Wikimedia movement as a whole is deeply committed to advancing online safety, the concern has been that, should Wikipedia be deemed a "Category 1" website, it would be subjected to measures that would interfere with users' privacy and editing rights. For example, Category 1 sites will need to build an identity registration system and then restrict the rights of users, worldwide, if they don't "voluntarily" register their real ID. This threatens Wikipedia's core values of privacy, safety and community moderation.
In 2023, the Wikimedia Foundation, in partnership with Wikimedia UK and others, launched a campaign in 2023, involving meetings with the government, Parliamentary debates, prominent media outlets, and an open letter, with the goal of educating policymakers. Despite this campaigning, the Online Safety Act nevertheless became law (without substantial improvement) in late 2023. The situation then took a turn for the worse in early 2025, when the UK released detailed rules for the categorization of sites based on how many UK users they have, plus whether they have a "content recommender system" and (for smaller sites) "forwarding or sharing functionality".
Further discussions with the government proved fruitless. In May 2025, therefore, the Foundation took those Categorisation Regulations to court. Our challenge was joined by user:Zzuuzz, in possibly a world-first collaboration between a platform operator and its users. The Foundation and Zzuuzz argued that the categorisation criteria were irrationally overbroad, and likely to lead to the unjustified imposition of Category 1 duties on low-risk sites like Wikipedia. This violated human rights.
In August 2025, the High Court decided to reject our case, instead giving the online safety regulator, Ofcom, a chance to creatively interpret the Categorisation Regulations and Category 1 duties to avoid a bad outcome for Wikipedia. The court stressed that the dismissal of our challenge "does not give Ofcom and the Secretary of State a green light to implement a regime that would significantly impede Wikipedia's operations", otherwise "the Secretary of State may be obliged to consider whether to amend the regulations or to exempt categories of service from the Act".
On 10 July 2026 we were notified that Wikipedia is not currently categorized as a Category 1 website, but that may change in the future. While the Foundation is relieved by Ofcom's agreement that Wikipedia is not a Category 1 service, without any clear and sustainable limits to categorization, Wikipedia remains vulnerable should Ofcom choose to reassess its decision. The work is not over, and the Foundation will continue to partner with affiliates and editors to monitor the situation and work to expand understanding of our model and why it should be protected under the OSA.
Once again, we extend our thanks to user:Zzuuzz (referred to by the randomly-generated "BLN" moniker in the ruling). The judge's ruling specifically called out Zzuuzz's submissions, calling them "detailed and compelling", and a "powerful case" for Wikipedia's protection under human rights law.