By the way: As of last week, the defendant in this lawsuit, Secretary of
State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle, no longer holds
this post. Does anyone want to speculate how that impacts our outlook here?

His replacement Liz Kendall <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_Kendall> seems
rather gung-ho anti-internet, judging from the fact that her very first
public act in office appears to have been to tighten the Online Safety Act
further <https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/09/selfharm_online_safety_act/>
(rather
than, say, taking a moment to address the widespread backlash from the past
few months, or distancing herself from her predecessor's lashing out at the
Act's critics by accusing them of supporting pedophiles, something that Jimmy
Wales pushed back on
<https://x.com/jimmy_wales/status/1953450899394707764>, among
many others).

On Fri, Sep 12, 2025 at 9:20 AM Franziska Putz <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> Happy Friday, I hope you have nice weekends ahead. I'm writing to share an
> update on the long saga that has been the UK Online Safety Act.
>
> First, a quick recap of what's happened over the summer since many of us
> are just getting back to our inboxes.
>
>    - In July the High Court of Justice in London heard the Wikimedia
>    Foundation’s legal challenge
>    
> <https://medium.com/wikimedia-policy/wikipedias-nonprofit-host-brings-legal-challenge-to-new-online-safety-act-osa-regulations-0f9153102f29>
>  to
>    the Categorisation Regulations
>    <https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/226/regulation/3/made> of
>    the UK OSA.
>    - In August, the High Court of Justice dismissed the challenge. Silver
>    lining: The Court’s ruling emphasized the responsibility of Ofcom
>    <https://www.ofcom.org.uk/> and the UK government to ensure Wikipedia
>    is protected as the OSA is implemented.
>    - 👉 *[We are here]* The September update: We have decided that we will
>    not appeal the UK High Court’s decision to dismiss  our challenge. However,
>    we will continue to monitor how the Court’s guidance is followed, and
>    how Wikipedia is protected as the OSA moves forward. There's never a dull
>    moment in UK politics so who knows what the future holds!
>
> We do know what our future holds: The quarterly advocacy network call next
> week! Sept. 18th @ 16:00- 17:30 UTC. Register here
> <https://wikimedia.zoom.us/meeting/register/KfJ40yVyT8i0eV-F7ZnO8g>.
>
> Have a lovely weekend,
> Ziski
>
> Franziska Putz (she/her)
>
> Senior Movement Advocacy Manager
>
> Global Advocacy, Wikimedia Foundation
>
> [email protected]
>
> UTC Timezone
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