Hello everyone, The war in Gaza and Israel and the danger it has posed and continues to pose for community members is of deep concern. We are examining ways to support our communities and any threats to our projects as it continues. We wanted to provide you with an update on these efforts and direct your attention to this Meta Wiki page <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Team/Impact_of_the_war_in_Gaza_and_Israel> with advice to enhance the safety and well-being of individuals at risk.
The Human Rights Team <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Human_Rights_Team> in cooperation with other teams at the Foundation is actively monitoring the conflict and human rights concerns for Wikimedia volunteers, while consistently refining our safety and security plans. Proactively, we reached out to administrators and community members of the Arabic and Hebrew Wikipedia platforms, offering support, conducting safety check-ins, and ensuring them of our availability to assist through the Human Rights and Trust and Safety Teams with issues where we can support. The Foundation has joined the #KeepItOn coalition <https://www.accessnow.org/campaign/keepiton/> to raise awareness and take action against internet shutdowns. The Foundation is also in communication with the Freedom Online Coalition <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Online_Coalition> about efforts to maintain internet access in Gaza. Additionally, we have created a comprehensive guide <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/10/25/the-internet-outages-guide/> with resources on how community members can stay connected during internet outages. The Foundation's Disinformation Team <https://diff.wikimedia.org/2023/10/03/challenging-disinformation-in-the-wikimedia-ecosystem/> and wider Trust and Safety <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety> are working to respond to reports related to the conflict from the community and other organizations. They are also monitoring pages related to the conflict, particularly in English, Arabic, Hebrew and Farsi, for any coordinated efforts to manipulate content. When such coordinated efforts have been identified in the past, we have connected with local functionaries to discuss approaches and are ready to do so again if such coordinated activity is detected in relation to this crisis. Maintaining vigilance against any coordinated efforts to manipulate information on Wikimedia projects is a collective responsibility shared by both the Foundation and Wikipedia's dedicated volunteers. We are here to support you. You can reach the Human Rights team for non-urgent human rights issues at talktohumanrig...@wikimedia.org or for emergencies involving Wikimedians at humanrig...@wikimedia.org (monitored 24/7). We encourage everyone to be cautious and alert us to any safety and human rights concerns through private channels to avoid putting our fellow volunteers at risk. -- Stephen LaPorte (he/him/his) General Counsel Wikimedia Foundation *NOTICE: As an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation, for legal and ethical reasons, I cannot give legal advice to, or serve as a lawyer for, community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity. For more on what this means, please see our legal disclaimer <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Legal_Disclaimer>.*
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