It helps provide some context for current statements this week by Wikimedia Foundation board members about freedom of speech, compared to what they used to say when they wanted your vote. This is especially sharp as it has gradually been revealed that the rejection is based on their perceptions, rather than facts, about what the candidates had posted, or might at some point perhaps post on social media, along with apparently taking extremist press including blatant misinformation as a starting point for a "fixing" or political censorship of the Wikimedia vote process.
If the following trustees no longer stand by their own election candidate statements or other published robust defenses of free speech, please resign now and stand for your stated values, or just restart the vote to include the original 6 candidates. == Statements about freedom of speech and diversity. == Trustee Nataliia Tymkiv "I believe it is important to have a Thriving Movement: we need to welcome newcomers and commit to providing more timely and responsive support to affiliates, and to our communities at large. Diversity and inclusion are not buzz-words for me - they have guided our successful recruitment efforts at the Board level these past years." https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Affiliate-selected_Board_seats/2019/Nominations/Nataliia_Tymkiv Trustee Mike Peel "Safe and collaborative spaces are really important. While I do not have experience with creating them, I support and encourage them as much as I can. I have also seen the after-effects of dictatorships and censorship in both Brasil and Spain, although I have not experienced it directly: the best I can do is to help document this and hope it doesn't happen again in the future." https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2022/Candidates/Mike_Peel Trustee Jimmy Wales "I'm a big advocate of freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of thought." 2005 interview with The Independent. Trustee Shani Evenstein "I’ve always been interested in, and later advocated for, freedom of expression and choice, anti-censorship, anti-repression, and for Open Knowledge as a basic human right." https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2022/Candidates/Shani_Evenstein_Sigalov Trustee Christel Steigenberger "Only by inviting as many viewpoints in as possible, by discussing and reflecting about all the different perspectives on the world and all there is to know about it, can we continue to hold up the commitment of freely sharing the sum of all knowledge with every single human being." https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2024/Questions_for_candidates/Question_5 _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/37VTJC4LZC2PDOAECWVOYJU7EBD4O74K/ To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
