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Global Advocacy
The Global Advocacy team helps the Foundation and affiliates protect the free knowledge movement through public policy advocacy. Public policy advocacy refers to any work to shape a legal environment (including national and international law), trade agreements, human rights frameworks, and other regulations and norms set by governments and lawmakers.
The simple act of sharing knowledge freely online is radical and challenging in many contexts, and can be threatened by weak or hostile policy environments. This is why the Foundation and broader community engage in advocacy and public policy work. We work alongside the Wikimedia community because policy change is most successful when informed by those who are most directly impacted and best understand their local context. Together, we stand for policies that support and protect the Wikimedia model, its people, and its values.
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Rebecca MacKinnon
Vice President of Global Advocacy
Jan Gerlach
Public Policy Director
Allison Davenport
Lead Public Policy Analyst
Costanza Sciubba Caniglia
Anti-Disinformation Strategy Lead
Amalia Toledo
Lead Public Policy Specialist (Latin America and the Caribbean)
Franziska ("Ziski") Putz
Senior Movement Advocacy Manager
Miguelángel ("Miguel") Verde Garrido
Senior Editorial Project Manager
Stan Adams
Lead Public Policy Specialist (North America)
Rachel Judhistari
Lead Public Policy Specialist (Asia)
Ricky Gaines
Senior Human Rights Advocacy Manager
Kat Gatewood
Senior Operations Manager
How we work
Aim - The Global Advocacy team (part of the Legal Department) helps the Foundation and affiliates protect the free knowledge movement through public policy advocacy. Public policy advocacy refers to any work to shape a legal environment (including national and international law), trade agreements, human rights frameworks, and other regulations and norms set by governments and lawmakers. Our efforts aim to influence the regulatory ecosystem in which our movement exists in order to protect and promote free knowledge.
Why the Wikimedia movement needs public policy advocacy - The simple act of sharing knowledge freely online is radical and challenging in many contexts, and can be threatened by weak or hostile policy environments. This is why the Foundation and broader community engage in advocacy and public policy work. We work alongside the Wikimedia community because policy change is most successful when informed by those who are most directly impacted and best understand their local context. Together, we stand for policies that support and protect the Wikimedia model, its people, and its values.
Our focus - Our mandate is to protect the people in the free knowledge movement, the community-led model of Wikimedia projects, and the values of the movement.
- To protect the community-governed model, we take action on policies related to access to knowledge and free expression.
- To protect the people in our community, we advocate for privacy rights and against mass surveillance.
- To protect the values of our movement, we lead by example by prioritizing human rights and countering disinformation.
Topics we're working on right now include:
- Foundation-wide Human Rights Policy
- EU Digital Services Act
- Online Safety bills
- Online censorship during times of conflict
- U.S. Copyright Reform
Contact us or stay up-to-date
- Email us at globaladvocacy@wikimedia.org
- Wikimedia Foundation Global Advocacy Newsletter : Quarterly newsletter in which we share how we think about the internet and digital rights, and how laws and regulations can and should be shaped to not only protect public interest and community-led online spaces, like Wikimedia projects, but also to help them flourish.
- Diff blog: Global Advocacy: Where we share blog posts, updates, and opportunities with the community, including monthly recaps of our advocacy and public policy actions
- Medium blog: Wikimedia Policy: Long-form thought pieces, policy analyses, and updates on our advocacy and public policy actions.
- Twitter/X: @WikimediaPolicy (Follow for shared speaking events, blog posts and articles, advocacy and public policy actions, campaign activities, and to engage with the work of Wikimedia affiliates and allies.)
- LinkedIn Showcase
