Wikipedia says it may not be accessible in India if government pushes through new internet rules

• In an interview with Business Insider, Wikimedia Foundation spoke about its issues with the internet intermediary liability rule.
• The proposed rules which will make way for automated censorship would ‘severely disrupt’ the ability of Wikipedia to operate in India.
• India is one of Wikipedia’s leadership markets. In November 2019, Indians visited Wikipedia over 771 million times which is its fifth highest number of views.

India is in the middle of implementing multiple changes in the way data companies work in India. From the data privacy bill to the internet intermediary liability rules, has gotten internet companies worried that it will stifle their way of functioning.

For Wikimedia foundation, which runs Wikipedia, the new rules might mean projecting different content for different countries – something that the not for profit organisation is completely against.

Languages not geographies

“Wikipedia is structured by individual languages, not geographies. So, rules that require removing content that is seen as illegal in one jurisdiction, but acceptable in another don't work with our model. We can't restrict changes inside a Wikipedia article from being visible in one country and not another,” Anusha Alikhan, senior communications director, Wikimedia told Business Insider.

Wikimedia, which aims to provide access to free knowledge and information, has a problem with the law which will force it to set up a local entity. Also, it would be asked to filter its content.

India is one of Wikipedia’s leadership markets. In November 2019, Indians visited Wikipedia over 771 million times which is its – fifth highest number of views.

Rules will severely disrupt Wikipedia’s operations

Along with Mozilla, GitHub, Cloudflare, it wrote an open letter to the government about the internet intermediary liability rules. “The automated filtering of user uploads, either explicitly or implicitly, through short takedown times, and would severely disrupt the ability of Wikipedia to operate in India,” said Alikhan.

According to the last draft available online, the government can ask for content takedown within 24 hours, and also request for information as necessary for cyber security reasons, within 72 hours of communication. Under the proposed changes, companies will also be asked to deploy technology-based automated tools to identify, remove or disable public access to unlawful information or content.

“If the initial draft of the intermediary liability rules were passed, it would take a significant amount of effort and resources for the Wikimedia Foundation to comply with the draft requirements and keep Wikipedia in operation,” Stephen LaPorte, legal director, Wikimedia.

‘A great loss to free knowledge’

Wikimedia however believes that it might not come to that and will strive to keep its content free and accessible. “It appears from recent statements by the government that it has taken the concerns outlined in the Open Letter into consideration. The foundation remains hopeful that the revised rules will allow non-profits platforms like Wikipedia to continue thriving in India,” said LaPorte.

Under the amended intermediary liability rules, the government has asked that any intermediary with over 50 lakh users in India will have to be incorporated in India with a permanent registered office and address.

This restrictive environment will make it difficult for Wikimedia to function in India.

“Any scenario where Wikipedia is inaccessible poses a great loss to the free knowledge movement, not only for the individual contributors and readers that rely on it everyday, but for the underlying knowledge infrastructure of the Internet as a whole,” said LaPorte.

See Also:
Mozilla, GitHub and Cloudflare fear ‘automated censorship’ ⁠in India’s new internet laws
Here’s why Wikipedia is threatened by India's internet intermediary liability rules