Latest news with #userverification
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Wikipedia can challenge Online Safety Act if strictest rules apply to it, says judge
The operator of Wikipedia has been given permission by a high court judge to challenge the Online Safety Act if it is categorised as a high-risk platform, which would impose the most stringent duties. The Wikimedia Foundation has said it will be forced to reduce how many people can access the site in order to comply with the regulations if it is classified as a category 1 provider by Ofcom later this summer. As a non-profit, the site said, it 'would face huge challenges to meet the large technological and staffing needs' required to comply with the duties, which include user-verification requirements, stringent protections for users and regular reporting responsibilities to prevent the spread of harmful content. The Wikimedia Foundation calculated that the number of people in the UK who access Wikipedia would have to be reduced by about three-quarters in order for the site to not qualify as a category 1 service, which is defined as a large user-to-user platform that uses algorithmic contender recommendations. It said Wikipedia was different to other sites expected to be labelled category 1 providers such as Facebook, X and Instagram because it was run by a charity and its users typically only encountered content that they sought out. Justice Johnson refused Wikipedia's legal challenge in the high court on several grounds, but he noted that the site 'provides significant value for freedom of speech and expression' and added that the outcome did not give Ofcom or the government 'a green light to implement a regime that would significantly impede Wikipedia's operations'. Any decision to make Wikipedia a category 1 provider would have to be 'justified as proportionate if it were not to amount to a breach of the right to freedom of expression', he said, but added that it would be 'premature' to rule on this since Ofcom had not yet determined that Wikipedia was a category 1 service. If Ofcom determines that Wikipedia is a category 1 service and this means Wikipedia is unable to operate as at present, Johnson suggested that the technology secretary, Peter Kyle, should 'consider whether to amend the regulations or to exempt categories of service from the act' and said that Wikipedia could bring a further challenge if he did not. Phil Bradley-Schmieg, the lead counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation, said: 'While the decision does not provide the immediate legal protections for Wikipedia that we hoped for, the court's ruling emphasised the responsibility of Ofcom and the UK government to ensure Wikipedia is protected as the OSA [Online Safety Act] is implemented. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'The judge recognised the 'significant value' of Wikipedia, its safety for users, as well as the damages that wrongly assigned OSA categorisations and duties could have on the human rights of Wikipedia's volunteer contributors.' Cecilia Ivimy KC, for the government, said ministers reviewed Ofcom guidance and considered specifically whether Wikipedia should be exempt from the regulations and rejected that. She said they decided that Wikipedia 'is in principle an appropriate service on which to impose category 1 duties' and how ministers arrived at that choice was not 'without reasonable foundation nor irrational'.
Gizmodo
21-06-2025
- Business
- Gizmodo
Reddit Looks to Get in Bed With Altman's Creepy ‘World ID' Orbs for User Verification
Gaze into the Orb if you want your upvotes. According to a report from Semafor, Reddit is actively considering partnering with World ID, the verification system co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, to perform user verification on its platform. Per the report, Reddit's potential partnership with World ID would allow users to verify that they are human by staring into one of World ID's eye-scanning orbs. Once confirmed to be a real person, users would be able to continue using Reddit without revealing anything about their identity. Currently, Reddit only does verification via email, which has been insufficient to combat the litany of incoming AI-powered bots that are flooding the platform. Gizmodo reached out to both Reddit and World ID for details of the potential partnership. Reddit declined to comment. A spokesperson for World said, 'We don't have anything to share at this time; however, we do see value in proof of human being a key part of online experiences, including social, and welcome all of the opportunities possible to discuss this technology with potential partners.' For those unfamiliar, World is somewhere between a verification system and a crypto scheme. World ID is a method for verifying that a person is a human without requiring them to provide additional personal information—something the company calls 'anonymous proof of human.' It offers several verification techniques, but the most notable is its eye-scanning Orb. The company claims that neither 'verification data, nor iris photos or iris codes' are ever revealed, but going through the scan gets you a World ID, which can be used on a platform like Reddit, should it partner with World on this endeavor. Somewhere in the backend of this whole thing is a cryptocurrency called Worldcoin, which you theoretically can use at major retailers—but like, can you really? Is anyone doing that? The founders of World, Altman and Alex Bania, launched the crypto part of the program with the intention of building an 'AI-funded' universal basic income. Mostly, it's made local governments really mad and has been at the center of legal and regulatory investigations into how it's handling user data. It's largely targeted developing nations for its early launches, and used some dubious practices along the way to get people to demo the system. Also, it's probably not technically illegal, but it does seem pretty convenient that Sam Altman offers a 'solve' for a problem that his other company, OpenAI, is in no small part responsible for. Almost seems like he knew what issues he was about to cause and decided to cash in on both ends. Must be nice.
