Comment by AlecSchueler
2 days ago
As I said in my first comment: if it makes doing business in the UK unpalatable then they are of course free to halt their operations. I was specifically responding to the suggestion above that they should do so as a bargaining move to force the government's hand.
The Wikimedia Foundation isn't "doing business" in the UK, they're a nonprofit. Their mission statement is "to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop educational content under a free license or in the public domain, and to disseminate it effectively and globally."
Part of fulfilling that mission is opposing laws that restrict free knowledge and open access, so why should they not use their huge presence as a bargaining tool? Doing so directly aligns with their purpose.
Because there are legal avenues of protest awarded to them by the United Kingdom. They also definitely "do business" there even if they aren't in it for profit.
Restricting activism to exclusively “legal avenues” is what allows the slow erosion of our freedoms and rights. The rights you enjoy today would not exist if they weren’t fought outside of the legal frameworks of their time. This law is the perfect example of how rights are not guaranteed and need to be constantly fought for.
If they were to block the UK that would just be them no longer “doing business” in the UK, which you seem to agree is perfectly acceptable?
You seem to think that the Wikimedia Foundation exists outside of a political context but the reality is their sheer existence is political and always will be.