Wikimedia Foundation/Legal/Global Advocacy

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.

The team

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