Reporting of child pornography images on Wikimedia Commons
Encyclopedia
On April 7, 2010, Larry Sanger
, co-founder of Wikipedia
, sent a letter to the FBI stating that Wikimedia Commons
was hosting child pornography
under Title 18 of the United States Code. His accusations focused on images in the Lolicon
and pedophilia categories, the latter of which contains explicit drawings of sexual acts between adults and children by French artist Martin van Maele
(1863–1926).
Shortly after Sanger posted the letter in public, criticism came in from multiple sources. This ranged from assertions that he had mislabeled lolicon as child pornography to the contention that his actions were an attack on the Wikimedia Foundation
, caused by his history with Wikipedia and his own competing encyclopedia
, Citizendium
. Sanger denied that the letter was an attempt to undermine Wikipedia, but did confirm it was an attempt to force a policy change for labeling or eliminating "adult" content.
Things escalated when Fox News began reporting on the issue. In response Jimmy Wales
, co-founder of Wikipedia, and other administrators began deleting images en masse, with Fox News reporting that a new policy change was underway. Days later Wales voluntarily relinquished his administrative powers under heavy criticism. Fox News also received criticism for its handling of the reporting, especially for misrepresenting the situation regarding the self removal of administrative powers by Wales as leaving the Foundation without clear leadership.
hosted child pornography
in the lolicon and pedophilia categories. He later acknowledged that the term "child pornography" may have been misleading because to many people it denotes images of real children and said that with the benefit of hindsight, he would have used the phrase "depictions of child sexual abuse" instead. According to section 1466A(2)(A) of Title 18 of the United States Code, "obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children" can be "a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting", and anyone who "knowingly produces, distributes, receives, or possesses with intent to distribute, a visual depiction" of this kind is subject to legal penalties. Section 1466 specifically states, "It is not a required element of any offense under this section that the minor depicted actually exist."
Media in the Wikimedia Commons pedophilia category include graphic drawings of child sexual abuse by French illustrator Martin van Maele
. Sanger's opinion was that the content violated section 1466A(2)(A), although the Wikimedia Foundation might argue that the media were exempted per section 1466A(2)(B), which refers to image that have "serious literal, artistic, political, or scientific value". Sanger referred to an online discussion between educational technologists reporting that filtering software was not picking up the images, making them accessible to children in schools, and stated that this discussion was what first made him aware of the issue. Sanger said that he felt both morally and legally obligated to report the presence of these media, because the statutes implied that once aware of such content, one had to do so or risk prosecution oneself.
, general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation, dismissed Sanger's claims. Godwin said that Sanger committed a typical layman's error in trying to invoke statutory law
without adequate research, confusing several sections of Title 18. Section 1466A, the section invoked by Sanger, does not deal with child pornography, but with obscenity
, while child pornography is addressed in section 2252. Godwin further defended the Foundation by citing Miller v. California
which, according to The Register, emphasizes "the importance of community standards
in defining what qualifies as obscenity". He also pointed out that the Foundation's projects are created by web users, and cited section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
– something he notes U.S. Federal obscenity and child-pornography statutes make a similar exception for.
Wikipedian spokesman Jay Walsh said that the Foundation does not harbor illegal material and any such material uploaded by volunteers would be removed.
and moralist
, stood by his actions and said, "pretending that it's just obvious, even for libertarians, that we have a right to publish such depictions is simply wrong, in my opinion". He told The Register, "If I [did]n't report this – and it's been up for years, apparently – who will? As the co-founder of the project, I believe I have a special personal obligation to rein in egregious wrongdoing when I see it. Or at least try. It bothers me that something I helped start has come to this."
After the report, several allegations were made against Sanger and picked up by sites such as Slashdot
: that this was an attempt to destroy the Wikimedia Foundation; that there was a conflict of interest
in his reporting; and that he listed his own websites in the letter, among others. In response to his actions being seen as an attempt by him to destroy the Wikimedia Foundation Sanger commented that this was not true, although he hoped that by making things public the Foundation could be forcibly persuaded to eliminate or label content as "adult", so that filtering software would pick it up and more schools would allow Wikipedia
. On the allegations that the reporting was a conflict of interest Sanger comments that, while he once worked for Wikipedia and was currently running a site in competing against it, the reporting probably did more harm to his personal career. He also contends that he was required by law to make the report, although the manner in which he chose to do so was not.
Sanger also responded to one specific comment on Slashdot, In his response Sanger said he found the response chilling and disparaged the community for rating the comment as "Score: 5, Interesting". Sanger goes on to criticize the industry by stating,
had been contacted by several of those donors. Fox News also reported that, according to Wales, this was in preparation for a new policy regarding sexually explicit content. However, Wales later denied the shake-up and that the reporter had ever contacted him.
The purge led to infighting throughout the entire Wikimedia community. Contributors complained that the deletions were "undemocratic and taken too quickly" and could result in images with legitimate educational value being accidentally deleted. Fox News claimed that the situation quickly "devolved into an all-out war pitting board members against board members, and with top leadership sparring with lower level administrators." However, the Wikimedia Foundation responded that, while discussions had become intense, it was a normal part of the process.
On May 9, 2010, Jimmy Wales gave up some site privileges in response to protests by contributors who were angered over his deletion of images without consultation. He can no longer delete files, remove administrators, assign projects or edit protected content; however, he is still able to edit as a regular user. Wales had previously asked that such images be removed. Some of the images he and other administrators deleted were restored as they were deemed to have educational value. His stepping down was picked up by various media when Fox News quoted a source as saying that Wales' voluntary redaction of his administrative powers created "chaos" with no one clearly in charge. The Foundation later denied those claims and posted a response on their blog about co-founder Wales' role in the Wikimedia Foundation. They clarified Wales' position as Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees, noting that there were other executives with higher authority.
, but resigned on March 1, 2002. In September 2006 he founded Citizendium
, a competitor to Wikipedia
. While Sanger has gone on the record that this was not an attack on Wikipedia, nor a way to boost readership of his own free web-based
collaborative encyclopedia
, there is a significant level of skepticism that Sanger acted without malice. Sanger has had an antagonistic history against Wikipedia since leaving, including criticism of Wikipedia co-founder Wales, and of the Wikipedia community: "The [...] community had essentially been taken over by trolls to a great extent. That was a real problem, and Jimmy Wales absolutely refused to do anything about it."
reported Mike Godwin criticized them, stating that Fox's releases were "part of its 'self-congratulatory anti-porn-on-the-Internet campaign'." Techdirt
also criticized them for their lack of transparency, stating, "While Fox [News] of course plays up Sanger's Wikipedia credentials, they leave out the fact that he has been working on a failed competitor for years (they mention the company name, but not that it's a competitor). They also leave out much of the animosity between Sanger and Wikipedia." Fox News also improperly reported that Wales had a higher position in the Wikimedia Foundation and that his leaving caused a power vacuum. Wales said that the Fox News reporter, Jana Winter, who wrote the article on the alleged stepping down had never contacted him before publishing the article.
Larry Sanger
Lawrence Mark "Larry" Sanger is an American philosopher, co-founder of Wikipedia, and the founder of Citizendium....
, co-founder of Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
, sent a letter to the FBI stating that Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is an online repository of free-use images, sound and other media files. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation....
was hosting child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
under Title 18 of the United States Code. His accusations focused on images in the Lolicon
Lolicon
, also romanised as lolikon or rorikon, is a Japanese portmanteau of the phrase "Lolita complex". In Japan, the term describes an attraction to underage girls or an individual with such an attraction...
and pedophilia categories, the latter of which contains explicit drawings of sexual acts between adults and children by French artist Martin van Maele
Martin van Maële
Martin van Maële was a French illustrator of early 20th century literature. He is renowned for his work in the field of erotic literature...
(1863–1926).
Shortly after Sanger posted the letter in public, criticism came in from multiple sources. This ranged from assertions that he had mislabeled lolicon as child pornography to the contention that his actions were an attack on the Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is an American non-profit charitable organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida, where it was initially based...
, caused by his history with Wikipedia and his own competing encyclopedia
Encyclopedia
An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....
, Citizendium
Citizendium
Citizendium is an English-language wiki-based free encyclopedia project launched by Larry Sanger, who co-founded Wikipedia in 2001....
. Sanger denied that the letter was an attempt to undermine Wikipedia, but did confirm it was an attempt to force a policy change for labeling or eliminating "adult" content.
Things escalated when Fox News began reporting on the issue. In response Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
, co-founder of Wikipedia, and other administrators began deleting images en masse, with Fox News reporting that a new policy change was underway. Days later Wales voluntarily relinquished his administrative powers under heavy criticism. Fox News also received criticism for its handling of the reporting, especially for misrepresenting the situation regarding the self removal of administrative powers by Wales as leaving the Foundation without clear leadership.
Reporting
On April 7, 2010, Larry Sanger sent a letter to the FBI, United States Senators, and Representatives saying that Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is an online repository of free-use images, sound and other media files. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation....
hosted child pornography
Child pornography
Child pornography refers to images or films and, in some cases, writings depicting sexually explicit activities involving a child...
in the lolicon and pedophilia categories. He later acknowledged that the term "child pornography" may have been misleading because to many people it denotes images of real children and said that with the benefit of hindsight, he would have used the phrase "depictions of child sexual abuse" instead. According to section 1466A(2)(A) of Title 18 of the United States Code, "obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children" can be "a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture, or painting", and anyone who "knowingly produces, distributes, receives, or possesses with intent to distribute, a visual depiction" of this kind is subject to legal penalties. Section 1466 specifically states, "It is not a required element of any offense under this section that the minor depicted actually exist."
Media in the Wikimedia Commons pedophilia category include graphic drawings of child sexual abuse by French illustrator Martin van Maele
Martin van Maële
Martin van Maële was a French illustrator of early 20th century literature. He is renowned for his work in the field of erotic literature...
. Sanger's opinion was that the content violated section 1466A(2)(A), although the Wikimedia Foundation might argue that the media were exempted per section 1466A(2)(B), which refers to image that have "serious literal, artistic, political, or scientific value". Sanger referred to an online discussion between educational technologists reporting that filtering software was not picking up the images, making them accessible to children in schools, and stated that this discussion was what first made him aware of the issue. Sanger said that he felt both morally and legally obligated to report the presence of these media, because the statutes implied that once aware of such content, one had to do so or risk prosecution oneself.
Wikimedia's responses
Mike GodwinMike Godwin
Michael Wayne Godwin is an American attorney and author. He was the first staff counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation , and the creator of the Internet adage Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies. From July 2007 to October 2010, he was general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation...
, general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation, dismissed Sanger's claims. Godwin said that Sanger committed a typical layman's error in trying to invoke statutory law
Statutory law
Statutory law or statute law is written law set down by a legislature or by a legislator .Statutes may originate with national, state legislatures or local municipalities...
without adequate research, confusing several sections of Title 18. Section 1466A, the section invoked by Sanger, does not deal with child pornography, but with obscenity
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
, while child pornography is addressed in section 2252. Godwin further defended the Foundation by citing Miller v. California
Miller v. California
Miller v. California, was an important United States Supreme Court case involving what constitutes unprotected obscenity for First Amendment purposes...
which, according to The Register, emphasizes "the importance of community standards
Community standards
Community standards are local norms bounding acceptable conduct. Sometimes these standards can be itemized in a list that states the community's values and sets guidelines for participation in the community...
in defining what qualifies as obscenity". He also pointed out that the Foundation's projects are created by web users, and cited section 230 of the Communications Decency Act
Communications Decency Act
The Communications Decency Act of 1996 was the first notable attempt by the United States Congress to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. In 1997, in the landmark cyberlaw case of Reno v. ACLU, the United States Supreme Court struck the anti-indecency provisions of the Act.The Act was...
– something he notes U.S. Federal obscenity and child-pornography statutes make a similar exception for.
Wikipedian spokesman Jay Walsh said that the Foundation does not harbor illegal material and any such material uploaded by volunteers would be removed.
Sanger's response
Sanger, a self ascribed libertarianLibertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
and moralist
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
, stood by his actions and said, "pretending that it's just obvious, even for libertarians, that we have a right to publish such depictions is simply wrong, in my opinion". He told The Register, "If I [did]n't report this – and it's been up for years, apparently – who will? As the co-founder of the project, I believe I have a special personal obligation to rein in egregious wrongdoing when I see it. Or at least try. It bothers me that something I helped start has come to this."
After the report, several allegations were made against Sanger and picked up by sites such as Slashdot
Slashdot
Slashdot is a technology-related news website owned by Geeknet, Inc. The site, which bills itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters", features user-submitted and ‑evaluated current affairs news stories about science- and technology-related topics. Each story has a comments section...
: that this was an attempt to destroy the Wikimedia Foundation; that there was a conflict of interest
Conflict of interest
A conflict of interest occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other....
in his reporting; and that he listed his own websites in the letter, among others. In response to his actions being seen as an attempt by him to destroy the Wikimedia Foundation Sanger commented that this was not true, although he hoped that by making things public the Foundation could be forcibly persuaded to eliminate or label content as "adult", so that filtering software would pick it up and more schools would allow Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
. On the allegations that the reporting was a conflict of interest Sanger comments that, while he once worked for Wikipedia and was currently running a site in competing against it, the reporting probably did more harm to his personal career. He also contends that he was required by law to make the report, although the manner in which he chose to do so was not.
Sanger also responded to one specific comment on Slashdot, In his response Sanger said he found the response chilling and disparaged the community for rating the comment as "Score: 5, Interesting". Sanger goes on to criticize the industry by stating,
Image purge
On May 7, 2010, after Fox News had begun informing and putting pressure on dozens of companies that donate to the Wikimedia Foundation, they reported that the Wikimedia Foundation had begun purging its websites of thousands of pornographic images after co-founder of the Wikimedia Foundation Jimmy WalesJimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
had been contacted by several of those donors. Fox News also reported that, according to Wales, this was in preparation for a new policy regarding sexually explicit content. However, Wales later denied the shake-up and that the reporter had ever contacted him.
The purge led to infighting throughout the entire Wikimedia community. Contributors complained that the deletions were "undemocratic and taken too quickly" and could result in images with legitimate educational value being accidentally deleted. Fox News claimed that the situation quickly "devolved into an all-out war pitting board members against board members, and with top leadership sparring with lower level administrators." However, the Wikimedia Foundation responded that, while discussions had become intense, it was a normal part of the process.
On May 9, 2010, Jimmy Wales gave up some site privileges in response to protests by contributors who were angered over his deletion of images without consultation. He can no longer delete files, remove administrators, assign projects or edit protected content; however, he is still able to edit as a regular user. Wales had previously asked that such images be removed. Some of the images he and other administrators deleted were restored as they were deemed to have educational value. His stepping down was picked up by various media when Fox News quoted a source as saying that Wales' voluntary redaction of his administrative powers created "chaos" with no one clearly in charge. The Foundation later denied those claims and posted a response on their blog about co-founder Wales' role in the Wikimedia Foundation. They clarified Wales' position as Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees, noting that there were other executives with higher authority.
Sanger's relations with Wikimedia
Sanger is one of the co-founders of the WikipediaWikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
, but resigned on March 1, 2002. In September 2006 he founded Citizendium
Citizendium
Citizendium is an English-language wiki-based free encyclopedia project launched by Larry Sanger, who co-founded Wikipedia in 2001....
, a competitor to Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
. While Sanger has gone on the record that this was not an attack on Wikipedia, nor a way to boost readership of his own free web-based
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
collaborative encyclopedia
Encyclopedia
An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....
, there is a significant level of skepticism that Sanger acted without malice. Sanger has had an antagonistic history against Wikipedia since leaving, including criticism of Wikipedia co-founder Wales, and of the Wikipedia community: "The [...] community had essentially been taken over by trolls to a great extent. That was a real problem, and Jimmy Wales absolutely refused to do anything about it."
Criticism of Fox News coverage
Fox News was criticized for its handling of their reporting. The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
reported Mike Godwin criticized them, stating that Fox's releases were "part of its 'self-congratulatory anti-porn-on-the-Internet campaign'." Techdirt
Techdirt
Techdirt is a weblog that reports on technology trends, and related business and economic policy issues, often focusing on copyright and patent reform. The website was started in 1997 by Mike Masnick and it was originally based on the weblog Slash. Techdirt has been named among the favorite blogs...
also criticized them for their lack of transparency, stating, "While Fox [News] of course plays up Sanger's Wikipedia credentials, they leave out the fact that he has been working on a failed competitor for years (they mention the company name, but not that it's a competitor). They also leave out much of the animosity between Sanger and Wikipedia." Fox News also improperly reported that Wales had a higher position in the Wikimedia Foundation and that his leaving caused a power vacuum. Wales said that the Fox News reporter, Jana Winter, who wrote the article on the alleged stepping down had never contacted him before publishing the article.