UPDATE: On Monday, 11 August, the High Court of Justice dismissed the Wikimedia Foundation’s challenge to the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) Categorisation Regulations. While the decision does not provide the immediate legal protections for Wikipedia that we hoped for, the Court’s ruling emphasized the responsibility of Ofcom and the UK government to ensure Wikipedia is protected as the OSA is implemented. 

The judge recognized 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. The Court stressed that this ruling “does not give Ofcom and the Secretary of State a green light to implement a regime that would significantly impede Wikipedia’s operations”,  and indicated they could face legal repercussions if they fail to protect Wikipedia and the rights of its users. In order to achieve that outcome, he suggested that Ofcom may need to find a particularly flexible interpretation of the rules in question, or that the rules themselves may need amendment in Parliament.

If the ruling stands, the first categorization decisions from Ofcom are expected this summer. The Foundation will continue to seek solutions to protect Wikipedia and the rights of its users as the OSA continues to be implemented.

17 July 2025 — Next week, on 22 and 23 July 2025, the High Court of Justice in London will hear the Wikimedia Foundation’s legal challenge to the Categorisation Regulations of the United Kingdom (UK)’s Online Safety Act (OSA). 

The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, announced its legal challenge earlier this year, arguing that the regulations endanger Wikipedia and the global community of volunteer contributors who create the information on the site.

“The Court has an opportunity in this case to set a global precedent for protecting public interest projects online,” said Stephen LaPorte, General Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation. “Wikipedia is the backbone of knowledge on the internet. It’s the only top-ten website operated by a non-profit and one of the highest-quality datasets used in training Large Language Models (LLMs). We trust the Court will protect Wikipedia—a vital encyclopedic resource—from rules crafted for the internet’s riskiest commercial sites and, in doing so, safeguard the open internet for everyone”.

Information on Wikipedia is written and curated by a global community of nearly 260,000 volunteer contributors. These volunteers set and enforce policies to ensure that information on the platform is fact-based, neutral, and attributed to reliable sources. Over the last 25 years, this human-centered content moderation model has established Wikipedia as an unparalleled resource for reliable information in over 300 languages; its 65 million articles are viewed more than 15 billion times per month worldwide.

The Wikimedia Foundation shares the UK government’s commitment to promoting online environments where everyone can safely participate. The organization is not bringing a general challenge to the OSA as a whole, nor to the existence of the Category 1 duties themselves. Rather, the legal challenge focuses solely on the new Categorisation Regulations that risk imposing Category 1 duties (the OSA’s most stringent obligations) on Wikipedia.

If enforced on Wikipedia, Category 1 demands would undermine the privacy and safety of Wikipedia’s volunteer contributors, expose the encyclopedia to manipulation and vandalism, and divert essential resources from protecting people and improving Wikipedia, one of the world’s most trusted and widely used digital public goods.

For example, the Foundation would be required to verify the identity of many Wikipedia contributors, undermining the privacy that is central to keeping Wikipedia volunteers safe. In addition to being exceptionally burdensome, this requirement—which is just one of several Category 1 demands—could expose contributors to data breaches, stalking, lawsuits, or even imprisonment by authoritarian regimes. Additional details about the concerning impacts of the Category 1 duties on Wikipedia are available in this blog post.

Wikimedia Foundation Challenges UK Online Safety Act Regulations

Public policy

UPDATE: On Monday, 11 August, the High Court of Justice dismissed the Wikimedia Foundation’s challenge to the UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) Categorisation Regulations. While the decision does not provide the immediate legal protections for Wikipedia that we hoped for, the Court’s ruling emphasized the responsibility of Ofcom and the UK government to ensure Wikipedia….

11 August 2025 By Wikimedia Foundation

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For fifth time, China blocks Wikimedia Foundation as permanent observer to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

Public policy

On 9 July 2025, the Wikimedia Foundation was denied permanent observer status at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

9 July 2025 By Wikimedia Foundation

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Nearly 300,000 volunteers are behind creating the information on Wikimedia projects, which are viewed more than 22 billion times every month. Through a process of open collaboration, these volunteers help to power the backbone of knowledge on the internet with reliable information for all. Wikipedia alone is edited in over 300 languages by nearly 260,000 volunteers every month around the world. Together, they compile and share information on notable subjects, according to editorial policies and guidelines that ensure knowledge remains neutral, reliable, and fact-based. Volunteers discuss, debate, and often disagree until a shared consensus can be reached on what content to include. This process is done entirely out in the open for all to see. The Wikimedia projects demonstrate how hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life can effectively reach consensus based on facts. 

The theme of Wikimania 2025 is “Wikimania@20: Inclusivity. Impact. Sustainability.”, bringing attention to the need to ensure a sustainable future for Wikimedia projects and the volunteers and efforts that make them possible. 

 The event will also be available to watch live on virtual streaming platforms. 

“Wikimania is a window into our global Wikimedia community. This conference is a celebration of the people, from every corner of the world, who contribute  their time, passion, and skills to share knowledge,” said Maryana Iskander, CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation. “Hosting Wikimania again on the African continent for its special 20 year anniversary is an acknowledgement of this region’s critical role in growing and shaping the Wikimedia projects for the future. As the next one billion people come online, it is more important than ever to expand Africa’s contributions to the global knowledge ecosystem through the Wikimedia projects.”

The event will feature workshops, edit-a-thons, policy discussions, keynotes, community meet-ups, and more. Some key program highlights include:

• The Wikimedian of the Year Awards, presented by Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales, recognize exceptional volunteers contributing to Wikimedia projects around the world.

• A keynote panel on Artificial Intelligence with renowned African technology experts and academics, including Dr. Joyce Nakatumba-Nabende and Prof. Vukosi Marivate, on how open knowledge communities—such as the global volunteers on Wikimedia projects and mission-aligned partners—may navigate a fast-changing technological landscape while staying true to their core values.
• Sessions that focus on technological advancements and how the Wikimedia Foundation and volunteer communities are engaging and defining their approach to AI to support humans in promoting access to free, reliable information.
• Explorations into the ways libraries and Wikimedians can collaborate in the long-term to preserve cultural heritage; engaging with UNESCO on increasing access to cultural heritage; and research findings on preserving linguistic diversity on Wikipedia.
• The Wikimania Hackathon invites attendees of all experience levels to collaborate on software and database projects related to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.

Wikimania’s hybrid format allows thousands of people around the globe to engage in real-time sessions, conversations, and cultural experiences. To ensure the participation of diverse people from various countries, the conference will be translated into multiple languages, including Arabic, French, English, Spanish, and Swahili.

For more information, please email press@wikimedia.org.

Follow the event on social media using #Wikimania2025.

About Wikimania

Wikimania is the annual gathering bringing together Wikimedians around the world to connect with one another, share new projects, and shape the future of Wikimedia projects. Everyone is invited to join and learn more about the humans who make Wikipedia possible for free. The first Wikimania was held in Frankfurt, Germany, from 4 to 8 August 2005. It has been an annual event ever since.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects; build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content; support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

The post Twentieth edition of Wikimania celebrates humans who make Wikipedia possible appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.

Wikipedia is one of the most widely used digital public goods, the only nonprofit website among the world’s top ten most visited ones, and a critical source of training data for artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The Foundation’s experience and perspective are essential to ensuring that global copyright policy reflects the public interest. 

Our goal remains unchanged: to contribute to WIPO’s discussions with 25 years of practical experience in hosting free knowledge for everyone, everywhere, and fostering open and flexible copyright policies. 

As a recognized observer at the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) since 2022, Wikimedia has contributed to shaping the Global Digital Compact, entrenching Wikipedia’s role as a valuable public interest platform in global policymaking. This commitment was reinforced this year when Wikipedia was officially recognized as a digital public good by the UN-endorsed Digital Public Goods Alliance in acknowledgment of its openness, support for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and public value.  In addition, Wikimedia Commons — another Wikimedia project — continues to establish itself as the world’s largest repository of free and open digital media online. 

China misrepresented Wikipedia’s volunteer-driven policies and practices, all of which are rooted in accuracy and neutrality and help effectively counter misinformation and disinformation online.

“Blocking Wikimedia’s participation at WIPO means overlooking how knowledge is actually created, shared, and reused at a global scale. This is particularly important as copyright rules evolve to meet the demands of AI,” said Stephen LaPorte, General Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation. “In a digital world driven by for-profit interests, Wikimedia brings a much-needed public voice to help ensure knowledge remains human and copyright supports access to knowledge. We regret this decision and remain committed to seeking a constructive path forward.” 

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We get it; we really do. Lawmakers across the world are rightly focused on regulating powerful, for-profit platforms to mitigate the harms ascribed to social media and other threats online. When developing such legislation, however, some draft laws can inadvertently place public interest projects like Wikipedia at risk. At the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that hosts Wikipedia and other Wikimedia platforms, we have found that when a proposed law harms Wikipedia, in many cases it likely harms other community-led websites, open resources, or digital infrastructure.

That is why we have created the Wikipedia Test: a public policy tool and a call to action to help ensure regulators consider how new laws can negatively affect online communities and platforms that provide services and information in the public interest.

The Wikipedia Test offers a straightforward idea as its central premise:

Before passing regulations, legislators should ask themselves whether their proposed laws would make it easier or harder for people to read, contribute to, and/or trust a project like Wikipedia.

When we say “Wikipedia” in the context of the test, we mean it as a model for the best parts of the internet. Wikipedia can act as a stand-in for those other online spaces that are open, privacy-respecting, and enable people around the world to share knowledge that can advance education, development, and civic participation.

This includes things like: Project Gutenberg, which makes educational and cultural resources freely available; FixMyStreet and its public reporting forums so citizens can direct their representatives to their concerns; Global Voices and its citizen journalism platforms, which amplify stories left untold by larger news media; and, a multitude of data-sharing and code repositories and digital public goods that help researchers advance our understanding and actions regarding public health, climate change, and Sustainable Development Goals.

In a nutshell, the Wikipedia Test is a reminder: When regulation fails to account for the various kinds of platforms and services that exist online, the result can be laws that unintentionally harm the very spaces that offer an alternative to the commercial web.

The Wikipedia Test is more than just a safeguard: it is a way to promote a positive vision for the internet. We envision a digital ecosystem where “everyone has easy access to a multilingual digital commons supported by a thriving public domain and freely licensed content.” To get there, policymakers must support online spaces where diverse communities can build and govern knowledge-sharing platforms in their own languages and cultural contexts. The Wikipedia Test helps identify whether a proposal aligns with this future — or undermines it.

As you will see below, the tool itself is a short, easy-to-use rubric designed to help lawmakers, regulators, and public interest advocates ask the right questions. These are the kinds of considerations that define whether a law or regulation protects the knowledge and information that belongs to everyone online — i.e., the digital commons — or, worryingly, threatens it.

Like everything in the Wikimedia ecosystem, the Wikipedia Test is free to access and share. Policy advocates both inside and outside the Wikimedia movement can use the Wikipedia Test to spark better conversations with lawmakers. Regulators can use it to spot potential red flags early in the drafting process. And best of all, it is not a pass-fail assessment: it is an invitation to think more critically, to ask better questions, and to reach out to others that are also concerned about making sure that the internet is the best that it can be.

When in doubt, contact the Global Advocacy team at the Wikimedia Foundation. We are here to help assess the impacts of proposed rules and laws, and to work together toward ensuring better outcomes for everyone.

Last but not least, we would love your feedback. Are you a policymaker looking for a clearer path through complex digital questions? Are you an advocate who wants to integrate the Wikipedia Test into your own work? Let us know at globaladvocacy@wikimedia.org.

By working together, we can ensure that the internet remains a space where knowledge can be built and shared by everyone, in every language, everywhere in the world.

The Wikipedia Test

[Free expression] Could the policy increase the legal risks or costs of hosting community-led public interest projects like Wikipedia?

Community-led moderation on platforms like Wikipedia, Reddit, or OpenStreetMap relies on intermediary liability protections, which shield websites and users from legal responsibility for user-generated content (UGC). The best-known example is Section 230 of the US Communications Decency Act (CDA). Weakening these protections could force centralized moderation, undermining crowdsourced models. Proposals to change Section 230 are frequent — we even published a three-part blog series on the issue. The Electronic Frontier Foundation also explains why this matters for Wikipedia.

[Access to information] Could the policy make it harder to access or share information, including works that are freely licensed, protected by copyright, or in the public domain?

A good example of policy supporting access to freely licensed information is the 2021 UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. It urges governments to reform copyright and data laws to enable open access, public domain use, and collaboration in order to enhance scientific research. This is a strong foundation for legal frameworks that support cocreation and citizen science. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) praised it for reinforcing libraries’ roles in equitable access. Implemented well, it ensures public funding results in public knowledge — not paywalled content.

[Privacy and safety] Could the policy potentially threaten user privacy by requiring the collection of sensitive, identifiable information like ages, real names, or contact information of Wikipedia’s volunteer editors and readers?

The UK Online Safety Act (OSA) and Australia’s Basic Online Safety Expectations (BOSE) are examples of laws that threaten user privacy by requiring websites to collect ages or real names. The collection, processing, and retention of such sensitive data increase the risk of a range of privacy harms, including identity theft, surveillance, and harassment. Journalists have reported on how this could undermine Wikipedia’s commitment to anonymity and privacy, potentially making both readers and volunteer editors less willing to access or contribute to Wikipedia.

[Free expression] Could the policy lead to potential surveillance and cause a chilling effect that discourages people from reading or editing Wikipedia?

Electronic mass surveillance, like that conducted by the United States National Security Agency’s (NSA) “Upstream” program, has been legally contested in a number of countries. It is one of many forms of surveillance that can chill freedom of expression by making people afraid to access or contribute to discussions of certain topics — even on an encyclopedia such as Wikipedia.

[Privacy and safety] Could the policy make it riskier for people to access, edit, and share content on Wikipedia by enabling governments to collect identifying information about volunteer editors or readers, leading to intimidation or retaliation?

The United Nations Convention Against Cybercrime is an international treaty that, if widely adopted, could be used by repressive governments to reach across national borders in order to prosecute political enemies, dissidents, and others who challenge authoritarian rule — including Wikipedia editors. Freedom House also explains that the treaty would make it easier for law enforcement agencies to obtain private companies’ electronic records and data, undermining the human rights of people outside of those agencies’ jurisdictions.

[Free expression] Could the policy limit the ability of volunteer editors to govern Wikipedia’s content and guidelines?

A 2021 bill in Chile could have severely threatened community-led models of platform governance. The bill’s one-size-fits-all approach would have imposed content moderation obligations designed for commercial platforms, including preemptive content takedown. This would have undermined the autonomy of volunteer editors in shaping content and guidelines. The CELE noted how such regulations risked threatening rights, chilling participation, and eroding the collaborative nature of websites — such as Wikipedia.

[Access to information] Could the policy restrict the free flow of information across borders, potentially limiting access to Wikipedia and its content?

During 2017–2020, the government of Turkey blocked Wikipedia in the country, denying 80+ million people there from reading and contributing to an essential source of information that the rest of the world could access. Freedom of expression and access to reliable information empowers people to make better decisions, be more connected, and build sustainable livelihoods. This violation of human rights was ultimately condemned by the Turkish Constitutional Court, who ruled that access to the encyclopedia had to be restored. Since then, Turkish Wikipedia, which is viewed more than 150 million times a month, has grown by more than 474,000 articles.

The post The Wikipedia Test appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.

That is why our new AI strategy doubles down on the volunteers behind Wikipedia.

We will use AI to build features that remove technical barriers to allow the humans at the core of Wikipedia to spend their valuable time on what they want to accomplish, and not on how to technically achieve it. Our investments will be focused on specific areas where generative AI excels, all in the service of creating unique opportunities that will boost Wikipedia’s volunteers: 

• Supporting Wikipedia’s moderators and patrollers with AI-assisted workflows that automate tedious tasks in support of knowledge integrity; 
• Giving Wikipedia’s editors time back by improving the discoverability of information on Wikipedia to leave more time for human deliberation, judgment, and consensus building; 
• Helping editors share local perspectives or context by automating the translation and adaptation of common topics;
• Scaling the onboarding of new Wikipedia volunteers with guided mentorship. 

We believe that our future work with AI will be successful not only because of what we do, but how we do it. Our efforts will use our long-held values, principles, and policies (like privacy and human rights) as a compass: we will take a human-centered approach and will prioritize human agency; we will prioritize using open-source or open-weight AI; we will prioritize transparency; and we will take a nuanced approach to multilinguality, a fundamental part of Wikipedia.

Providing freely accessible knowledge to anyone on the planet is Wikipedia’s mission, one that has only grown in importance since the rise of generative AI. Its success is why Wikipedia is at the core of every AI training model. With this new AI strategy, we are making a promise and a commitment to the world we serve and the volunteers who have made—continue to make—Wikipedia the largest encyclopedia that humanity has ever known.

You can read the Wikimedia Foundation’s new AI strategy over on Meta-Wiki.

—

Chris Albon is the Director of Machine Learning at the Wikimedia Foundation. You can follow him at @chrisalbon. Leila Zia is the Head of Research at the Wikimedia Foundation.

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Great photography is more than pressing a button—transforming ordinary into extraordinary is an art. Timing, composition, and instinct must all harmonize at singular moments in time. Split-second decisions must be made to adjust focus and angle, all while maintaining the patience needed to capture the right light.

Donatas Dabravolskas, the winner of this year’s Wiki Loves Monuments photo contest, put all the pieces together early one morning last April. Although clouds threatened his chance to shoot Rio de Janeiro’s world-famous Christ the Redeemer, he ignored his doubts and hailed a car. When the clouds subsided, Dabravolskas and his drone were ready; he snapshotted a remarkable view of the statue lit by a rising sun reflecting off the-now low rolling clouds.

One contest judge said that Dabravolskas’s work brought together “the landscape, the backlight and the open frame in dialogue” in a way that conveyed “the concept of redemption”—just like the name of the statue. Dabravolskas was also the winner of Wiki Loves Monuments 2021, making him the first two-time winner of the contest.

—

Wiki Loves Monuments is best known for being the world’s largest photo contest. It highlights and documents humanity’s cultural heritage through the buildings, structures, and other assets that have gained importance due to their artistic, historic, political, technical, or architectural significance. 

This mission and its goals have “brought together people from literally all over the world,” their organizing team said. One of them is this year’s ninth-place winner Hadi Dehghanpour, who said that they submit photos to the contest each year because they “consider it a reference and source for introducing and archiving the world’s sights.” 

In 2024, over 4,500 participants in 56 countries submitted nearly 240,000 photos to Wiki Loves Monuments. These photos were first judged in individual nation-level contests, each organized by teams within those countries, before 55 finalists were forwarded to a nine-person expert jury, who took several months to closely examine and identify 25 winners.

Over its fifteen years in existence, Wiki Loves Monuments photographers have collectively donated over three million images to Wikimedia Commons, a freely licensed media repository that supports Wikipedia and other websites. Each photo adds another nugget of knowledge to the world’s collection, and you (yes, you!) can use those images for just about any purpose with only a few stipulations.* 

Check out all of the winners from the 2024 Wiki Love Monuments contest below.

Second place

Photo by Oleksandr Ryzhkov, CC BY-SA 4.0

A symbol of Ukrainian education, Kyiv’s Red University Building was photographed on this cold evening by Oleksandr Ryzhkov. Although he is more likely to be found photographing natural beauty, Ryzhkov was motivated to turn his camera on Kyiv due to the destruction wrought by Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia. “I want the whole world to see how beautiful it is here and remember that it can be destroyed,” he said.

Third place

Photo by Ioannis Ioannidis, CC BY 4.0

Ioannis Ioannidis had only taken up photography a year before capturing this shot of birds flying around Greece’s Monastery of Rousanou. They and a friend were already going to travel south for a business trip, so they woke up early to take a detour to this religious building that is precariously perched on a rock outcropping. In the words of Wiki Loves Monument’s judges, Ioannidis’ photo “vividly captured both natural and human history in a single frame.” They commended the photo’s color, noting that the pinks “created a fantastic atmosphere that feels almost mythical.”

Fourth place

Photo by Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 4.0

This is Serbia’s Museum of Contemporary Art as seen through the lens of long-time Wikipedia editor and Wikimedia Commons photographer Petar Milošević. Milošević’s motivation was simple: he wanted to demonstrate that Brutalist socialist architecture is “not just poor concrete”. The contest judges certainly believed that Milošević was successful in this quest, as they commended his compositional choices. These included the use of height to convey the museum’s architecture in a way “that cannot be appreciated from any other angle”, as well as Milošević’s decision to photograph the building when lit by its own lighting to best see its sharp lines.

Fifth place

Photo by Filipe Salgado, CC BY-SA 4.0

A prolific black and white photographer, Filipe Salgado’s haunting portrait of a single individual in Porto’s typically bustling Bolhão Market looks like it could have been taken in a different century. The contest judges called out the photo’s clever and symmetrical perspective, while Salgado themselves thought that it portrayed “a unique moment in a powerful way”. Their skills managed to place two photos in the top 25 of this year’s Wiki Loves Monuments; you can find their other winner at #11

Sixth place

Photo by Marika Caruana, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photographer Marika Caruana narrated the story behind this photo from Malta for the contest organizers:

“The moment I took this shot was a crazy moment.  My partner and I were on our way back home feeling disappointed after an unsuccessful attempt to photograph moonrise at a low elevation.  Due to the haze on the horizon, the moon was not visible.  However, as the moon rose out of the haze, it shone nice and bright.  My partner was driving, so I took the opportunity to seek some interesting photographic composition with the full moon and a prominent building.  And as we neared the Mellieha Church, I realised that this was possible.  I asked my partner to stop the car in the middle of the road, ran out camera in hand and raced along the sidewalk (fortunately there is a promenade which permitted these antics) until I got the moon aligned with the dome.”

Seventh place

Photo by Gilad Topaz, CC BY-SA 4.0

This dragon-style Norwegian church in the Lofoten island chain stood out to the judges for its composition. The red of the church pops against the surrounding snow-covered land, but the size of the building does not overwhelm the rest of the image. Photographer Gilad Topaz’s winter trip to these Norwegian islands involved three flights and an additional four hours of driving, and it paid off: three photos Gilad took on this trip won international awards in Wiki Loves Monuments 2024 and appear on this list (#12 and #17).

Eighth place

Photo by User:Ivanbuki, CC BY-SA 4.0

Serbia’s Monument to the Unknown Hero commemorates all the unidentified soldiers that perished in Serbian service during the First World War. The contest judges loved User:Ivanbuki’s photo of the site, with one saying that they chose an ideal day: “the cover of the snow and the fog makes the scene more dramatic, making the analogy of the harsh climate with the roughness of life in wartime.”

Ninth place

Photo by Hadi Dehghanpour, CC BY 4.0

This photo of a ribat in Seyyedabad, Chenaran, Iran, used a top-down perspective to create an unusual perspective of this centuries-old structure. One of the contest judges thought that it was “one of the most original in the contest.” Photographer Hadi Dehghanpour, a long-time participant in Wiki Loves Monuments, found this view while traveling with an archaeologist friend. “The area was deserted and the weather was sunny and warm,” they recalled.

Tenth place

Photo by Domenico Ianaro, CC BY-SA 4.0

Domenico Ianaro used the hilltop location of Italy’s Basilica of Superga to frame the building against the hulking Monte Rosa massif behind it. Although the basilica is the subject of many photographs, the contest judges loved the unusual soft glow brought on by the setting sun, which made for a contrast between the warm building and cold mountain range.

Eleventh place

Photo by Filipe Salgado, CC BY-SA 4.0

Much like Filipe Salgado’s other contest-winning photo at #5, this photo of Livraria Lello finds a famed and often crowded location devoid of people. The judges were impressed by Salgado’s capture of an often photographed monument in an unusual way with their framing of Livraria Lello’s famous staircase alongside the shop’s books.

Twelfth place

Photo by Gilad Topaz, CC BY-SA 4.0

This photo of the fishing village of Henningsvær in the Lofoten archipelago was the second of three photos from Gilad Topaz’s winter trip to Norway to make this list (#7 and #17). The contest judges hailed this photo for its contrasts between humanity and the natural landscape. One thought that the perspective provided a reminder of “how communities living in tough and remote places establish and organize themselves”, while another remarked that it was “a unique picture that few people can take.”

Thirteenth place

Photo by Vaido Otsar, CC BY-SA 4.0

This exquisite example of ruins photography comes from a former Kreenholm Manufacturing Company building in Estonia. According to Wikipedia, the company held what were at one point the largest cotton spinning and manufacturing mills in the world. As of 2021, however, only 31 people were working at the site. Photographer Vaido Otsar was on a tour of the building when he happily discovered what they called the “rhythm” of the pillars of this section.

Fourteenth place

Photo by Matteo Pappadopoli, CC BY-SA 4.0

Matteo Pappadopoli traveled over 900 km from home for the Carnival of Venice. The carnival is famed for its attendees’ intricate costumes and masks, and so Pappadopoli brought their camera to snapshot to snapshot the best of them. Pappadopoli’s plans changed when they realized that a change in the weather could present an opportunity (translated from the Italian):

“I saw fog descending at the same time the sun was setting. Sensing the atmosphere that was being created, favorable for photography, I positioned myself for the photo, looking for the best composition and waiting for the most favorable moment.”

One of the contest judges remarked that the photo found “an almost poetic perspective that transmits the beauty of the space and the melancholy at the same time.”

Fifteenth place

Photo by User:Arseniog, CC BY-SA 4.0

The definition of a photo that tells a story, User:Arseniog’s timelapse in this photo of Santia Castle in Zaragoza, Spain, vividly illustrates the passage of time. “This image not only represents the medieval castle of Santia,” one contest judge said, “but also the essential idea about the meaning of monuments as those creations of culture that stubbornly persist over time and survive the harshness of the elements.”

Sixteenth place

Photo by Emman A. Foronda, CC BY-SA 4.0

At a brief glance, you might think that this is an unusual example of a metaphysical painting from Giorgio de Chirico. In fact, it is a photo of Christ the King Parish in Quezon City, the Philippines. The building is “often admired for its architecture and the serene atmosphere it provides,” according to photographer Emman A. Foronda, and “the way it stands out while still being part of the local community speaks to its significance in the area.”

Seventeenth place

Photo by Gilad Topaz, CC BY-SA 4.0

The final of three award-winning photos submitted by Gilad Topaz (#7, #12), this shot of a wharf and seaside buildings in Henningsvær, Norway, showcases the village’s traditional fishing architecture. “It is a very original perspective of these buildings,” one contest judge wrote. They added that it was not just the reflection in the water that contributed to their assessment, but the “deformed lines and color management that make it even look like a painting.”

Eighteenth place

Photo by Mohamed Ali Yahmed, CC BY-SA 4.0

This fortified structure located in the western Libyan city of Nalut is about a thousand years old. It was originally intended to store harvested grains in war-stricken times. Photographer Mohamed Ali Yahmed knew of the archaeologically significant ruins because they live nearby, and their work was commended by the contest judges for its human-leveled perspective and the composition’s inclusion of various building materials.

Nineteenth place

Photo by Agon Nimani, CC BY-SA 4.0

Agon Nimani’s airborne photo of the National Library of Kosovo was a spur of the moment decision; they were driving by the building and recognized that the weather would lend itself to a spectacular shot. The contest judges agreed. One noted that it could be a demonstration piece on the continuing importance of black and white photography, while another said:

“The photographer […] understood profoundly the essence of the design of the library by reducing the image of the building to its fundamental features. The photograph here is transformed into a carbon sketch of the library, like the architects may have sketched it with a pencil on a white piece of paper when having a moment of inspiration before the library was even constructed.”

Twentieth place

Photo by User:Alhotmane, CC BY-SA 4.0

The oasis settlement of Ghadames has been around for thousands of years, and its old town was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. This aerial photo of the old town was praised by the judges as it “showed the beautifully imperfect squares of each house and how the whole group comes together to form this beautiful organic pattern,” in the words of one judge.

Twenty-first place

Photo by Aneza Paliou, CC BY-SA 4.0

Aneza Paliou prefers to photograph her subjects around dawn, and the early morning light provided the perfect soft lighting for this shot of medieval buildings lining a street in Rhodes, Greece. Aneza was motivated to submit photos of Rhodes to expand knowledge about the island she lives on, which in her words is a rare example of a “medieval residential complex that has survived almost intact with its fortifications, urban planning, public buildings, temples and houses.”

Twenty-second place

Photo by User:Athichitra/@artie__garden__, CC BY-SA 4.0

Each element within this photo from User:Athichitra was an intentional choice. The Great Buddha of Thailand is framed here by rice fields and the sky, “just like a symbol of Thailand’s spiritual land,” they said. They added:

“I had traveled several hours from home to reach Muang temple and arrived at just the right time when the light was soft. I set up my shot low in the rice field to frame the statue rising behind the traditional wooden hut to highlight the connection to the land. What made the moment magical was the flock of birds flying across the sky, adding movement and life. Together, these elements created a balanced, serene scene that felt both powerful and peaceful.”

Twenty-third place

Photo by User:Hamed.gisoo, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Jameh Mosque in Varamin, Iran, was completed in 1322. User:Hamed.gisoo’s photograph of its central courtyard won praise from one judge for the variety of stories it told, the composition that created depth, the lighting that illuminated the brickwork, and the birds that added life.

Twenty-fourth place

Photo by Basavaraj M, CC BY-SA 4.0

“Capturing monuments is my passion,” says Basavaraj M, the photographer behind this shot of Vitthala Temple within the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hampi, India. Basavaraj was part of a group of photographers that visited the site during monsoon season, which provided the water visible throughout the image. They knew immediately that it was one of the best photos they had ever taken.

Twenty-fifth place

Photo by Oussama Hamama, CC BY-SA 4.0

On a boiling afternoon in mid-July, photographer Oussama Hamama was moving around the Hassan Towner in Rabat, Morocco, looking for that perfect shot. They found it with a couple of tourists walking towards the incomplete mosque. “The presence of the couple served as a means to ‘humanise’ the picture and to put emphasis on the majestic aspect of the monument,” Oussama said. Even though they had to hurry to get the photo before the couple moved too far, the symmetry and balance in the photo led to its twenty-fifth place finish in this year’s Wiki Loves Monuments.

—

To see more images like this, have a look at all the national Wiki Loves Monuments 2024 winners. You can also check out 2024’s winners of Wiki Loves Earth, a contest focused on our planet’s natural areas.

By Ed Erhart, Communications Specialist at the Wikimedia Foundation

—

*Note: Please make sure to follow each image’s copyright tag. Most of the images above, for instance, are available under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license, meaning that you are free to share them for any reason so long as you give credit to the photographer and release any derivative images under the same copyright license.

The post “Redemption”: The winners of Wiki Loves Monuments 2024 appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.

Feb 12, 2025  ― Wikipedia has officially been recognized as a digital public good (DPG) by the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA), a multistakeholder initiative that maintains a Registry of Digital Public Goods: open source-software, data, AI models, standards, and content created for the public interest.  The DPGA is endorsed by the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General in support of open source technologies that contribute to the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This recognition of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia hosted by the nonprofit organization the Wikimedia Foundation, highlights its unique role in advancing global access to a free and open source of trusted knowledge in the public interest. 

According to Liv Marte Nordhaug, CEO of the DPGA Secretariat: 

“Wikipedia’s recognition as a digital public good is a testament to the power and importance of open access to knowledge. Wikipedia stands as a prime example of how technologies can drive equitable and unrestricted access to information, accelerating the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals worldwide.” 

Wikipedia, the world’s largest online encyclopedia and only top-visited website operated by a non-profit organization, contains reliably sourced information that is shared, maintained, and verified by a global community of nearly 260,000 volunteers in over 300 languages. 

“The Wikimedia Foundation works with affiliate organizations and volunteer Wikipedians across the world to advocate for policies that protect and support Wikipedia and other digital public goods upon which the free knowledge ecosystem depends,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, Vice President of Global Advocacy at the Wikimedia Foundation. “We look forward to working with the Digital Public Goods Alliance, along with other organizations and communities that create and maintain digital public goods, to build a better internet that serves the public interest.”

In 2024 Wikimedia Foundation staff along with Wikipedia volunteers from around the world participated in the UN General Assembly’s Summit for the Future and the drafting of the Global Digital Compact—the UN’s blueprint for global governance of digital technology and artificial intelligence. 

In an open letter in early 2024, the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia affiliates called on UN Member States to:

• Protect and empower communities to govern online public interest projects.
• Promote and protect digital public goods by supporting a robust digital commons from which everyone, everywhere, can benefit.
• Build and deploy Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to support and empower, not replace, people who create content and make decisions in the public interest.

The recognition of Wikipedia as a digital public good strengthens these advocacy efforts and affirms Wikipedia’s role in the broader global movement for an internet that protects and promotes community-led spaces. The Wikimedia Foundation will continue working with the UN and other international institutions, governments, and civil society partners to ensure that digital public goods like Wikipedia are protected, supported, and accessible to all.

For media inquiries, please contact press@wikimedia.org. 

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed on internet policy and Wikipedia’s future.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects; build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content; support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

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For more than a decade, the volunteer-organized Wiki Loves Earth has been capturing the breathtaking essence of the planet’s natural heritage. Photos of all sorts of nature, from iconic national parks to hidden gems in local green spaces, are eligible. Wiki Loves Earth’s winners fell into two categories: a “macro/close-up” category (including animals, plants, fungi) and a “landscapes” category for wider shots.

This year’s winner of the macro category captures a majestic deer emerging from a mist-shrouded forest a bit east of Rome. One of Wiki Loves Earth 2024’s judges called the deer “a scene straight out of a mystery film,” while another said that the connection between the deer and photographer Michele Illuzzi felt “supernatural.”

The equivalent winner of the landscapes category went up high to portray the scaly land that reveals Lake Burdur‘s evaporating footprint in western Turkey. A contest judge commended photographer Fatih Yılmaz’s artistry and “unusual dynamic composition” that found a balance between color and texture.  This year, Wiki Loves Earth received more than 80,000 submissions from over 3,800 participants in 56 countries — the highest number of countries ever in the contest’s history. From those, 583 were selected by local jury teams and forwarded to the international competition. You can learn more about Wiki Loves Earth and its full rules on its website. Check out the nineteen other winners below.

Landscapes

Photo by Maksat Bisengaziyev/Максат79, CC BY-SA 4.0

Second place (landscapes): The Ustyurt Nature Reserve in the far southwestern portion of Kazakhstan supports a wide variety of fauna across its varied landscapes, which range widely in elevation. It’s a bit larger than the country of Mauritius. Photographer Maksat Bisengaziyev framed this view of a few of the reserve’s many rock formations so that there would be a diagonal line running from the bottom left to the top right. One judge noted that this technique “created depth without compromising too much of the objects’ sharpness.”

Photo by İsmail Daşgeldi/Ismailtasgeldi, CC BY-SA 4.0

Third place (landscapes): The Wiki Loves Earth judges loved İsmail Daşgeldi’s composition and sense of scale in this photo. A viewer’s eye starts at the top of the enormous and looming mountains. Their true size is slowly revealed as the eye follows the winding road to Yaylalar, a small Turkish village of just 43 people, at the bottom.

Photo by Maksat Bisengaziyev/Максат79, CC BY-SA 4.0

Fourth place (landscapes): At least one blogger has called this range the ‘tiramisu mountains’, and anyone who has had the Italian dessert would think it’s easy to see why. This is another Maksat Bisengaziyev photo from Kazakhstan, with this one coming from the Kyzylsai Regional Nature Park. “There is something majestic about the composition,” one contest judge saw. “The low light brings out the structure in the surface really well without tinting the color on the stone too much.”

Photo by İsmail Daşgeldi/Ismailtasgeld, CC BY-SA 4.0

Fifth place (landscapes): İsmail Daşgeldi’s sense of scale was on display in this photo, which backdrops the Hürmetçi Marshes with Mount Erciyes on a mid-April morning. But what puts this image over the top is the lonely animal near the center, pausing for a moment to get a drink.

Photo by Missoni Francesco/Scosse, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sixth place (landscapes): Missoni Francesco’s photo of a glacial lake in extreme northeastern Italy brings chills, and not just for the temperature. Wiki Loves Earth’s judges loved the innovative use of the lake’s reflections and the mist swirling around the mountain peaks. “Such deep blues, and in so many shades,” they added.

Photo by Marat Nadjibaev, CC BY-SA 4.0

Seventh place (landscapes): The first thing you are likely to notice in this shot of Kyrgyzstan’s Madygen Formation are the colors, resulting from lakes and rivers running their way to a nearby ocean millions of years ago. One contest judge thought that Marat Nadjibaev’s photo “truly makes one appreciate the Earth’s many unseen wonders,” while another opined that the cloudy day helped ensure that a blue sky did not detract from the rock’s colors.

Photo by Turan Reis/Turreis10700, CC BY-SA 4.0

Eighth place (landscapes): On this crisp November morning, Turan Reis got out of bed early to capture a moment in time at Karagöl-Sahara National Park in northeastern Turkey. They discovered morning mist drifting through vibrant autumn trees, with a late-year sun creating lengthy rays of light and deep shadows across a few rolling hills.

Photo by Skander Zarrad, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ninth place (landscapes): Like something out of a Bond film, a fish trap provides the frame for Skander Zarrad’s photo of a fisherman returning at daybreak to sell their catch. This scene was found in Tunisia’s Kerkennah Islands.

Photo by Ekrem Kalkan/Kecags, CC BY-SA 4.0

Tenth place (landscapes): Wiki Loves Earth’s judges commended the “fantastic perspective” of this top-down shot of Turkey’s Yedigöller National Park, which includes a wide variety of trees in an array of autumnal colors. They also loved how the viewers would be drawn through the photo by the narrow road’s meandering path.

Macro/close-ups

Photo by Lukáš Kött/Luckhy86, CC BY-SA 4.0

Second place (macro): It’s a tender moment between parent and child: this Eurasian hoopoe prepares to feed its hungry offspring with a recently captured bug. Lukáš Kött took this visual poetry in South Moravia, located in the southern Czech Republic near its border with Austria. “Not only full of action, but educational too,” said one Wiki Loves Earth judge. Another photo from Lukáš Kött took tenth place in the macro category.

Photo by Mehmet Karaca/Mkrc85, CC BY-SA 4.0

Third place (macro): Mehmet Karaca’s fascinating image of two conehead mantises in Turkey’s Kapıçam Nature Park lends itself to all manner of personification. One judge who reviewed the photo found themselves humming the theme from the classic American comedy The Pink Panther. What do you see?

Photo by Lubomír Dajč, CC BY-SA 4.0

Fourth place (macro): It may look like these yellow-winged darters are taking a break from work, but they’re not old enough to fly yet. These newly hatched animals are drying out on a twig in the Czech Republic’s Žďárské vrchy protected natural area. One judge called out Lubomír Dajč’s photo for its “wonderfully crisp contours” and added that it was “oozing complementary colors”.

Photo by Anissheikh2647, CC BY-SA 4.0

Fifth place (macro): User:Anissheikh2647 helped this bonded couple of pheasant-tailed jacanas while the birds went through the difficult process of raising a chick. ” I love many aspects of this shot,” one judge said. “The color palette reinforces the composition, the sharpness of the details is just right and complements the bokeh effect, and the contrasting motion between the two birds is beautifully captured, adding levels to the image”.

Photo by Mark Kineth Casindac/Kramthenik27, CC BY-SA 4.0

Co-sixth place (macro): The first of two consecutive photos from Philippine photographer Mark Kineth Casindac, also known as User:Kramthenik27, sees these two Apodynerus flavospinosus or potter wasps hanging onto some sort of stalk in Northern Negros Natural Park. The Wiki Loves Earth judges loved the colors on display in this shot, as well as the sharpness Mark Kineth Casindac was able to obtain on the small creatures.

Photo by Mark Kineth Casindac/Kramthenik27, CC BY-SA 4.0

Co-sixth place (macro): Mark Kineth Casindac’s second shot found two leaf-cutting cuckoo bees sitting face to face in the same park. The photographer noted that these bees are endemic to the Philippines, and they can be commonly found in grassy areas. “The composition is simple and clean, but well-structured,” one contest judge noted.

Photo by Mehmet Karaca/Mkrc85, CC BY-SA 4.0

Seventh place (macro): Another photo from Mehmet Karaca, the third-place macro winner, shows that enjoying the morning sun is absolutely not limited to the human race. This baby chameleon, which is evidently no bigger than a flower, is getting a few rays in Turkey’s Kapıçam Nature Park.

Photo by Dasrath Shrestha Beejukchhen, CC BY-SA 4.0

Eighth place (macro): We do not know why this Nepalese spotted deer is in full sprint. But no matter why it got moving, photographer Dasrath Shrestha Beejukchhen ultimately benefited from the deer’s leap to get onto the path running along the right side. One judge noticed that the dots on the side of the deer were stretched—an indicator of the speed at which it was moving.

Photo by Asker Ibne Firoz, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ninth place (macro): This is not your standard nature photo. In this shot, Asker Ibne Firoz sharply captures a stationary lineated barbet chick in its nest right alongside its fast-moving mother. Wiki Loves Earth’s judges applauded the technical skill on display in this photo, with one adding that Firoz managed to take “an artistic approach” that nevertheless “retained its educational potential.” Firoz found this scene at the National Botanical Garden in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Photo by Lukáš Kött/Luckhy86, CC BY-SA 4.0

Tenth place (macro): This river kingfisher has gotten lucky today: it just caught its next meal in the Poodří Protected Landscape Area of the Czech Republic. This is Lukáš Kött’s second photo to place in Wiki Loves Earth 2024’s winners; the judges were a fan of the varied colors, including the contrasting background, and the action implied in the shot.

Volunteer-led and organized, Wiki Loves Earth asks people to venture out into nearby natural areas. The contest’s definition of a natural area is intentionally broad, which helps ensure that anyone, anywhere, is able to participate. The photographers’ submitted work is uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, a media library that holds many of the photos used on Wikipedia. All of the content within that library is freely licensed; it can be used by anyone, for any purpose, with only a few restrictions.*

If you would like to submit your own photos for Wiki Loves Earth 2025 next year, keep an eye on wikilovesearth.org for organizing information and dates. You can also see the winning images from Wiki Loves Earth’s special nominations category of human rights and environment.

———

Post by Ed Erhart, Communications Specialist, Wikimedia Foundation.

*Please be sure to follow each image’s copyright tag. All of the images above, for instance, are available under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA license—you are free to share them for any reason so long as you give credit to the photographer and release any derivative images under the same copyright license.

The post “Straight out of a mystery”: The winners of Wiki Loves Earth 2024 appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.

“In this year’s Board selection process, 6000 members of the Wikimedia movement from more than 180 communities cast their vote. As a result, at our last meeting on December 11, we welcomed Maciej and Christel, veteran community members who bring their experience as volunteers and community leaders, as well as their commitment to our shared mission of free knowledge. We also appointed Lorenzo and Victoria to another term and appreciate the experience and continuity they will also provide to the Board.” – Nataliia Tymkiv, Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Maciej Nadzikiewicz is an editor, organizer, and activist with extensive experience in governance within the Wikimedia movement, including his past roles as a member of the Wikimedia Poland Governance Board, an administrator of Polish Wikipedia, and as a Board member and Secretary for Wikimedia Europe. Most recently, Maciej led the core organizing team of Wikimania 2024, which took place in his home country of Poland. Outside of the Wikimedia movement, Maciej has been a member of the Working Group on Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, and Disruptive Technologies at the Polish Ministry of Digital Affairs since 2023.

“We are at a pivotal time in the evolution of the internet, and I believe it is more important than ever to ensure that the Wikimedia projects continue to be relevant in this new era. I want to bring my experience as a Wikimedian, leader, community organizer, and member of the first digital generation to guide the organization and the movement on how we can best support our users and volunteers while growing and curating knowledge on the Wikimedia projects.” – Maciej Nadzikiewicz

Christel Steigenberger is a Wikimedia volunteer administrator, social activist, and community organizer. She started her journey as a Wikimedian in 2014 on the German-language Wikipedia, where she served as an administrator from 2015–2018. In 2023, Christel was granted administrator rights on Wikimedia Commons, where much of her volunteer work is now focused. Christel also previously worked at the Wikimedia Foundation in both Trust and Safety and community support roles. Currently, Christel is working in social work as a Social Pedagogue supporting patients with mental health issues. 

“My journey in the Wikimedia movement started as a volunteer, continued as a staff member at the Wikimedia Foundation, and now as a Trustee of the Board. I find joy in contributing to this  ‘best place on the internet,’ and I want to bring to the Board my focus on closing knowledge gaps, attracting and supporting contributors from around the world, and helping the Wikimedia projects to stay technologically fit and ready for the future.” – Christel Steigenberger

Christel and Maciej have terms that will run until December 2027. Also, as part of the selection, current Trustees, Dr. Victoria Doronina and Lorenzo Losa have been reappointed to the Board for another term, which also runs through December 2027.

The Board thanks its two departing members, Dr. Dariusz Jemielniak and Rosie Stephenson-Goodknight, for their service and contributions. The next Wikimedia Foundation Board selection process will take place in 2025.

Want to know more about the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees? Check out this short informational video or visit the Board’s page on Meta-Wiki.

The post The Wikimedia Foundation welcomes community-and-affiliate selected trustees appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.

Wikipedia is the largest knowledge resource ever assembled in the history of the world. Its content is a reflection of all the people who live on our planet—its story is your story, your interests, your questions, and your curiosity.

That’s why people spent an estimated 2.9 billion hours—over 331,000 years!—reading English Wikipedia in 2024, according to data from the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit that operates the website and its sister projects. During those long hours, English Wikipedia’s volunteer editors continued updating the site: about 4 billion bytes of information were added this year via over 37 million edits.

But some topics on Wikipedia fascinated you all more than most. These are English Wikipedia’s 25 most popular articles of 2024. You can also check out our dedicated 2024 Year in Review webpage.

• #1: Deaths in 2024
• #2: 2024 United States presidential election
• #3: Kamala Harris
• #4: Donald Trump
• #5: Lyle and Erik Menendez

The most popular article of 2024 belongs to a topic that has been at the top of Wikipedia’s most-read articles five times since we began sharing these lists in 2015: “Deaths in 2024”. In fact, in that time period, it has never been lower than third place. 

Wikipedia’s volunteer editors update this article when they find published obituaries that come out after the deaths of notable individuals—specifically, “notable” according to Wikipedia’s definition of the word. With eight billion people in the world, there are a large number of notable deaths to update the page with each day.¹

Scroll down to learn more about the other top articles, and you can find the full list featured at the bottom.

¹ While Wikipedia’s strict privacy policy means that we don’t have the number of repeat visitors to the “Deaths in 2024” page, our assumption is that a good portion of these views are regular and returning readers that come to read those updates. At the end of each month, Wikipedia’s volunteers split the article into smaller month-by-month lists, which keeps its length to a readable size. As of publishing time, the page covers December 2024—but if you’re reading it in January 2025, the page will be redirected to Wikipedia’s “Lists of deaths by year.”

• #2: 2024 United States presidential election
• #3: Kamala Harris
• #4: Donald Trump
• #7: JD Vance
• #9: Project 2025
• #11: Elon Musk
• #12: 2024 Indian general election
• #14: 2020 United States presidential election
• #18: Joe Biden
• #24: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Comprising 10 of the top 25 articles, the primary theme of this year’s most-popular Wikipedia articles is politics in the US and India. Views from these two countries made up nearly half of English Wikipedia’s total pageviews this year. 

In the US, the federal election was held early last month. The candidates included the Republican Party’s Donald Trump and JD Vance for president and vice president, respectively, and the Democratic Party’s Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Three of the four appear on this list.

Data from the Wikimedia Foundation showed a surge of views going to articles about US politics around Election Day (5 November): about 4.2 million viewed the 2024 presidential election article on that specific day, and the 2020 presidential election article more than doubled its views in November.

Meanwhile, India’s general election was held from April to June. Narendra Modi was reelected as prime minister for a third term. Wikipedia’s article about the election is the work of nearly 900 individual volunteers making over 6,700 edits. It saw a peak of 1.2 million views on 4 June, the day the results were announced, as people rushed to look up who had won.

• #5: Lyle and Erik Menendez
• #8: Deadpool & Wolverine
• #13: Taylor Swift
• #19: Kalki 2898 AD
• #22: Pushpa 2: The Rule
• #23: Griselda Blanco
• #25: Dune: Part Two

People love to use Wikipedia to search for background information of the film and television that has either just been released or that they are consuming at the time. This behavior even has a name: the second screen.

This effect is most obvious when it involves real-life topics depicted on TV, and 2024 is no different. Over 26 million views came to Wikipedia’s article on Lyle and Erik Menendez, two brothers who were convicted of the 1989 murders of their parents. Their story was the subject of a nine-episode crime drama series and an associated documentary film released on Netflix. Griselda Blanco, a Colombian drug lord with a prominent role in Miami’s 1980s drug war, also found a place on the list. Her life was spotlighted in a well-reviewed Netflix miniseries this year, and views to her article peaked to over one million shortly after its release.

Over in Hollywood, this year’s star is Deadpool & Wolverine, the comedy-action flick starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. The film appears to have connected strongly with audiences, particularly for its heavy use of nostalgia inspired by past superhero films and comic books. It would not surprise us if part of this Wikipedia article’s popularity came from people looking up actor and character names for Deadpool & Wolverine‘s flood of resurrected characters and cameo appearances. 

In pop culture, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is #13 on the list; her Eras Tour has its 149th and final show on 8 December. The tour is the highest-grossing of all time and has had cultural, economic and sociopolitical impacts on many of the countries it has journeyed to. Also appearing on the list is Kalki 2898 AD, the first installment of a new Bollywood cinematic universe that is also the most expensive Indian film ever made; and Dune: Part Two, the conclusion of Denis Villeneuve’s film adaptation of an acclaimed science-fiction novel.

Editor’s note: Pushpa 2: The Rule, another Bollywood film, vaulted into the list when we updated it for the final time after the end of the year. It was released on 5 December.

• #6: Indian Premier League
• #16: 2024 Summer Olympics
• #17: UEFA Euro 2024
• #20: Cristiano Ronaldo

Cricket and football—or “soccer” for the US-based folks reading this—fill out most of the sporting articles in this year’s top 25. 

In cricket, we are looking at the Indian Premier League. The article received the majority of its views during the 2024 season, which concluded with the Kolkata Knight Riders winning their third title in front of a crowd of 38,000 people. Cricket articles about the Premier League appeared on the list of most-popular Wikipedia articles for the first time last year.

On the football (soccer) side of things, megastar Cristiano Ronaldo makes his fifth appearance in the top 25. Competitor Lionel Messi would have appeared only if we extended this list to 48 entries.

The famed 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, better known as UEFA Euro 2024, also appears after a final that saw Spain fend off England. The victory gave Spain its fourth-ever European Championship, making it the most successful team of all time in that tournament. This article is #17 across the globe this year, but in the UK alone it features in the top five.

Finally, the quadrennial Summer Olympics were held in Paris this year. The sporting tournament featured nearly 10,000 athletes from 204 nations, and their competitions were broadcast around the world. Gymnast Simone Biles was the most-read-about individual Olympic athlete on Wikipedia with an article that garnered over 10 million views.

The full top 25

For a more in-depth look across a planet’s worth of Wikipedia reading over 2024, please see our dedicated webpage.

1. Deaths in 2024, 49,937,590 pageviews
2. 2024 United States presidential election, 31,017,620
3. Kamala Harris, 29,477,367
4. Donald Trump, 27,503,458
5. Lyle and Erik Menendez, 27,015,032
6. Indian Premier League, 24,801,366
7. JD Vance, 23,985,531
8. Deadpool & Wolverine, 22,388,922
9. Project 2025, 20,215,406
10. ChatGPT, 18,869,283
11. Elon Musk, 18,719,390
12. 2024 Indian general election, 18,499,431
13. Taylor Swift, 18,338,133
14. 2020 United States presidential election, 17,413,241
15. United States, 16,497,850
16. 2024 Summer Olympics, 16,258,961
17. UEFA Euro 2024, 15,817,710
18. Joe Biden, 15,467,504
19. Kalki 2898 AD, 15,082,514
20. Cristiano Ronaldo, 15,073,701
21. Sean Combs, 14,146,031
22. Pushpa 2: The Rule, 13,742,110
23. Griselda Blanco, 13,675,099
24. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 13,390,576
25. Dune: Part Two, 13,311,020
    

Wikipedia allows anyone who wants to learn about the world to consult a free online encyclopedia built from reliable sources—news, research, books—and presented from a neutral point of view. Every Wikipedia article is created, curated, and maintained by a global community of nearly 260,000 volunteers—people just like you. It is their work and time that has made Wikipedia into the reliable, trusted resource we all rely on.

Moreover, Wikipedia is the only top global website run by a nonprofit, the Wikimedia Foundation. It is primarily funded by millions of readers, which supports its independent model. Wikipedia content embraces standards of verifiability, neutrality and transparency. Its mission is to sustain free knowledge on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, ensuring these resources remain accessible and valuable for billions of people around the world.

If you’re curious to learn more about how Wikipedia works, check out the video below.

Written by Ed Erhart, Communications Specialist at the Wikimedia Foundation.

Appendix

• This list was originally published using English Wikipedia data pulled by the Wikimedia Foundation on 22 November 2024. We updated the list on 15 January 2025 to add data from the remaining days of the year. One new article entered the list (Pushpa 2: The Rule), and one article was removed (Liam Payne, now at #26) All of the pageviews include direct and indirect navigations to the pages in question.
• This list has been screened for false positives with methods including:
  • Cross-referencing the pageviews against the percentage of views they received from desktop devices, as extreme values of less than 2% or more than 80% correlates strongly with spam, botnets, or other concerns. This affected articles like Cleopatra, a long-time false positive that @depthsofwiki reported is a default voice search on Google devices; XXXTentacion; and .xxx.
  • Looking at the number of pageviews that did not have a referrer and removing articles with extremely high values. This impacted a number of articles about large websites, such as Facebook. We suspect that a significant number of the pageviews without referrers are mistakes that occur when viewers are trying to access those websites.

• Previous lists of most-popular English Wikipedia articles are available for 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015.

The post Announcing English Wikipedia’s most popular articles of 2024 appeared first on Wikimedia Foundation.