The United Kingdom recently enacted the Categorisation Regulations for the Online Safety Act, which requires certain online sites to require age verification for users, censorship of harmful topics, and identity verification for contributors, among other rules. Wikipedia would likely fall under these requirements, but has said that they will not enforce these rules.
This market will resolve to YES if, before January 1, 2027, Wikipedia becomes inaccessible to users in the United Kingdom due to enforcement actions under the UK's Online Safety Act (OSA). Verification will be based on official announcements from the Wikimedia Foundation, UK government statements, or credible news reports confirming such inaccessibility. If no such inaccessibility occurs by the specified date, the market will resolve to NO.
Update 2025-09-03 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): - Voluntary, protest-driven UK blackouts by Wikipedia do not count (not an enforcement action).
A preemptive UK block by Wikipedia can count as YES if credible reporting indicates it was done to avoid OSA enforcement and the UK would otherwise have forced inaccessibility.
1,000
3.00If Wikipedia temporarily "goes dark" in the UK voluntarily as a political protest, rather than being forced by law, will this market resolve YES? See e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Blackouts
@Kubernetes30 That would not count, since it's not an enforcement action done by the UK. However, if reporting suggests that they did it preemptively but the UK would have forced it otherwise, that would count.