Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2025-04-09/News from Diff

This article originally appeared on Diff on March 27, 2025. Licensed CC-BY-SA 4.0. See related articles in this issue at Op-ed, In focus, and Opinion.

The Wikimedia Foundation recently highlighted the extensive research effort that goes into identifying global trends that are critical to our priorities as a movement, a planning exercise we have undertaken annually since 2022. We examine rapidly shifting changes to ask more deeply: “What does the world need from Wikimedia now?”

These trends then drive meaningful conversations on-wiki and in many community spaces to help prioritize actions and investments.

This year, one trend that has generated significant conversation within and beyond the Wikimedia movement relates to neutrality: how trust in information online is declining and a fragmentation of consensus about what information is true. Some believe that the world has become more complex, and people are more divided than ever. As threats to neutrality appear to be on the rise globally, Wikipedia’s neutral point of view (NPOV) policy is needed now more than ever. This core principle has served Wikipedia extremely well, and has become even stronger over nearly a quarter century of volunteer contributions.

How this principle of neutrality translates into NPOV policy varies across the Wikimedia projects, highlighting an opportunity for communities to learn from each other; and to explore whether common global standards for neutrality can better protect the projects (and volunteers) in an environment of expanded threats and growing regulation.

To support the Wikimedia communities and reaffirm our commitment to neutrality, the Wikimedia Foundation will convene a working group of active editors, Trustees, researchers, and advisors to explore recommendations for common standards for NPOV policies that can protect Wikipedia, increase the integrity of the projects, and equip the volunteers trusted to administer these policies with more support.

These conversations will be grounded in the foundational principles underlying NPOV, designed to present a fair, neutral description of the facts without compromising the exploration of ideas, concepts, and perspectives. Reaffirming Wikipedia’s neutrality in response to what we are seeing in the world makes this highly trusted resource even more resilient in its mission to serve accurate, reliable information.

Read on for more information about Wikipedia’s NPOV policies and how to contribute.