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[Wikimedia-l] Legality under French law of hosting personal details such as race and sexuality in Wikipedia

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jayen466 at gmail

Aug 19, 2012, 5:21 AM

Post #1 of 4 (130 views)
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[Wikimedia-l] Legality under French law of hosting personal details such as race and sexuality in Wikipedia

A contributor has raised an interesting questions on wikien-l that concerns
French Wikimedians. As French Wikimedians are unlikely to see it there, and
wikifr-l seems moribund, I've appended a copy of the post below.

---o0o---

http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2012-August/110434.html

"Under the French penal code, stocking personal details including race,
sexuality, political leanings or religious affiliation is punishable by
five-year prison sentences and fines of up to euro300,000 ($411,000)."

— http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/24/jew-or-not-jew-iphone-app_n_1111730.html

Doesn't this technically make the French Wikipedia illegal? I don't
really understand this law's nuances, so I'm wondering if someone with
more knowledge could elaborate.
--
~~yutsi

---o0o---

The underlying question concerns what is often deprecated as "Jew tagging"
and "gay tagging", i.e. adding Jewish or LGBT categories to biographies of
living people.

France (and quite likely other countries as well) has laws created after
the holocaust that make it illegal to collect personal details on people's
race, religion, or sexuality without their consent. An Apple app called
"Jew or not Jew?" that allowed users to look up whether a celebrity or
public figure was Jewish or not was withdrawn by Apple from worldwide
circulation after they were taken to court in France.

The question at issue is whether French Wikimedians might be individually
liable for violating French law if they add such categories in Wikipedia.
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wikimail at inbox

Aug 19, 2012, 11:53 AM

Post #2 of 4 (121 views)
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Legality under French law of hosting personal details such as race and sexuality in Wikipedia [In reply to]

On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 8:21 AM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 [at] gmail> wrote:
> The question at issue is whether French Wikimedians might be individually
> liable for violating French law if they add such categories in Wikipedia.

Seems possible.

Fortunately, Wikipedia offers both https and the ability to contribute
anonymously, for those who are worried about this sort of thing.

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jayen466 at gmail

Aug 19, 2012, 5:27 PM

Post #3 of 4 (120 views)
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Legality under French law of hosting personal details such as race and sexuality in Wikipedia [In reply to]

I've been told (and have verified) that the French Wikipedia indeed does
without categories to mark people as Jewish, LGBT, etc.

I actually quite like that approach.

On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 7:53 PM, Anthony <wikimail [at] inbox> wrote:

> On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 8:21 AM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 [at] gmail> wrote:
> > The question at issue is whether French Wikimedians might be individually
> > liable for violating French law if they add such categories in Wikipedia.
>
> Seems possible.
>
> Fortunately, Wikipedia offers both https and the ability to contribute
> anonymously, for those who are worried about this sort of thing.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Wikimedia-l mailing list
> Wikimedia-l [at] lists
> Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l
>
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Aug 20, 2012, 4:09 AM

Post #4 of 4 (113 views)
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Legality under French law of hosting personal details such as race and sexuality in Wikipedia [In reply to]

Well, it's good to see that France is safe from genocidal maniacs who
can't speak a language other than French, then.

On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 8:27 PM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 [at] gmail> wrote:
> I've been told (and have verified) that the French Wikipedia indeed does
> without categories to mark people as Jewish, LGBT, etc.
>
> I actually quite like that approach.
>
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 7:53 PM, Anthony <wikimail [at] inbox> wrote:
>
>> On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 8:21 AM, Andreas Kolbe <jayen466 [at] gmail> wrote:
>> > The question at issue is whether French Wikimedians might be individually
>> > liable for violating French law if they add such categories in Wikipedia.
>>
>> Seems possible.
>>
>> Fortunately, Wikipedia offers both https and the ability to contribute
>> anonymously, for those who are worried about this sort of thing.

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