📰 China Blocks Wikimedia Foundation's Accreditation To World Intellectual Property Organization

China this week blocked the Wikimedia Foundation's application for observer status at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the United Nations (UN) organization that develops international treaties on copyright, IP, trademarks, patents and related issues. As a result of the block, the Foundation's application for observer status has been suspended and will be reconsidered at a future WIPO meeting in 2021. Wikimedia Foundation: China was the only country to raise objections to the accreditation of the Wikimedia Foundation as an official observer. Their last-minute objections claimed Wikimedia's application was incomplete, and suggested that the Wikimedia Foundation was carrying out political activities via the volunteer-led Wikimedia Taiwan chapter. The United Kingdom and the United States voiced support for the Foundation's application. WIPO's work, which shapes international laws and policies that affect the sharing of free knowledge, impacts Wikipedia's ability to provide hundreds of millions of people with information in their own languages. The Wikimedia Foundation's absence from these meetings further separates those people from global events that shape their access to knowledge.

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