The ruling "does not give Ofcom and the secretary of state a green light to implement a regime that would significantly impede Wikipedia’s operations."

Wikipedia has lost a legal challenge to new Online Safety Act rules which it says could threaten the human rights and safety of its volunteer editors. The Wikimedia Foundation - the non-profit which supports the online encyclopaedia - wanted a judicial review of regulations which could mean Wikipedia has to verify the identities of its users.

The Online Safety Act has forced social media sites like Reddit to verify UK users' ages before letting them view adult content. The Wikimedia Foundation is worried that it will be classified as a "Category 1" operator later this summer and criticized the categorization regulations as "especially broad and vague."