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Wikipedia editors are discussing a strike and have even suggested changing its fundraising banners to critique recent layoffs at the Wikimedia Foundation, which maintains the online encyclopedia.
The Register reports that the calls come after six members of the nonprofit's Community Engineering team were laid off earlier this month. The team handled tasks like responding to editor requests to fix bugs and add new features. The Wikimedia Foundation attributed the layoffs to a decision to move responsibility for the Community Wishlist feature, which allows editors to make requests, to its wider product and engineering team.
Editors on the website's internal forums are suggesting strategies such as editing strikes or having volunteers temporarily stop clearing up day-to-day vandalism on the website. So far, over 800 editors have signed a petition promising to support collective action if it does take place.
In one proposed version of the strike, the volunteer editors would make edits only in instances of "egregiously inappropriate" activity or to protect pages of living individuals, which are treated with extra sensitivity under Wikipedia's policies.
Proposals also suggest disabling software features that make editing easier, as well as allowing a bot to notify users of the strike when they try to edit a content page for the first time. The proposals also note that "community at all times reserves its fundamental right to fork the wiki if necessary."
The foundation denied allegations that the move is in any way connected to the recent formation of a union of Wikimedia Foundation workers, Wiki Workers United, earlier this year, telling The Register: "The decision to disband the Community Tech team is not in any way connected to discussions about unionizing, nor have we terminated any staff for their participation in those discussions."
All the impacted staff are reportedly still working at the non-profit, which says it is attempting to find new roles for them elsewhere in the organization.
Though almost all Wikipedia editors are unpaid volunteers, the Wikimedia Foundation has around 700 staff and contractors globally, and had revenues of over $200 million in the 2025 financial year.