In the last years civil society organizations have been facing more difficulties to perform their activities in different countries. “Shrinking spaces” is a term used to describe a complex set of attempts to restrict these activities, mostly carried out by state actors. They include administrative measures, such as strong bureaucratic barriers for an office installation and for the obtainment of a professional visa, or disproportionate tax control and restrictions to international funding. Besides that, many NGOs are having their gatherings controlled and their volunteers and staff are suffering psychological and physical threats, being often criminalised or imprisoned without a substantiated legal justification. This all happens accompanied by rumors and fake news to discredit the organizations’ work.
Shrinking spaces can also be found on the web. Civil society organizations involved in digital transformation are equally affected by this phenomenon. Wikipedia for examp
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le, the largest Wikimedia project, has been blocked in Turkey in all languages editions since 2017. The same has happened several times to the online encyclopedia in China since 2008. Today, the access to Wikipedia in China is blocked in all languages. Other organizations, like Amnesty International and Reporters without Borders frequently go through similar blocks and restrictions in different countries. Another variant is open or covert influence by state actors on the content level, exploiting open community structures to bias content towards government interests. This, for example, has occurred in Russia, where state orchestrated editing tries to influence open knowledge projects towards more reflecting the official interpretation especially regarding present-day political events and “national” history.