[Wikimedia-l] Announcement of new Foundation office action appeals process

Dear Wikimedians, This announcement is to increase awareness of a new addition to the Wikimedia Foundation's office actions appeals process through the Interim Trust & Safety Case Review Committee (CRC).[1][2] It includes a new way for some editors who have sought sanction and some editors who have been sanctioned by the Wikimedia Foundation to appeal. Historically, some office actions have been appealable through the Trust & Safety team. The Interim Trust & Safety Case Review Committee (CRC) was created to provide community oversight of the appeals process. The CRC has 10 volunteer Wikimedia community members and will function until the Universal Code of Conduct becomes effective in approximately mid-2021, when we hope to have a more permanent process in place. As mentioned in the CRC’s charter, the committee will be able to review office actions which were closed by the Foundation with action or inaction, except statutory, regulatory, employment, and legal cases as defined by Foundation attorneys.[3] The office actions policy is a set of guidelines and procedures regarding official changes to or removals of content on the Wikimedia projects, or actions against specific individuals, performed by Foundation staff members and under the authority of the Wikimedia Foundation, upon receipt of one or multiple complaints from the community or the public, or as required by law. Complaints that may lead to enforcement of office actions may include, but are not limited to, privacy violations, child protection, copyright infringement or systematic harassment. All office actions are performed pursuant to the Terms of Use. Appeals of office actions may be submitted to the CRC by anyone involved in the office action via email at appeals[at]wikimedia.org. Detailed instructions on how to appeal may be found on the CRC’s meta page.[1] Some office cases are not eligible for review. A Foundation attorney will check each case where appeal is requested to determine its eligibility before turning over the case files to the committee. For transparency, the committee chair will be able to review those requests and will therefore have insight into how many cases are eligible or not. Please refer to the CRC’s page on meta.wikimedia.org for further information. You are encouraged to inform your community about this new appeals process. If you have questions for or about the committee, please put them on the CRC talk page on Meta or email me at bchoo-ctr[at]wikimedia.org.[4] The Meta talk page also contains questions that have already been asked and answered. I will find answers to your questions and post responses on the Meta talk page. On behalf of the committee, Brian Choo Interim Case Review Committee Facilitator [1] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety/Case_Review_Committee [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Office_actions [3] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety/Case_Review_Committee/Char… [4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Trust_and_Safety/Case_Review_Committee -- Brian Choo Interim Case Review Committee Facilitator Wikimedia Foundation