Update from the Wikimedia Foundation
Hello all
We know the past few weeks have been difficult for the community. We also realize that this situation remains confusing and worrying in light of the media reports that have emerged. As an organization, we regret the distress and concern this situation has caused the community. While we know we can't answer all of your questions, we want to make sure you understand our processes and the rationale behind them. We also want to ensure that our actions are in the best interests of society to the best of our ability and with the tools available to us. As mentioned, the measures were not linked in any way to the recent media reports that are currently circulating, nor in any way to the arrests. The Foundation has learned of the arrest of Osama and Ziyad, and is actively following up on their conditions.
As we know that not everyone will have read all of the data, we would like to reiterate that the process of reaching the decision to take action in December 2022 was not easy or rushed. The investigation into violations of the Terms of Use took a long time starting with the Persian Wikipedia and moving on as new information emerged, and the final decision was guided by multiple levels of review by several employees across different functions. After consideration, it was unanimously agreed that the action is necessary to keep the community and platforms safe. Proper implementation of this measure was equally important in keeping the community and platforms safe, and thus adhering to established policies and procedures.
We realize that media reports and recent actions in December 2022 make many of you skeptical and perhaps even apprehensive about participating in the projects. We want you to know that the projects are owned by all of us, and most of all, that you are the creators and curators of the content. The Foundation rarely gets involved in issues of content or administration on the Site, in exceptionally problematic circumstances. No one should fear that the Foundation will take action on unintentional mistakes made while participating as bona fide editors.
As many of you already know, the Foundation fully supports community autonomy and the principle of subsidiarity as part of our commitment to respecting and promoting community autonomy. Not only do we feel this is the right approach to our shared values, but it is the only approach that can make these amazing projects work. To ensure we maintain this commitment, we do not deal with general community or community member disputes that might otherwise be addressed through existing community actions, nor act as a means of appealing community policies and decisions. If such situations arise, we look forward to working to help the community members who need help, but most of the time, this assistance will consist of guiding the community members to find the right community avenue that will solve their problem.
On some occasions, the Foundation considers cases of abuse. This only occurs when it has been brought to our attention that the local community lacks the necessary processes to effectively address the situation, or when the organization has a legal obligation as a platform provider to act in the interests of the safety of users and the platform. When we get involved, we are limited in the course of action we can take. Our procedures are guided by the Office's business policies, which allow us to issue global bans, event bans, issue warnings, interaction bans, and advanced permission removal. While this responsibility rests with us, we do not take our interventions lightly; These investigations take a lot of time and effort and require multiple staff members across different departments to ensure that we provide a comprehensive understanding of the matter before we take any action. For the size of our communities, we have issued very few centralized global bans. Collective global bans like the one we issued in December 2022 are only put in place in the most extraordinary circumstances, when the evidence strongly supports a serious threat to the organization's terms of use that all contributors must agree to abide by when editing projects.
Our December 6 office actions are the result of the Foundation's long-term and multiple investigations as part of our commitments as a platform provider. It was not related to the current circulating media reports. While there are still limits to what we can disclose in order to protect the safety and privacy of our users, we truly understand and sympathize with the fact that this continues to be an upsetting situation and would like you to know that we would not have taken this action if it was not necessary.
We also want to acknowledge that media reports have created great doubt in people's minds about the safety of participating in Wikimedia projects, due to their direct connection to the events of the arrests of volunteers. It is unfortunate that many organizations relied on incomplete facts and indirect sources in their coverage, which directly contradicts our principles. Regardless of the current situation, the Foundation is well aware that such risks exist globally, and we want our community members to be aware too - and work with us to take precautions to stay safe. Six months ago, the United Nations published an article describing the rise of disinformation as a "global disease".
In late May 2020, the Board included protecting projects and communities from "misinformation and bad actors" in its Statement on Community Culture. On August 23, 2021, we amended our Non-Disclosure Agreement to make it more difficult to coerce rights holders, by restricting access to certain high-risk areas to individuals who may be particularly vulnerable to threats, themselves and their families. We continue to work to secure the safety of those combating this "global disease" - disinformation - not just through office actions but in terms of proactively encouraging safe practices, as in our recent blog post on protecting online anonymity. This assessment by external experts has identified a number of areas to support our approach, the Board has issued a policy symbolizing our commitment to this improvement, and our Human Rights team continues to work to provide resources of information and support to users on the ground. We are also working on making additional digital security resources available to community members who feel unsafe online, which we will finalize soon.
We respect and realize that this action is a huge setback to the community and that is why we are open to providing the community with the support needed and what we can provide. If there is anything we can do to help the community during this time, please feel free to let us know via ca@wikimedia.org. As mentioned earlier, we are ready to provide you with the required support to the best of our ability.
Best Regards,
Wikimedia Foundation Office WMFOffice (talk) 09:09, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Hi all,Following up on Gerard’s question here and providing a bit more context: the photo is publicly available, so while we don't have a concern with its existence on Commons, our guidance around publicity in such cases still stands. We understand that every government and every situation is unique. As has been pointed out by Amir, sometimes making noise is beneficial. But in all cases, there must be a balance on how and in what ways we generate attention–again, it should be done thoughtfully with the interests and the wishes of both the volunteers and their families in mind. The recent media attention, based on inaccuracies and a statement in which the Foundation is named but had no part in, isn’t the way to do it. Feeding that narrative by connecting our own efforts to protect our volunteers to what is in many cases faulty and sensationalist reporting can cause more harm. In many instances we have recognized and spoken out against government interference in our projects. When volunteers face such situations due to their good faith contributions, the Wikimedia Foundation’s Human Rights Team can work to provide support via local partners that will meet the best interests of the individuals involved. Thank you again for everyone’s concern and attention to this situation.Best regards,
WMF Office/Trust and Safety_______________________________________________On Sun, Jan 8, 2023 at 12:41 AM Wikimedia Trust and Safety <ca@wikimedia.org> wrote:Hello everyone,
We would like to thank you, Nanour, for the suggestion and apologize that the suggestion was necessary. We have now translated our message to the community into Arabic and posted a further update there, as we were made aware that much of the erroneous information spreading in the press and on social media is causing a lot of distress within our Arabic Wikipedia communities. Here is the updated text:
Our investigation and these bans are not connected to the arrest of these two users. The ban decision impacted 16 users, not all of whom were administrators, from Arabic and Farsi Wikipedia. As stated below, we have no reason to believe that these individuals are all residents of Saudi Arabia; on the contrary, this seems extremely unlikely. Further, we imagine you are all aware that editors are volunteers, not paid by the Foundation, and that the Foundation does not have offices or staff in Saudi Arabia.While, as stated, the December office action is unrelated to the arrests of two Wikimedians in Saudi Arabia, the safety of Wikimedia volunteers always remains our utmost concern. We understand the desire to take action or speak out. Know that we need to act in the interests of any volunteer whose safety is under threat. As indicated in yesterday’s message, additional publicity around such cases can cause harm, as can speculation and misinformation. We are confident that everyone values the safety of their fellow volunteers and can understand the constraints this might create.
Best regards,WMF Office/Trust and SafetyOn Fri, Jan 6, 2023 at 7:26 PM Wikimedia Trust and Safety <ca@wikimedia.org> wrote:Hello everyone,
Over the last couple of days, there have been several media reports about the Foundation’s most recent office action, taken on December 6. More are certain to follow. These media reports are based on a release from SMEX and Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) that contains many material inaccuracies. Some of the errors will be obvious to our community - for perhaps the most obvious, the report states that the 16 users are all based in Saudi Arabia . This is unlikely to be the case. While we do not know where these volunteers actually reside, the bans of any volunteers who may have been Saudi were part of a much broader action globally banning 16 editors across the MENA region. Indeed, many of them are not active in the Arabic language projects. These organizations did not share the statement with the Foundation, and “sources of knowledge” as cited in their release can get things wrong. In addition, we do not have staff in the country named and never have, contrary to a message put out by the same groups on social media.
As we noted in December in our statement, we are unable to discuss Foundation office actions in detail. The Foundation always lists accounts banned as a result of its investigations. It is our goal to be as transparent as we can be within essential protection policies, which is why we do not ban in secret, but instead disclose accounts impacted and (when large numbers are involved) have disclosed the rationale.
The roots of our December action stretch back over several years. We were initially contacted by outside experts who made us aware about concerns they had about Farsi Wikipedia. We can’t comment on that report right now, but it will be published by that organization soon. This report not only contributed to our August 23, 2021 modification of our non-disclosure agreement to make it harder for rights-holders to be coerced, but led to further evaluation of issues across MENA. The December bans were the culmination of those evaluations.
Wikimedia is, as mentioned above, an open knowledge platform, and it thrives on open participation. Investigations and global bans are not things that any of us take lightly, but the Foundation is committed to supporting the knowledge-sharing models that have created so many valuable information resources in hundreds of languages across the world. Our first line of defense of our Terms of Use are our volunteers themselves. Where issues present a credible threat of harm to our users and to the security of Wikimedia platforms, we will do the best we can to protect both.
We trust and hope that our communities understand that misinformation about this action has the potential to cause harm to the individuals involved. We believe in the incredible value produced by our volunteers across the globe, but even so we recognize that being found in contravention of a website’s Terms of Use — even in a manner that organization finds serious enough to warrant a ban — is not the equivalent of being convicted of any crime. Accordingly, we ask you to please be conscious of the real people involved, in the spirit of our long established respect for living people on our sites. We realize that it is tempting to speculate, but we do ask you all to recall that people’s employment options, their relationships, and even their physical safety may be compromised by speculation.
If anyone feels unsafe on Wikimedia projects, please use the local community processes or contact us. The Foundation and community will work together or in parallel to enhance the safety of all volunteers. To contact the Trust & Safety team please email ca@wikimedia.org .
Best regards,WMF Office/Trust and Safety
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