Thanks for spending time on this issue Danny.
Rather than discussing the value of blocking open proxies, it is worth
focusing on the use case and justification for ensuring that users
with reasons to protect themselves when adding content to Wikipedia
and other Wikimedia projects can be provided with easy to understand
and reliable methods to do so, even while most open proxies remain
blocked.
The specific use case we have is how to train and advise both new and
existing volunteers editing from African countries or states with laws
that criminalize queer people and who have been subjected to death
threats, threats of reporting them to the police and blackmail,
because they were editing queer and human rights topics regardless of
whether they identify as LGBTQ. Most of our community will agree that
our values of providing open knowledge projects "that anyone can edit"
ought to be a priority over other practical considerations. I'm sure
you can imagine how difficult it is to provide safe and secure events,
or how to advise on ways for non-technical volunteers to keep
themselves safe while relying on mobile connections and public wifi.
An easy and quick way to provide all good faith volunteers the means
to be allowed to create an account, or a legitimate anonymous sock
account if their main account has been connected to their real life
identity, that can edit through open proxies, without having to out
themselves by emailing stewards they don't know, having this logged on
a database or archived group email list that may leak or be targeted
by state actors, or risk messaging local administrators for help who
may themselves be openly hostile against queer content in their
language wikipedia. A reliable process would be welcome as part of a
set of guidelines we or the WMF can provide to volunteers and ask
projects to support that ensure users understand how to protect
themselves.
In recent meetings with our queer volunteers contributing from
locations where being reported to authorities as LGBTQ could result in
imprisonment or a death penalty, tell us that in their personal
networks they know of three times as many Wikimedians that would like
to edit queer content but do not feel safe doing so. Let's at least
document this use case, and provide better solutions than expecting
users to be so brave they are prepared to risk threats of outing or
prosecution to just edit a Wikipedia article in their language and
instead help all contributors to put their personal safety first.
On Sat, 30 Apr 2022 at 01:03, <dhorn(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> (cross-posted from
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:No_open_proxies/Unfair_blocking#Help_f…)
>
> Hi folks, I'm DannyH from the Wikimedia Foundation. I manage the product teams
that build Contributor Tools -- Community Tech, Campaigns, CheckUser improvements and
sockpuppet detection, moderator tools on mobile web, and the new incident reporting
system.
>
> I've been reading all of these conversations, and I'm concerned about the
people on both sides of the issue -- the admins working to keep the projects safe from
bad-faith people, and the good-faith people who are being blocked because of someone
else's rangeblock, or because they're using default network proxy features that
they're not aware of.
>
> This problem is getting attention within the WMF. Foundation folks are really
concerned about what we're hearing on Wikimedia-L and in this discussion, especially
because there seem to be systemic issues that are specifically making things harder for
new users in Africa. I've got the opportunity right now to assign people to make
software changes to help solve this problem, which is great. But now I'm trying to
figure out what those software changes could be, and I don't have a clear answer yet
for what that should be.
>
> So if you don't mind, I'd like to run through what I think the main points
are, and a list of possible directions that a solution could take, and then I would love
it if you could help me figure this out.
>
> Here's what I understand about the problem:
>
> * Open proxies are a vector for harassment and vandalism. Bad-faith long term abusers
use them to disguise their IP and evade detection. The projects automatically block open
proxies that they know about, to discourage the bad-faith vandals.
>
> * There's been a big increase in proxy blocks since July 2021 on English
Wikipedia (and Oct 2021 on Spanish WP), because ST47ProxyBot has been getting trustworthy
outside data to help identify open proxies.
>
> * The use of open proxies on the internet is rising, partly because people are
becoming more concerned about their privacy. Apple has introduced iCloud Private Relay,
which is disguising people's IP — this is currently in beta, but will probably become
the default. Google is working on a similar project. Our system of using IPs to identify
block vandals is gradually breaking down, and there will probably be a point when IPs just
won't be useful anymore.
>
> * There are a lot of good-faith users, including first-time contributors, who are
getting caught in these blocks. For some people, that's an annoying inconvenience; for
many others, especially brand new people, it drives them away completely.
>
> * There appears to be a systemic issue with how some African ISPs deal with IP
addresses, which is creating a lot of collateral damage in places where campaign
organizers are trying to introduce new users to wiki contribution. I saw one person
mention that the problem was especially bad in Ghana and Benin.
>
> * The messages that people get when they're blocked are confusing, especially for
new people. They only get the message after they've made an edit and are trying to
publish, which is very frustrating.
>
> * The solution for individuals is to request an IP Block Exemption, which can be
either local or global, depending on whether the block is local or global. The
local/global distinction is very confusing for people who are trying to make the request,
and the whole process is difficult.
>
> * Each request has to be processed by hand, and the system gets backed up. It's
possible to get unblocked quickly if you know the right person to email, but a lot of
people just fill out the request, and then wait for who knows how long.
>
> * It's possible for admins/stewards to get overwhelmed by the number of unblock
requests.
>
> That's a cluster of many different problems, so now I'm trying to figure out
which problems we could actually make progress on.
>
> Possibilities include:
>
> * Mitigate the harm coming from open proxies, so we don't need to automatically
block them
>
> * Understand the difference between a "dangerous" open proxy (which
bad-faith people are actually using) and a more "innocent" proxy (which is just
blocked because we know it's a proxy), and then treat them differently. (If it's
possible to make that distinction.)
>
> * Make the messages to good-faith people more helpful and less frustrating
>
> * Make the unblock request process easier/faster/more friendly for the people making
requests
>
> * Make the unblock request process easier for the people responding, so they can
process them faster (or involve more people who can help)
>
> * Make it easier for good-faith people to get some kind of automatic exemption
>
> * Make it easier for campaign and editathon organizers to whitelist their
participants
>
> * Adapt the system better to the reality of African ISPs — figure out what the
problem is, and treat those ISPs differently
>
> That's a lot, and it's not clear to me what the path forward should be. Can
folks help me out? What did I get wrong here, or what did I miss? Thanks in advance for
your help.
>
> DannyH (WMF)
> aka Danny Horn, Director of Product Management, Contributor Tools
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