Hello from the Trust and Safety Team at the Wikimedia Foundation,
First of all, we want to thank the community members alerting us of the situation through several private notes on the matter that have reached us over the past few days. Special thanks also go out to Pine and Risker for their efforts in analysing the situation in this thread.
The situation outlined here appears to be both complex with several years of history and concerning, and is certainly one that Trust & Safety is looking at in exploring appropriate actions on our side. As always, please do keep in mind that we are not a team mandated for fast reaction (except for situations involving threats of harm, which are handled under a different protocol, as many of you probably know already). For that reason, we are inclined to review this thoroughly and act correctly, rather than quickly. Please understand that while our team is already working on understanding the intricacies of the situation itself while supporting the affected individual, we will not be able to publicly share information about the progress or outcome of our review for privacy reasons. Meanwhile, our review and any potential outcome deriving from it, should not prevent the community from continuing to take actions as they see fit and in accordance to project policies, of course.
Also, bear in mind that we do not systematically monitor the Wikimedia mailing lists, and may miss information shared about this on such moving forward. If anyone feels they are in possession of pertinent information that is worth considering in our review of this case, they are encouraged to reach out to us directly at our established team inbox: ca@wikimedia.org.
Once again, thank you all for being vigilant.
Warm regards and best wishes for 2019,
K.
On Mon, Jan 7, 2019 at 1:04 PM Vi to vituzzu.wiki@gmail.com wrote:
The lobby of high voltage warning signs disagrees.
Vito
Il giorno lun 7 gen 2019 alle ore 11:37 Yaroslav Blanter <ymbalt@gmail.com
ha scritto:
Well, in 2019 people should already have come to the notion that blocking locally an acting steward is not really a good idea.
Cheers Yaroslav
On Mon, Jan 7, 2019 at 11:21 AM Vi to vituzzu.wiki@gmail.com wrote:
Because of a truly great idea <
https://am.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E1%88%8D%E1%8B%A9:Log/block&...
the involved user's admin/bureaucrat access was revoked <
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Log?type=rights&user=&page=C...
by Marco Aurelio.
Vito
Il giorno lun 7 gen 2019 alle ore 11:02 Amir Sarabadani < ladsgroup@gmail.com> ha scritto:
Given the response on the talk page [1] I think it's clear violation
of
nondiscrimination policy [2]
[1] "promotion of homosexuality will not be tolerated here nor will
it
be
forced down our throats to suit anyone's international political
agenda
if
you expect Ethiopians to take part." [2]
https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Nondiscrimination
Best On Wed, Jan 2, 2019, 23:09 Risker risker.wp@gmail.com wrote:
I note that we are talking about the block of one single user on
one
single project; this particular account has thousands of edits over
about a
dozen projects, but is "attached" to hundreds of Wikimedia
projects.
The
majority of these "attached" accounts are likely because the editor "visited" the various projects while logged in, activating the
automatic
account creation algorithm. The account was created 8 years ago,
and
has
actively edited a wide variety of projects, including several
wikipedias,
Commons, Wikidata, and Meta. While English Wikipedia is the
account's
"home" wiki, about 55% of the account's global edits have been made
on
Marathi Wikipedia. The Amharic Wikipedia account does not appear to
have
edited, which suggests that it was automatically created when the
editor
was "looking at" the project on 9 February 2018. The block for
account
name was made on 22 October 2018. I note that accounts were
created
on
over a hundred projects over the course of a few days in February
The point being raised in this thread is that it appears this
editor
was
blocked on one of the 381 wikis on which they have an account,
explicitly
because of the perception that their username calls attention to
the
sexual
behaviour of the editor. What we do not know is (a) whether that is
in
fact
a legitimate username block reason on Amharic Wikipedia, or (b) if
it
is
a
legitimate username block reason, *why* it would be a username
block
reason. We don't know why this block was applied so long after the
account
was created. We don't know the username policy on Amharic
Wikipedia,
nor
do
we know how it is applied; for example, we don't know if a username
like
"StraightGuy101" would be blocked. We do know that there are only
4
administrators on Amharic Wikipedia, and that there are fewer than
50
active users working on the project, which may be part of the
reason
for
the delay between automatic account creation and the account block.
We also know that one of the challenges of single user login for
all
Wikimedia projects has highlighted the fact that certain usernames
that
are
acceptable on some projects are blocked on other projects; we've
known
that
for years. We know that each project establishes its own policies
when
it
comes to usernames. There are legitimate reasons why a username
that
is
acceptable in one language is not acceptable in another language,
even
in
cases where the editor had no knowledge that the chosen username
would
be a
problem in another language. We do know that there have been lots
of
cases
where usernames have been blocked for "username policy violation"
on
all
kinds of projects, despite the account operating productively on
other
projects.
I also note that there is nothing in this thread that confirms the
editor
themself has raised any concerns about this block, and I am always
wary
of
turning an editor into a "martyr for a cause" without their direct agreement, as that can be as abusive as the original action. So the
first
step in this situation would be to confirm with the individual
editor
whether or not they want their "case" to be examined.
Should the editor be agreeable, I suggest that the next step is for
someone
who has the ability to converse in Amharic to contact the Amharic
Wikipedia
and find out why the block has been issued, how it is consistent
with
the
username policy on Amharic Wikipedia, whether that policy is driven
in
part
by external considerations (e.g., does the project risk heavy
governmental
scrutiny if it appears to "promote" locally unacceptable
activities). I
am
personally curious as to why it took over six months to identify
that
this
account did not meet the local username policy, and whether there
was
internal or external discussion about the username.
It is not clear to me what the desired outcome is in this case - at
least
in part because we have no idea of the opinion of the editor
involved. I
am hard-pressed to say that a project should be required to allow
usernames
that it has a long history of considering unacceptable, especially
if
it
is
applied evenly to all accounts; in this case, if it disallows
usernames
that imply sexual preference regardless of what that preference is.
It seems to me that the WMF Trust & Safety group would probably be
the
right group to examine this.
Risker/Anne
On Wed, 2 Jan 2019 at 09:42, Ariel Glenn WMF ariel@wikimedia.org
wrote:
Additional notes: The user's regular page can be viewed on en wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:QueerEcofeminist Queer may have to do with gender identity as opposed to being an
indicator
of 'sexual behavior', so the blockers didn't even get that right.
Example:
I am gender-nonconforming as to my gender identity and
expression;
this
is
the primary reason I use the label 'queer'.
I believe this should be reported... somewhere. But I don't know
where.
The
WMF CoC only covers technical spaces. A little help here?
Ariel
On Wed, Jan 2, 2019 at 4:26 PM Fæ faewik@gmail.com wrote:
> Do we have cross project policies to govern or limit local
policies
> for the use of sysop tools? I would like to pass on policy
advice,
and
> any past cases folks here would like to highlight that set a > precedent. > > The case below is illustrative, though based on my recall of
several
> complaints which went nowhere over the years, on email lists,
and
> Jimmy's talk page, about apparently arbitrary blocks on
different
> non-English Wikipedias, it seems reasonable to believe those > complaints are the tip of the iceberg, and there are likely to
be
many
> historical cases of blocks that could have been appealed... had
the
> user been confident to complain in English, and have the energy
to
> pursue generic WMF policies on terms of use, or > harassment/discrimination, to establish a meta-level case. > > # Example case > > An account block on the Amharic Wikipedia (am.wp) was flagged
up
> yesterday on the WM LGBT+ Telegram discussion group.[3] The
rationale
> for blocking the account was because the account name includes
the
> word "Queer"[1]. The incident raises questions about process
and
> accountability, particularly as the block gives the impression
that
> this is the norm or an agreed interpretation of policy for
sysops
on
> am.wp, and because the user is well established using this
account
> name across Wikimedia projects and has never edited am.wp so
the
block
> cannot be based on any prior action or dispute. > > In this example there is no obvious process for appeal, if
sysops
on
> that project think that blocking any LGBT+ related account name > represents local consensus. After off-wiki discussion, the WMF
Trust
> and Safety team has been approached for advice,[2] as the
rationale
> for the action appears hostile to any openly LGBT+ volunteers
who
> might want to include something queer looking in their account
name
> (such as my account name, should anyone want to read it as
transgender
> related). > > # Links > > 1. >
https://am.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%88%8D%E1%8B%A9:Contributions/QueerEcofemin...
> ; > the block log states "Names calling attention to your sexual
behavior
> have never been allowed here in 15 years and aren't suddenly
allowed
> in 2018" > 2. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety > 3. https://telegram.me/wmlgbt > > Thanks > Fae > -- > faewik@gmail.com https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Fae > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_LGBT+ > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe:
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