Hello everyone,
Today, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees unanimously passed a
resolution and published a statement[1] regarding the urgent need to make
our movement more safe and inclusive by addressing harassment and
incivility on Wikimedia projects. The statement builds on prior statements
from 2016 and 2019,[2][3] affirms the forthcoming introduction of a
universal code of conduct, and directs the Wikimedia Foundation to rapidly
and substantively address these challenges in complement with existing
community processes.
This includes developing sustainable practices and tools that eliminate
harassment, toxicity, and incivility, promote inclusivity, cultivate
respectful discourse, reduce harms to participants, protect the projects
from disinformation and bad actors, and promote trust in our projects.
Over the past nearly twenty years, the movement has taken a number of
unique and sometimes extraordinary steps to create an environment unlike
anything else online: a place to share knowledge, to learn, and to
collaborate together. In order for the movement to continue to thrive and
make progress to our mission, it is essential to build a culture that is
welcoming and inclusive.
Research has consistently shown that members of our communities have been
subject to hostility and toxic behavior in Wikimedia spaces.[4][5] The
Wikimedia 2030 movement strategy recommendations have also identified the
safety of our Wikimedia spaces as a core issue to address if we are to
reach the 2030 goals, with concrete recommendations which include a
universal code of conduct, pathways for users to privately report
incidents, and a baseline of community responsibilities.[6]
While the movement has made progress in addressing harassment and toxic
behavior, we recognize there is still much more to do. The Board’s
resolution and statement today is a step toward establishing clear,
consistent guidelines around acceptable behavior on our projects, and
guiding the Wikimedia Foundation in supporting the movement’s ability to
ensure a healthy environment for those who participate in our projects.
* Developing and introducing, in close consultation with volunteer
contributor communities, a universal code of conduct that will be a binding
minimum set of standards across all Wikimedia projects;
* Taking actions to ban, sanction, or otherwise limit the access of
Wikimedia movement participants who do not comply with these policies and
the Terms of Use;
* Working with community functionaries to create and refine a retroactive
review process for cases brought by involved parties, excluding those cases
which pose legal or other severe risks; and
* Significantly increasing support for and collaboration with community
functionaries primarily enforcing such compliance in a way that prioritizes
the personal safety of these functionaries.
Together, we have made our movement what it is today. In this same way, we
must all be responsible for building the positive community culture of the
future, and accountable for stopping harassment and toxic behavior on our
sites.
We have also made this statement available on Meta-Wiki for translation and
wider distribution.[1]
On behalf of the Board,
María, Board Chair
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/May_…
[2]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Nove…
[3]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_noticeboard/Arch…'s_ban_of_Fram
[4] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Harassment_survey_2015
[5]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Insights/2018_Report#Experience_o…
[6]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Strategy/Wikimedia_movement/2018-20/Recomme…
== Statement on Healthy Community Culture, Inclusivity, and Safe Spaces ==
Harassment, toxic behavior, and incivility in the Wikimedia movement are
contrary to our shared values and detrimental to our vision and mission.
They negatively impact our ability to collect, share, and disseminate free
knowledge, harm the immediate well-being of individual Wikimedians, and
threaten the long-term health and success of the Wikimedia projects. The
Board does not believe we have made enough progress toward creating
welcoming, inclusive, harassment-free spaces in which people can contribute
productively and debate constructively.
In recognition of the urgency of these issues, the Board is directing the
Wikimedia Foundation to directly improve the situation in collaboration
with our communities. This should include developing sustainable practices
and tools that eliminate harassment, toxicity, and incivility, promote
inclusivity, cultivate respectful discourse, reduce harms to participants,
protect the projects from disinformation and bad actors, and promote trust
in our projects.
Specifically, the Foundation shall:
* Develop and introduce a universal code of conduct (UCoC) that will be a
binding minimum set of standards across all Wikimedia projects.
** The first phase, covering policies for in-person and virtual events,
technical spaces, and all Wikimedia projects and wikis, and developed in
collaboration with the international Wikimedia communities, will be
presented to the Board for ratification by August 30, 2020.
** The second phase, outlining clear enforcement pathways, and refined with
broad input from the Wikimedia communities, will be presented to the Board
for ratification by the end of 2020;
* Take actions to ban, sanction, or otherwise limit the access of Wikimedia
movement participants who do not comply with these policies and the Terms
of Use;
* Work with community functionaries to create and refine a retroactive
review process for cases brought by involved parties, excluding those cases
which pose legal or other severe risks; and
* Significantly increase support for and collaboration with community
functionaries primarily enforcing such compliance in a way that prioritizes
the personal safety of these functionaries.
Until such directives are implemented, the Board instructs the Foundation
to adopt and implement policies for reducing harassment and toxicity on our
projects and minimizing legal risks for the movement, in collaboration with
communities whenever practicable. Until these two phases of the UCoC are
complete and operational an interim review process involving community
functionaries will be in effect. In this interim period, the Product
Committee of the Board of Trustees will also advise the Trust & Safety team.
To that end, the Board further directs the Foundation, in collaboration
with the communities, to make additional investments in Trust & Safety
capacity, including but not limited to: development of tools needed to
assist our volunteers and staff, research to support data-informed
decisions, development of clear metrics to measure success, development of
training tools and materials (including building communities’ capacities
around harassment awareness and conflict resolution), and consultations
with international experts on harassment, community health and children’s
rights, as well as additional hiring.
The above efforts will be undertaken in coordination and collaboration with
appropriate partners from across the movement, seek to increase effective
community governance of conduct and behavioral standards, and reduce the
long-term need of the Foundation to act. It is the shared goal of the Board
and Foundation that these efforts advance a sustainable Wikimedia movement
and support, rather than substitute, effective models of community
governance.
We urge every member of the Wikimedia communities to collaborate in a way
that models the Wikimedia values of openness and inclusivity, step forward
to do their part to create a safe and welcoming culture for all, stop
hostile and toxic behavior, support people who have been targeted by such
behavior, assist good-faith people learning to contribute, and help set
clear expectations for all contributors.
--
María Sefidari Huici
Chair of the Board
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>