[Foundation-l] Board resolutions on controversial content and images of identifiable people

[phoebe ayers]

On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 9:03 AM, Kim Bruning <kim at bruning.xs4all.nl> wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 01, 2011 at 01:17:15PM -0700, phoebe ayers wrote:
> > This week, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees unanimously
> > passed a resolution addressing the issue of controversial content on
> > the projects. The Board also unanimously passed a resolution
> > addressing images of identifiable, living people on the projects. The
> > resolutions are posted at:
>
>
> > http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Resolution:Controversial_content
>
> Re:
>
> # We ask the Executive Director, in consultation with the
> # community, to develop and implement a personal image hiding
> # feature that will enable readers to easily hide images hosted on
> # the projects that they do not wish to view, either when first
> # viewing the image or ahead of time through preference settings.
> # We affirm that no image should be permanently removed because of
> # this feature, only hidden; that the language used in the
> # interface and development of this feature be as neutral and
> # inclusive as possible; that the principle of least astonishment
> # for the reader is applied; and that the feature be visible,
> # clear and usable on all Wikimedia projects for both logged-in
> # and logged-out readers.
>
> At the time this point looked pretty uncontroversial, especially
> in context. However, I feel that most currently proposed
> mecahnisms for implementation of this point actually (indirectly)
> violate the other points in the resolution.
>
> To wit, the proposed implementation of a category system for
> controversial content (required for many plausible implementations
> of this point) is exploitable by 3rd parties and/or can lead to
> in-community conflicts; depending on the exact chosen
> implementation.
>
> Such exploits and/or conflicts could indirectly end up censoring
> wikipedia, and/or end up violating the Neutral Point Of View
> founding principle.
>
> Also, the consultation with the community is currently rather heavy
> handed; by which I mean that the power balance might not be in
> favor of those who are most influenced by the implementation.
>
> This is something that should certainly be watched carefully, and
> perhaps further amendment, clarification, or retraction by the
> foundation might be needed.
>
> sincerely,
>        Kim Bruning
>
>
Thanks Kim; I agree there's a lot of room to figure out the best way to do
this, and problems with possible interpretations or implementations. That's
part of the thought behind putting this up for another round of discussion
(albeit in a different manner than the other rounds).

As for the power balance issue: this tool is ultimately for the readers. We
don't have a good way for readers to vote, though. And I am also personally
sympathetic to the idea that the stakeholders -- i.e. the editing community
-- should be the ones to vote anyway. We did set a very low suffrage bar for
this vote (10 edits, in good standing): I think it might be the lowest ever,
actually. I think one thing that will come out of this, which I'm really
happy about, is that we will learn a lot more about a broadly consultative
vote and how to do it well.

best,
phoebe