Hello Andreas,
A key part of the Enforcement Guidelines is the formation of a global
committee called the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee
(U4C). The process of building the U4C is just starting with the
formation of the U4C Building Committee. More information about this is
on meta. The U4C will work with other decision making bodies, like the
English Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee, when faced with global
challenges such as these. It should also provide value
thought-partnership in helping to evaluate global standards and local
policies against the UCoC for compliance.
In the meantime, we encourage individuals to work with their local
bodies or with the Foundation’s Trust & Safety team at c...@wikimedia.org
in cases where they believe that significant UCoC violations may have
occurred and may be unaddressed. We have faith that the English
Wikipedia’s Arbitration Committee can evaluate the case before them and
know they have a productive relationship with Foundation staff and
attorneys if they feel they need support.
Best,
Mike Peel
For the Community Affairs Committee,
Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees
On 24/04/2023 14:00, Andreas Kolbe wrote:
Dear Wikimedia Foundation Trustees and all,
The Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) has been in force for some time.
The Enforcement Guidelines have now been endorsed by the community. But
as with any new document, shared understandings and clarifications must
develop over time. Until then, practical enforcement is anything but
routine. Here is an example.
Section 3.1 of the UCoC states that the following is harassment:
/*Disclosure of personal data (Doxing):* sharing other contributors'
private information, such as name, place of employment, physical or
email address without their explicit consent either on the Wikimedia
projects or elsewhere, or sharing information concerning their Wikimedia
activity outside the projects./
As you are no doubt aware, a Wikimedian and a non-Wikimedian co-author
recently published an academic essay criticising aspects of the English
Wikipedia's Holocaust coverage. In their essay, the authors mention the
legal names and the places of employment of two longstanding Wikipedia
contributors who, as WMF Trust & Safety will confirm, have suffered
years of egregious harassment because of their Wikimedia participation.
I understand this has included threats to their children, calls to their
workplace asking for them to be fired, etc.
Given this history, the authors' decision to share precise information
about these contributors' workplaces in their academic essay struck me
as ill advised. It is hard to justify on scholarly grounds – the
Holocaust topic area is unrelated to the academic positions held by
these two Wikipedians. And surely it must have occurred to the authors
that providing information on their workplaces might exacerbate the
harassment they are already experiencing, of which the authors were well
aware.
Needless to say, neither of the two contributors gave their consent to
having their names and workplaces shared in the essay, which criticises
them severely – and in at least some cases very unfairly.
Given that explicit consent is what the UCoC requires for sharing of
personal information, sharing details of these Wikimedians' workplaces –
especially in the context of harsh and inflammatory criticism of their
editing, and a long history of prior harassment suffered by these
contributors – struck me as a bright-line violation of UCoC Section 3.1,
specifically:
/*Disclosure of personal data (Doxing):* sharing other contributors'
private information, such as *name, place of employment*, physical or
email address *without their explicit consent* either on the Wikimedia
projects or *elsewhere*, or *sharing information concerning their
Wikimedia activity outside the projects*./
The reason I am mentioning this here is that the English Arbitration
Committee, which opened an arbitration case soon after publication of
the essay, appears largely to have taken a different view to date,
preferring to apply the most charitable interpretation of a local
English Wikipedia policy instead of the UCoC definition.[1]
Local policy on English Wikipedia says that sharing a contributor's
personal information (on Wikipedia) is not harassment if said
contributor has voluntarily posted their own information, or links to
such information, on Wikipedia at some time in the past.[2] In this
specific case, one of the two contributors once, over a decade ago,
posted a link to a Dramatica page containing their name and a previous
place of employment (different from their current place of employment as
shared in the essay). I understand they tried later on to have that edit
oversighed but were refused. The other contributor is open about their
legal name and workplace on Wikipedia.
As we can see, the English Wikipedia's local policy is not aligned with
the UCoC. The UCoC – which we are told defines a minimum standard that
takes precedence over any and all local policies and must not be ignored
or circumvented – demands that Wikimedians wanting to share other
contributors' personal information obtain "explicit consent" from the
contributors concerned. "Explicit consent" is generally considered to be
a much higher standard than implied consent.[3] "Explicit consent" is
telling an author, "Yes, it is fine for you to mention my name and
workplace in your essay."
And unlike local policy, the UCoC says that it covers conduct outside of
Wikimedia spaces as well. It says it applies to –
/all Wikimedia projects, technical spaces, in-person and virtual events,
*as well as* the following instances:/
/
/
/Private, public and semi-public interactions/
/Discussions of disagreement and expression of solidarity across
community members/
/Issues of technical development/
/Aspects of content contribution/
/Cases of representing affiliates/communities with external partners/
On the face of it, "public interactions" and "expressions of
disagreement" would seem to include writings a Wikimedian publishes
about another contributor in a journal, a newspaper, a blog, etc., or
statements they make about them in press interviews.
ArbCom on the other hand appears to have taken the view that the UCoC
only applies to places "like Wikimedia listservs, affiliate zoom calls,
and Wikimedia in-person events. But that doesn't include peer reviewed
papers."
So, the question I am now unclear about is: Are Wikimedians
communicating about Wikipedia outside of Wikimedia spaces – from
academic journals, newspapers and TV interviews to blogs and discussion
forums – bound by the UCoC (and specifically Section 3.1) or not? Very
specifically, are they permitted to share contributors' private
information such as their workplace address in these various venues,
without obtaining explicit consent to do so?
Clarification would be very welcome. I feel we do need some guidance as
to what the words in the UCoC are intended to mean in practice, and how
much leeway local projects should have in interpreting its intent.
Regards,
Andreas
[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/World_War_II_and_the_history_of_Jews_in_Poland/Analysis#Analysis_of_Andreas'_evidence_(UCoC_violation) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/World_War_II_and_the_history_of_Jews_in_Poland/Analysis#Analysis_of_Andreas'_evidence_(UCoC_violation)>
[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Harassment#Posting_of_personal_information <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Harassment#Posting_of_personal_information>
[3] See e.g. the GDPR-related explanation here:
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/consent/what-is-valid-consent/#what5 <https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/consent/what-is-valid-consent/#what5>
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