Re: [Wikiml-l] [Wikimediaindia-l] Condition of a Wikimedian, arrested by UP Police - Wikiml-l

Bodhisattwa Mandal

9 May 9 May

7:26 a.m.

New subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Condition of a Wikimedian, arrested by UP Police

Hi Praveenp, First of all, thanks for your courage to bring this incident openly in the mailing list. This was one of the most disturbing news from last year. The overall incident of how Siddique was arrested and charged for sedition while trying to report a gang rape case, how he was treated in the prison and in the hospital was extremely distressing. I personally always felt that individual Wikimedia volunteers are always in an extremely vulnerable position. There is no legal support system present in the Indian Wikimedia ecosystem to safeguard or prevent Wikimedia volunteers from being harrassed by state or charged or arrested for any controversial content present on Wikipedia. Although Sidheeq was not charged for anything related to his Wikimedia work and to some people, maybe his arrest has nothing to do with the Wikimedia community, but it gives us a chance to think, what happens if this kind of incident happens to any one of us with respect to any controversial content present on any Wikimedia sites. I strongly feel that we need to build a good legal support system sustainable enough to help volunteers in distress anytime anywhere in India; the scope of such a support system can be defined or discussed, but something should be there. At present, as volunteers, we are so helpless that we can only pray that everything will be fine someday automagically, but that is just to console ourselves. The fact is we are too powerless to condemn the incident or issue a statement or even bring this topic to the mailing list. Personally, I feel helpless like everyone else. I just hope that someday this discussion will help build a legal support system whom we can approach while in distress. Regards, Bodhisattwa On Sun, May 9, 2021, 08:56 Abhinav srivastava <abhinav619(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

I pray for User:Sidheeq speedy recovery. Having known and worked with him. This is deeply concerning. On Sun, 9 May 2021, 01:36 praveenp, <me.praveen(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Indian Wikimedians, As many of you may have known, one of our fellow Wikimedian was arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police in October 2020. His name is Siddique Kappan (His wikimedia username is User:Sidheeq). He is from Kerala, and he was active in Wikimedia projects (mainly in Malayalam Wikipedia) until his arrest. Incidently he is a journalist and he was arrested from the home of Hathras rape and murder victim while reporting the victim Dalit girl's family members. UP Police has slapped Sedition, Terrorism as well as UAPA charges against him. Kappen is diabetic and now COVID positive. He was admitted to hospital only after he collapsed in the jail cell. With his deteriorating health, it was accused that Kappan was chained to hospital bed like an animal. Today's news reports say that he is in critical condition. (You could always google "Siddique Kappan") As a tone deaf people I don't expect anything from this mail, I just wish to share the information. Stay Inside, Stay Complementary (non-critical), Stay safe, Stay healthy. User:Praveenp ------------- Siddique's en.wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sidheeq _______________________________________________ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l

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টিটো দত্ত Tito Dutta

1:18 p.m.

New subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Condition of a Wikimedian, arrested by UP Police

Hello, Indeed the news has been disturbing. I pray for Siddique's recovery. I agree that it is important to have a legal support system in the Indian Wikimedia ecosystem to safeguard Wikimedia volunteers for their Wikimedia contribution/activities, or to provide necessary advice. As a member of Access to Knowledge (A2K), I initiated a discussion sometime ago, to work on a legal support model in India. I think we should work on it with Wikimedia Foundation and the community to provide necessary support. Suggestion is welcome. Regards Tito Dutta Member, Access to Knowledge রবি, ৯ মে, ২০২১ তারিখে ১০:৫৬ AM টায় এ Bodhisattwa Mandal < bodhisattwa.rgkmc(a)gmail.com> লিখেছেন:

...

Hi Praveenp, First of all, thanks for your courage to bring this incident openly in the mailing list. This was one of the most disturbing news from last year. The overall incident of how Siddique was arrested and charged for sedition while trying to report a gang rape case, how he was treated in the prison and in the hospital was extremely distressing. I personally always felt that individual Wikimedia volunteers are always in an extremely vulnerable position. There is no legal support system present in the Indian Wikimedia ecosystem to safeguard or prevent Wikimedia volunteers from being harrassed by state or charged or arrested for any controversial content present on Wikipedia. Although Sidheeq was not charged for anything related to his Wikimedia work and to some people, maybe his arrest has nothing to do with the Wikimedia community, but it gives us a chance to think, what happens if this kind of incident happens to any one of us with respect to any controversial content present on any Wikimedia sites. I strongly feel that we need to build a good legal support system sustainable enough to help volunteers in distress anytime anywhere in India; the scope of such a support system can be defined or discussed, but something should be there. At present, as volunteers, we are so helpless that we can only pray that everything will be fine someday automagically, but that is just to console ourselves. The fact is we are too powerless to condemn the incident or issue a statement or even bring this topic to the mailing list. Personally, I feel helpless like everyone else. I just hope that someday this discussion will help build a legal support system whom we can approach while in distress. Regards, Bodhisattwa On Sun, May 9, 2021, 08:56 Abhinav srivastava <abhinav619(a)gmail.com> wrote:

I pray for User:Sidheeq speedy recovery. Having known and worked with him. This is deeply concerning. On Sun, 9 May 2021, 01:36 praveenp, <me.praveen(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Indian Wikimedians, As many of you may have known, one of our fellow Wikimedian was arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police in October 2020. His name is Siddique Kappan (His wikimedia username is User:Sidheeq). He is from Kerala, and he was active in Wikimedia projects (mainly in Malayalam Wikipedia) until his arrest. Incidently he is a journalist and he was arrested from the home of Hathras rape and murder victim while reporting the victim Dalit girl's family members. UP Police has slapped Sedition, Terrorism as well as UAPA charges against him. Kappen is diabetic and now COVID positive. He was admitted to hospital only after he collapsed in the jail cell. With his deteriorating health, it was accused that Kappan was chained to hospital bed like an animal. Today's news reports say that he is in critical condition. (You could always google "Siddique Kappan") As a tone deaf people I don't expect anything from this mail, I just wish to share the information. Stay Inside, Stay Complementary (non-critical), Stay safe, Stay healthy. User:Praveenp ------------- Siddique's en.wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sidheeq _______________________________________________ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l

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Bodhisattwa Mandal

17 May 17 May

10:49 a.m.

New subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Condition of a Wikimedian, arrested by UP Police

Hi Kaartic, I don't think Trust and Safety or WMF legal has any practical value here. I can endorse Vikram's view from my experience, when I interacted with both of the teams about another extremely controversial topic which might very well hamper the safety of the entire Indian Wikimedia community and can destroy the life and reputation of volunteers. Practically speaking, if any Wikimedia content is deemed illegal as per the law of the country, currently we are all vulnerable and there is no existing support structure which can take any step to convince website hosts to find any solution or prevent this kind of unfortunate situation or provide emergency legal relief or take out the volunteers from PTSD. Regards, Bodhisattwa On Mon, 10 May 2021 at 00:25, Kaartic Sivaraam < kaarticsivaraam91196(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

Hi, On Sun, 9 May 2021 at 10:56, Bodhisattwa Mandal <bodhisattwa.rgkmc(a)gmail.com> wrote:

I personally always felt that individual Wikimedia volunteers are always

in an extremely vulnerable position. There is no legal support system present in the Indian Wikimedia ecosystem to safeguard or prevent Wikimedia volunteers from being harrassed by state or charged or arrested for any controversial content present on Wikipedia. Although Sidheeq was not charged for anything related to his Wikimedia work and to some people, maybe his arrest has nothing to do with the Wikimedia community, but it gives us a chance to think, what happens if this kind of incident happens to any one of us with respect to any controversial content present on any Wikimedia sites. I strongly feel that we need to build a good legal support system sustainable enough to help volunteers in distress anytime anywhere in India; the scope of such a support system can be defined or discussed, but something should be there.

Forgive my ignorance and I could be misunderstanding but anyways, shouldn't the Trust & Safety team be helpful for these situations? Isn't it kind of their work to support Wikimedians in those cases? If not, that team at least looks like the relevant people to discuss this with. Team page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety Team overview: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety/Overview -- Sivaraam _______________________________________________ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l

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Bodhisattwa

3:01 p.m.

New subject: [Wikimediaindia-l] Re: Condition of a Wikimedian, arrested by UP Police

Hi Praveen, Thanks for keeping track of the case. Personally I am extremely relieved that Siddique at last got out of the prison. We were not getting any major news about him which was very worrying. I am also very much worried of the extreme stress he and his family is facing and will face after this traumatic event. Hope they will come of this mess stronger than before. We are still helpless regarding legal support of the volunteers and are still vulnerable. Regards, Bodhisattwa On Fri, Sep 9, 2022, 12:01 praveenp <me.praveen(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

FINALLY! The Supreme court granted Bail to Kappen. He was imprisoned since October 2020 under UAPA while reporting the Gang rape and murder or 19 year old Dalit woman from Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. Everybody in India can be so proud of this entire saga. I hope Kappen (wanna be Kappens too) learned his lesson, and won't commit any "Unlawful activities" like reporting gangrapes in holy states. Regards User:Praveenp On Mon, 17 May 2021 at 14:19, Bodhisattwa Mandal < bodhisattwa.rgkmc(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Kaartic, I don't think Trust and Safety or WMF legal has any practical value here. I can endorse Vikram's view from my experience, when I interacted with both of the teams about another extremely controversial topic which might very well hamper the safety of the entire Indian Wikimedia community and can destroy the life and reputation of volunteers. Practically speaking, if any Wikimedia content is deemed illegal as per the law of the country, currently we are all vulnerable and there is no existing support structure which can take any step to convince website hosts to find any solution or prevent this kind of unfortunate situation or provide emergency legal relief or take out the volunteers from PTSD. Regards, Bodhisattwa On Mon, 10 May 2021 at 00:25, Kaartic Sivaraam < kaarticsivaraam91196(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, On Sun, 9 May 2021 at 10:56, Bodhisattwa Mandal <bodhisattwa.rgkmc(a)gmail.com> wrote:

I personally always felt that individual Wikimedia volunteers are

always in an extremely vulnerable position. There is no legal support system present in the Indian Wikimedia ecosystem to safeguard or prevent Wikimedia volunteers from being harrassed by state or charged or arrested for any controversial content present on Wikipedia. Although Sidheeq was not charged for anything related to his Wikimedia work and to some people, maybe his arrest has nothing to do with the Wikimedia community, but it gives us a chance to think, what happens if this kind of incident happens to any one of us with respect to any controversial content present on any Wikimedia sites. I strongly feel that we need to build a good legal support system sustainable enough to help volunteers in distress anytime anywhere in India; the scope of such a support system can be defined or discussed, but something should be there.

Forgive my ignorance and I could be misunderstanding but anyways, shouldn't the Trust & Safety team be helpful for these situations? Isn't it kind of their work to support Wikimedians in those cases? If not, that team at least looks like the relevant people to discuss this with. Team page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety Team overview: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Trust_and_Safety/Overview -- Sivaraam _______________________________________________ Wikimediaindia-l mailing list Wikimediaindia-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l

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