[Foundation-l] Stalking, an attempt to clarify.
John Barberio
barberio at lineone.net
Wed Jun 11 13:44:22 UTC 2008
This is an attempt to separate and clarify the subject of Stalking as
applied to Wikipedia.
1) The term "Wikistalking", which has generally referred to following
someone's contributions on wikipedia and then making petty edits or
reverts. This is, I think, a poor choice of word, it's not 'Stalking'
in the threatening sense, and really just an additional avenue of
common place harassment. Rolling so called 'wikistalking' up as a
'subset of stalking' is not useful, and may in-fact be damaging
towards attempts to confront threatening stalking. Perhaps it should
be renamed "Contribution harassment", as it's a pattern of harassment
following someone's contributions. There have been recent issues of
accusations of "Stalking" being misused as an attack in it's self, by
labelling honest attempts to improve articles or review a user's
behaviour as attempts to 'stalk'.
2) It should be important to note, that under US law, notable editors
of Wikipedia may become "limited purpose public figures". This does
mean that, for example, "outing" a notable editor's identity, is not
something they can take action against. The outside world would not,
therefore, consider it 'stalking' behaviour. The existence of
'Harassment Sites' is not something that Wikimedia can realistically
do anything about. Attempts to enforce restrictions on linking to, and
restrictions on editors found to be involved with such sites was
discussed in depth on en.wikipedia, and proposals to enforce these
failed. There is likely still a large issue in the need to offer
anonymity, the need to provide accountability, and the need to prevent
conflicts of interest. However, these issues should not be combined
with 'Stalking'.
3) Threats of harm, ranging from threats of 'beating you up' to 'rape
you and kill you' should and must be handled by the police. It's
beyond the scope of Wikimedia's abilities to do anything about these
threats beyond blocking editors. Problems with getting your local
police force to do something, is also sadly beyond Wikimedia's
abilities. If your local police office refuses to take action on
threats of assault, make a complaint and write to your government
authority.
Generally, the best and most Wikimedia can do are...
* Limit "contribution harassment" on it's projects.
* Enforce policies on civility and threats.
* Refer threats of violence to the authorities.
* Co-operate with the authorities in investigations into harassment
and stalking.
* Provide professional advice and guidance to victims of stalking.
I think that some of the actions that have been taken in the name of
'combating stalking' so far have proved counter productive. The
setting up of a private invitation only "Wikistalking Mailing List"
especially. While well intentioned, has lead to a large amount of
mistrust in that it is seen as a secret administrator cabal. It does
seem to have become an unfortunate knee jerk reaction that the
solution to problems on wikipedia can only be solved by a secret Jimbo
approved cabal.
- John
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