Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2020-06-28/Arbitration report

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Arbitration report

Anti-harassment RfC and a checkuser revocation

Cases by lifecycle phase (since last report)
Requested Accepted Remained open Closed Amendments
none none none Medicine none
Declined
JzG

Other matters: Anti-harassment RfC

A quiet month for new business

There was only one request for a new case, concerning JzG. Case requested 9 June, declined 15 June.

There are no ongoing cases.

Closed cases

Medicine remedies passed as reported in last month's Arbitration report. Of note community-wide, there is a new discretionary sanctions topic, All discussions about pharmaceutical drug prices and pricing and for edits adding, changing, or removing pharmaceutical drug prices or pricing from articles.

Anti-harassment RfC

Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Anti-harassment RfC

The RfC is part of the Arbcom–WMF understanding reached in the wake of last year's events covered in The Signpost's "Framgate" series (see September 2019 wrapup). Under discussion are a number of topics that could result in new Arbcom procedures or authority in the following areas:

  1. Private evidence
  2. Fear of retaliation
  3. Opportunity to respond to allegations
  4. Unsubstantiated complaints
  5. Plausible deniability
  6. Arbitration environment
  7. "Unblockables"
  8. Relationship with T&S

The RfC is being carried out in Arbcom's pages and under Arbitration case rules, administered by clerks.

Bbb23 CheckUser revoked

Checkusers contributing to SPI through June 19, 2020

  Callanecc (18.7%)
  Mz7 (16.6%)
  Bbb23 (16.6%)
  ST47 (12.4%)
  DeltaQuad (9.8%)
  TonyBallioni (5.1%)
  L235 (3.6%)
  Berean Hunter (3.6%)
  Alison (2.4%)
  All others (11.2%)
Checkusers contributing to SPI, Jan 1 – June 19, 2020 (data)

The Committee announced its unanimous decision (with one recusal) to remove Checkuser privileges from Bbb23 on June 18.

In a discussion around the action, Arbitration Committee member Bradv stated

[A] new account asking a question at the TEAHOUSE, voting on an RFA, editing a contentious topic, or asking for help from an administrator should not be checked simply because they might be a returning user – there must be evidence of some sort of disruption. These are the types of checks that we asked Bbb23 to avoid, which he declined to do.

To review further explanation of the reasons for the decision from Arbcom members Bradv, xeno and Worm That Turned, and the surrounding community discussion, see Wikipedia talk:Arbitration Committee/Noticeboard#Revocation of CheckUser access for Bbb23.

Bbb23 was one of the most active checkusers at sockpuppet investigations (SPI). Checkuser privileges are required to use technical evidence like IP addresses to determine whether sockpuppetry occurred.

The pie chart was corrected shortly after publication –B