Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Audit Subcommittee

For further information on the ongoing appointment process, see Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Audit Subcommittee/2011 appointments.

Purpose

The Arbitration Committee has established the Audit Subcommittee to investigate complaints concerning the use of CheckUser and Oversight privileges on the English Wikipedia, and to provide better monitoring and oversight of the CheckUser and Oversight positions.

CheckUser is a tool that allows certain trusted users to see the IP addresses used by registered users, which are normally hidden. Its use is governed by the Wikimedia Foundation's (WMF) privacy policy and checkuser policy. CheckUser is used primarily to fight vandalism, identify sockpuppets, and prevent disruption; the tool must not be used out of curiosity, for political control, to place editors under pressure, or as a threat in a content dispute. (List of users with CheckUser)

Oversight is a procedure by which certain trusted users suppress particular revisions and log entries from view. The use of the oversight privilege is governed by the WMF's oversight policy, and is typically used for the removal of copyright violations, material that violates the privacy of an editor or another person, and material that is potentially libelous. Unlike deletion and simple revision deletion (which can be performed and reversed by any administrator), the procedure will render the material invisible and irretrievable to most users (including administrators). It is typically performed using RevisionDelete with the "suppress" option available to users with the Oversight privilege. The extension Special:Oversight removes page revisions from the database altogether and has been used sparingly since the arrival of RevisionDelete. (List of users with Oversight).

Membership

Further information: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Audit Subcommittee/Membership history

The Audit Subcommittee is composed of three arbitrators selected by the Arbitration Committee and three community members appointed by the Committee following advisory processes. The arbitrator members serve for up to six months, while the community members serve one-year terms. All full members of the Audit Subcommittee are identified to the Wikimedia Foundation, are given the Oversight and CheckUser permissions, and have access to the Functionaries-en, Oversight-l, and Checkuser-l mailing lists.

Arbitrators

Arbitrator members of the subcommittee serve six-month terms. The current members and the end-dates of their terms are Xeno, Jclemens and Risker, with end dates tentatively set to 30 June 2011.

At-large members

Bahamut0013, Courcelles, and Keegan are the at-large members for the 2011–2012 term, and AGK is designated as an alternate member of the subcommittee and will become a full member should one of the appointees resign their role during the term. These editors were the top candidates based on arbitrator voting in the 2011 appointments round and were appointed on 1 April 2011. Their terms are set to expire on 31 March 2012.

Mailing list

The arbcom-audit-en mailing list is used by the subcommittee for internal discussion. Membership is limited to current members of the subcommittee. The subscribers to the mailing list, as of October 2010, are:

Subcommittee members:

Xeno, Jclemens, Risker, Dominic, Jredmond, MBisanz, Bahamut0013, Courcelles, and Keegan.

The interface page for the mailing list is located here, and the mailing list address is arbcom-audit-enlists.wikimedia.org. Messages sent to the list by non-members will initially be held for approval by the list administrators. Your email will only be distributed to the subscribers listed, but the content of the mailing list may be shared with the committee when necessary and is available to sitting arbitrators on request as well as future subcommittee members.

Procedure

See also: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Procedures § Auditing

The procedure for handling complaints related to CheckUser or Oversight use is as follows:

1. All complaints about the use of CheckUser or Oversight privileges received by the Committee shall be referred to the Audit Subcommittee by forwarding the complaint to the subcommittee's mailing list (arbcom-audit-enlists.wikimedia.org).
2. The subcommittee shall investigate the matter and determine whether any breach of applicable Wikimedia Foundation or English Wikipedia policies took place.
   • The subcommittee shall be responsible for requesting statements, documents, and any other material of interest to the investigation.
   • During the investigation, the subcommittee should keep the complainant, the subject of the complaint, and the coordinating arbitrator or their deputy informed of its progress and expected date of completion.
   • The subcommittee shall provide the subject of the complaint with a reasonable opportunity to respond to any concerns raised.
3. Within a reasonable time of a complaint having been referred to it, the subcommittee shall present their findings on the matter to the Committee by forwarding them to the Committee's mailing list (arbcom-l). The subcommittee may determine what constitutes a reasonable time for this purpose, which should not be less than one week, nor more than three weeks.
   • The subcommittee shall determine findings by majority vote. Members of the subcommittee disagreeing with the majority findings may attach dissenting views.
   • The subcommittee may, at its discretion, recommend a particular course of action with regard to the subject of the complaint.
4. The Committee shall review the findings and determine what further action, if any, is to be taken in the matter. At a minimum:
   • The Committee shall distribute copies of the subcommittee's final report to the subject of the complaint and the complainant, unless doing so would substantially jeopardize the security of the project.
   • If the subcommittee report indicates that a breach of Wikimedia Foundation policy occurred, the Committee shall forward the report to the Foundation Ombudsman Commission for review.
   • The Committee shall announce the results of the investigation on-wiki in as much detail as is permitted by the relevant policies.

An arbitrator's service on the Audit Subcommittee is part of his or her official service as an arbitrator, and therefore shall not constitute grounds for recusal in a subsequent matter involving the complainant or the subject of the complaint.

Statistics and reports

Further information: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Audit Subcommittee/Reports

For statistical reports on Checkuser and Oversight, see Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Audit Subcommittee/Statistics