Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Conflict of interest management/Workshop

Main case page (Talk) — Preliminary statements (Talk) — Evidence (Talk) — Workshop (Talk) — Proposed decision (Talk)

Case clerk: TBD Drafting arbitrator: TBD

Purpose of the workshop

Arbitration case pages exist to assist the Arbitration Committee in arriving at fair, well-informed decisions. The case Workshop exists so that parties to the case, other interested members of the community, and members of the Arbitration Committee can post possible components of the final decision for review and comment by others. Components proposed here may be general principles of site policy and procedure, findings of fact about the dispute, remedies to resolve the dispute, and arrangements for remedy enforcement. These are the four types of proposals that can be included in committee final decisions. There are also sections for analysis of /Evidence, and for general discussion of the case. Any user may edit this workshop page; please sign all posts and proposals. Arbitrators will place components they wish to propose be adopted into the final decision on the /Proposed decision page. Only Arbitrators and clerks may edit that page, for voting, clarification as well as implementation purposes.

Expected standards of behavior

• You are required to act with appropriate decorum during this case. While grievances must often be aired during a case, you are expected to air them without being incivil or engaging in personal attacks, and to respond calmly to allegations against you.
• Accusations of misbehaviour posted in this case must be proven with clear evidence (and otherwise not made at all).

Consequences of inappropriate behavior

• Editors who conduct themselves inappropriately during a case may be sanctioned by an arbitrator or clerk, without warning.
• Sanctions issued by arbitrators or clerks may include being banned from particular case pages or from further participation in the case.
• Editors who ignore sanctions issued by arbitrators or clerks may be blocked from editing.
• Behavior during a case may also be considered by the committee in arriving at a final decision.

Motions and requests by the parties

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Proposed temporary injunctions

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Questions to the parties

Arbitrators may ask questions of the parties in this section.

• Not a question, more of a request. One question I know Aoidh is interested in answering is "How does WP:INVOLVED interact with the WP:OVERSIGHT policy?" I would be interested in reading any draft principles that answer this question from the perspective of the community; multiple perspectives were offered during the case request so I think ArbCom has the chance to interpret existing policy and guidelines. One caveat - if we find Primefac was not INOLVED under policy this question becomes much less interesting to me given the length of time both the policies have existed without tension before this. Barkeep49 (talk) 21:16, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

Proposed final decision

Proposals by User:Thryduulf

Proposed principles

Not all COI edits are non-netrual

1) An editor having a conflict of interest with an article subject does not mean that all their edits to that article are non-neutral, just that they cannot reliably determine whether they are or are not neutral. This is also why edit requests are recommended.

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It feels to me that this is an important principle that is sometimes overlooked in discussions of COI editing. Thryduulf (talk) 16:16, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

I concur with this. COI editing is not banned, it is discouraged. COI should be declared and ideally COI edits of anything the least bit controversial should be reviewed by a non-COI encumbered uninvolved editor. But just as biographical subjects are in the best place to rectify errors of fact — which is the main thing, that our output be factually correct and neutrally phrased — a COI editor related to an institution or firm or product may well, and often is, in the best position to remedy errors in fact. It's something that must be delicately balanced but a reality that should not be denied. Carrite (talk) 19:30, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

Purpose of COI disclosure

2) The purpose of a COI disclosure is so that independent editors know which edits need review to determine if they are or are not neutral.

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With the likely discussion about whether disclosure was or was not done (fully and/or correctly) and any impacts of failure to do so, I feel it is important to state up front why COI disclosure is required in the first place. I debated whether this should be principle or finding of fact but plumped for principle in the end. I have not problem if this is incorporated in the decision as a FOF. Thryduulf (talk) 16:16, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

This strikes me as a narrow view on COI disclosures. In the context of this case, wouldn't other reasons for disclosure by someone with advanced permissions include:

• to tangibly demonstrate that they have both considered their own potential for bias and also that they view compliance with these sorts of policies as important;
• to engender trust in their objectivity when counselling / advising / warning and even sanctioning other editors or contributing to discussions of policy etc (whether formally using permission or not);
• to facilitate others being able to provide feedback – a quiet talk page question about whether some edit is fully NPOV, for instance – and so potentially prompt refection and a minor adjustment before a misjudgement spirals away from a minor issue;
• to obviate the need for off-wiki investigations that can result in situations like the present case, and in so doing, to assist in protecting privacy; and,
• to help normalise recognition that all editors likely have some (at least potential) biases and that viewing a COI declaration as a need for review of their every edit is counter-productive?

As Thryduulf has noted (below?), if having made a COI declaration is seen as a scarlet letter then editors are disincentivised to make them, which then risks making even inadvertent non-disclosures appear sinister and deceitful. The present case looks far worse (IMO) because of the response to questions and the apparent dissembling, which appears to arise in part from recognition that a COI declaration is a huge red flag that is applied to people being paid to add promotional drivel and lies to WP. Yes, such editors need to be identified and dealt with, but the existence of genuine COI issues and the need for sensible disclosure by Wikipedians genuinely motivated by the project's goals is being lost when anyone making a disclosure risks being grouped with those who are trying to make money through scams, manipulation, and promotion and who are rightly seen as NOTHERE. Editors who are genuine and long-term contributors will understandably feel "I'm not like them" when reflecting on the scammers and paid shills, but that doesn't mean that a COI disclosure isn't warranted. However, if the purpose of a disclosure is to label an editor as needing their edits checked, then genuine contributors will be less likely to self-disclose as the label does not align with whatever COI disclosure they do feel is appropriate. Pinning a label to oneself that says "Hey, I recognise my judgement could be a little off about topic X, please let me know if you think there's an issue with an edit I've made" is a lot more comfortable than one that says "Hey, I'm in the same bunch as scammers and others who don't give a damn about Wikipedia... but I'm only in this group because I recognise that I may have a COI here and am trying to do the right thing... so I'm not at all like those who are trying to game the system by pretending to be compliant to hide my disruptive editing, please believe me." If COI self-disclosure feels like the latter, can we be surprised that relative few disclosures are made? 1.141.198.161 (talk) 23:57, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

Disclosure not required for topics not edited

3) Editors are only required to disclose conflicts of interest they have which relate to topics they edit.

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Again, I had difficulty deciding between principle and finding of fact for this. Thryduulf (talk) 16:16, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

Proposals by User:Carrite

Proposed principles

Purpose of Wikipedia

1) The purpose of Wikipedia is to provide a freely-accessible and freely-reproducable compendium of information which is factually correct and neutrally phrased.

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Problem of COI identification

2) Bad Conflict of Interest editing is not resolvable without first connecting real life identity to real life relationship to, employment by, or payment from the subject in question. At issue is how this is to be properly handled on-wiki.

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I don't think this is necessarily true. For most spam and single purpose accounts showing up to edit a particular article, a real life connection doesn't need to be established to block/sanction them or leave a COI notice. However, when it comes to more complex or longer-term COI/spam issues, making a real-life connection might be needed to fully bring a picture. There's obviously a limit of what can and can't be discussed onwiki, and this has understandably been a historically difficult subject. These cases are what the Functionary team exists for, and evidence should be sent to them per WP:BLOCKEVIDENCE. Arbcom and functionaries need to take action on these cases, whether that is something or indicating that they do not consider the evidence actionable. Moneytrees🏝️(Talk) 21:07, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

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It is only necessary to state/establish that a conflict of interest exists. What the nature of it is (e.g. whether the editor is an employee/owner/fan/etc) is not (in almost all cases) necessary, although there is obviously no prohibition on voluntary disclosure of this information. Thryduulf (talk) 19:56, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

Proposed findings of fact

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Proposals by Animal lover |666|

Proposed principles

Public, formerly public, and private information

1)

1. Public information about a user is defined as:
   • Any information the user posted on his/her user page, on any Wikimedia wiki, and is still there.
   • Any information the user posted recently <exact definition of recently should be given> on any Wikimedia wiki.
   • Should the user self-identify, as above, as a specific real person, then any public information about this person.
   • Should the user self-identify, as above, as an account on any web site, then any information on that web site as parallel to the above.
2. Formerly public information is defined as information which at any time in the last would have been considered public as stated above, and is still visible to the general public in page histories.
3. Private information is information which is not included in the above definitions.

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Conflict of interests and paid editing

2)

1. Paid editing is any modifications to Wikipedia for which one has been paid or expects to be paid in the future. Thus includes both direct payment for the edit(s), and any editing which is considered part of the job.
2. Conflict of interests is any modifications to Wikipedia where one has any interest in the related content being present or absent other than Wikipedia's own interests.
3. That having been said, merely removing blatant copyright violations, and blatant attacks, or tagging pages which are primarily copyright violations or attacks for speedy deletions as such, is not considered paid editing or conflict of interests. On the other hand, using any admin tools to hide the content from normal users is not excluded.

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Proposed remedies

Note: All remedies that refer to a period of time, for example to a ban of X months or a revert parole of Y months, are to run concurrently unless otherwise stated.

What information may be mentioned publicly on-wiki

1) In most situations, users may not reveal any information about other users unless either it's public or the user gave permission to have it revealed. However, when evidence in COI or paid editing, formerly public information may also be used.

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Handling private evidence

2) If a user believes that he/she has evidence to an other user's COI or paid editing, but the evidence relies on private information, the evidence should be emailed to ArbCom.

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Per WP:BLOCKEVIDENCE, this should be emailed to associated Checkuser lists. Although we established this in the past I don't think it's universally known to the community so we should take the opportunity to clarify it here. Moneytrees🏝️(Talk) 21:09, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

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I'm neutral about whether or not ArbCom should have remedies such as this, but if so, then the remedies need to be harmonized with existing policy pages; please see my evidence. --Tryptofish (talk) 20:44, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Whatever the policy is, it should be stated explicitly in this case. ArbCom probably shouldn't make the policy here, but they should ensure that there is no confusion what it is. Animal lover |666| 23:30, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Proposals by User:Example 2

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Analysis of evidence

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General discussion

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