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

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

Target dates: Opened 6 March 2024 • Evidence closes 20 March 2024 • Workshop closes 27 March 2024 • Proposed decision to be posted by 3 April 2024

Scope: The intersection of managing conflict of interest editing with the harassment (outing) policy, in the frame of the conduct of the named parties.
Public evidence is preferred whenever possible; private evidence is allowed (arbcom-en-bwikimedia.org).

Case clerks: Firefly (Talk) & Amortias (Talk) Drafting arbitrators: Aoidh (Talk) & Barkeep49 (Talk) & Maxim (Talk)

Arbitration case pages exist to assist the Arbitration Committee in arriving at fair, well-informed decisions. This page is not designed for the submission of general reflections on the arbitration process, Wikipedia in general, or other irrelevant and broad issues; and if you submit such content to this page, please expect it to be ignored or removed. General discussion of the case may be opened on the talk page. You must focus on the issues that are important to the dispute and submit diffs which illustrate the nature of the dispute or will be useful to the committee in its deliberations.

Submitting evidence

• Any editor may add evidence to this page, irrespective of whether they are involved in the dispute.
• Public evidence is preferred whenever possible, private evidence is allowed (arbcom-en-bwikimedia.org).

  If in doubt about whether evidence can be public under our policies (especially WP:OUTING) email the Arbitration Committee your evidence submission. The Committee can then let you know whether it should be public or private evidence.

• You must submit evidence in your own section, using the prescribed format.
• Editors who change other users' evidence may be sanctioned by arbitrators or clerks without warning; if you have a concern with or objection to another user's evidence, contact the arbitration clerks by e-mail or on the talk page.

Word and diff limits

• The standard limits for all evidence submissions are: 1000 words and 100 diffs for users who are parties to this case; or about 500 words and 50 diffs for other users. Detailed but succinct submissions are more useful to the committee.
• If you wish to exceed the prescribed limits on evidence length, you must obtain the written consent of an arbitrator before doing so; you may ask for this on the Evidence talk page.
• Evidence that exceeds the prescribed limits without permission, or that contains inappropriate material or diffs, may be refactored, redacted or removed by a clerk or arbitrator without warning.

Supporting assertions with evidence

• Evidence must include links to the actual page diff in question, or to a short page section; links to the page itself are inadequate. Never link to a page history, an editor's contributions, or a log for all actions of an editor (as those change over time), although a link to a log for a specific article or a specific block log is acceptable.
• Please make sure any page section links are permanent, and read the simple diff and link guide if you are not sure how to create a page diff.

Rebuttals

• The Arbitration Committee expects you to make rebuttals of other evidence submissions in your own section, and for such rebuttals to explain how or why the evidence in question is incorrect; do not engage in tit-for-tat on this page.
• Analysis of evidence should occur on the /Workshop page, which is open for comment by parties, arbitrators, and others.

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.

Evidence presented by Tryptofish

History of policy on COI reporting and outing

I note that the case scope includes the intersection of managing conflict of interest editing with the harassment (outing) policy, and that several Arbs commented on the case request page that they wish that editors would be more inclined to email the Committee instead of just assuming that ArbCom already knows.

The COI guideline refers editors to the outing policy as taking precedence, and the latter says in part: Nothing in this policy prohibits the emailing of personal information about editors to individual administrators, functionaries, or arbitrators, or to the Wikimedia Foundation. In context, please note that emailing ArbCom is not currently emphasized, and editors are likely to look elsewhere instead. It is also in terms of "nothing prohibits", rather than the importance of reporting. The paid editing page likewise only refers to emailing Checkusers or a "paid" email address, with no mention of ArbCom.

Circa 2015–16, the community held very extensive discussions on how to report COI editing, and there are walls of text in the harassment policy talk page archives. But for a tl;dr, I want to point ArbCom to this 2016 discussion: [1], which I think gets at what is most relevant now. I see (with a bit of embarrassment, now) myself and multiple other editors saying that emailing ArbCom sounds like a bad idea; there are also then-members of ArbCom saying that ArbCom doesn't have the resources to deal with private evidence of COI/paid editing. (There's also discussion of a failed proposal to set up a mailing list of functionaries, to whom private evidence would be emailed. The failed proposal is here: [2], and the RfC rejecting it is here: [3].)

WMF posted their position here: [4], and the community discussed it here: [5].

This case should be informed by this history, and this is a good time to reevaluate it for present-day needs. Since ArbCom sets its own policies and procedures, this case may be an opportunity for ArbCom to take, for itself, a more active role as someone to contact with private information about COI/paid editing. --Tryptofish (talk) 21:09, 6 March 2024 (UTC)

Evidence presented by Joe Roe

Editing with a financial conflict of interest is "paid editing"

"Paid editing" is how we usually refer to edits made for or with financial compensation; what the Terms of Use call paid contributions. It is perhaps an unfortunate choice of words, because people sometimes take them at face value and assume it refers to only literally being paid to make an edit. However, the relevant policies make it clear that they are intended to apply to any contribution where there is a financial conflict of interest present. From Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure § Additional notes on who must disclose (emphasis added to this and subsequent quotes):

Users who are compensated for any publicity efforts related to the subject of their Wikipedia contributions are deemed to be paid editors, regardless of whether they were compensated specifically to edit Wikipedia.

And Wikipedia:Conflict of interest § Paid editing:

Being paid to contribute to Wikipedia is one form of financial COI; it places the paid editor in a conflict between their employer's goals and Wikipedia's goals. [...] More generally, an editor has a financial conflict of interest whenever they write about a topic with which they have a close financial relationship.

This isn't the place to get into why the policies are worded in this way. Suffice to say, the basic principle, set out in Wikipedia:Conflict of interest § COI is not simply bias, is that COI is not just a problem of quid-pro-quo advocacy, but of a tendency to bias that we assume exists when [an editors] roles and relationships conflict.

An employee has a financial conflict of interest in relation to their employer

As specifically stated in Wikipedia:Conflict of interest § Paid editing:

[A close financial relationship] includes being an owner, employee, contractor, investor or other stakeholder.

Edits with a financial conflict of interest must be disclosed

Immediately after defining edits with a financial conflict of interest as a form of "paid editing", Wikipedia:Conflict of interest § Paid editing goes on to say:

The Wikimedia Foundation requires that all paid editing be disclosed.

Evidence presented by Dennis Brown

To claim that any kind of COI automatically means "paid editing" is a can of worms you don't want to open. For example, I've worked in the UV industry for decades, and when making edits in that area, I had a disclaimer on my user page. Some of my work here included uploading example images of items that had the brand of the company I worked for. (example:[6]) Did it benefit the company? Probably not but some may argue it does. It provided an example image of a common product that was readily available to me, rather than me buying an outside product to photograph. The majority of my related uploads were not company branded. The goal was to expand the articles, provide examples and I managed the COI by not adding the company name, nor slanting my edits to make them look better, nor adding images just to upload the company logo. I am considered expert in the field, so the articles benefited from the work, the company did not directly benefit. But it is still a (then declared) COI. Saying any COI is paid editing would automatically disqualify me from having the admin bit, as true "paid editing" has a clear consensus to be incompatible with adminship, and would have far reaching, damaging effect here.

This means that a professor that makes an edit about the university they teach at is a paid editor, because that university pays his salary, so he can not continue to hold the admin bit. You can't just carve out exceptions for professors over us lowly businessmen, after all, a job is a job, and making edits relating to your source of income the same. Some universities are FOR PROFIT, after all. What if the professor makes edits related to their FIELD, but their university is known as the only university studying that field? Isn't that a COI similar to mine, where it may incidentally promote their university? They indirectly benefit, so if COI is the same as paid editing, they must hand in the admin bit. COI is a fuzzy line, not a clear cut thing, and it is more common than most think. It is also manageable.

Most everyone has a COI of some kind, because most of us have jobs or affiliations that create the conflict of interest. Whether you belong to a social club (Lions Club, Optimists Club, etc), work at any job with any level of expertise, or a barista at Starbucks, any edits you make to either the company or related articles are a conflict. How we manage those conflicts is what matters. This is NOT the same thing as plain speak "paid editing" as a traditional 3rd party contractor, nor is it the same as working for XYZ, Inc. and part of your job title includes managing social media and thus making edits on Wikipedia (paid but in between "contractor" and "simple COI", as the damage is limited in scope) If you decree that a simple COI is the same as paid editing, you are going to need to desysop a lot of people, including me. Many have minor COI and don't think to declare because it isn't abused, but you will see cases popping up if you overreach here.

Note, this doesn't speak to the merits of this particular case, which I am not privy to all the details of, as most is private. I just don't want to see Arb shoot itself in the foot by declaring "COI == Paid editing". If anything, it needs to clarify that they are not the same for the purpose of adminship. Dennis Brown - 2¢ 01:11, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

• One last note: I own stock in AT&T and I have edited History of AT&T (plus other examples). Is this paid editing? The fundamentals are the same. Dennis Brown - 2¢ 03:33, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

Evidence presented by Jessintime

Nihonjoe denied having COIs until this case was filed

Heritage Internet Technologies (formerly Heritage Web Solutions)

In 2008, while Nihonjoe was an admin, he inserted text about the above named company into the Provo, Utah article [7]. An editor later removed that information from the article, saying it seemed like advertising and non-neutral [8]. Nihonjoe reverted that editor within hours [9].

The same editor who tried to remove the information then raised concerns about the HWS article on that talk page [10] and would express concerns that someone with ties to the company had contributed to the article [11]. Nihonjoe's response was that "any article about a company is going to be somewhat promotional" [12] and then he turned up at the user's talk page to accuse that other editor of having a blatant POV [13].

Auquaveo

At Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Aquaveo in February, Nihonjoe said simply that the article in question was about "one of many topics I find interesting" and asked for the page to be userfied, without admitting he worked for the company in question [14]. He would later accuse the editor who nominated the page for deletion of harassment [15]. (Nihonjoe would later change his tune and admit he only began working on the article after he started working for the company [16])

D. J. Butler

Nihonjoe in February denied having any conflict of interest with Butler [17]. After some prodding by members of this committee while the case was pending, Nihonjoe listed D. J. Butler as one of several articles for which he has a conflict of interest -- see User:Nihonjoe/Contribs/Intro -- because he "published a collection of his short fiction."

Nihonjoe and WP:DYK

Nihonjoe has gotten both the Butler article and the now deleted Aquaveo article on the main page through WP:DYI. See Template:Did_you_know_nominations/D._J._Butler and Template:Did you know nominations/Aquaveo. Neither of those are listed at User:Nihonjoe/DYK.

--Jessintime (talk) 15:07, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Evidence presented by Nihonjoe

The D. J. Butler article was first edited by me in 2019, two years before I had any COI regarding that subject (I published a collection of their work in July 2021, and they had a story they donated for a charity anthology published in February 2021). It's not uncommon for me to submit a DYK for article I create or greatly expand, either. Them not being listed at User:Nihonjoe/DYK is likely just an oversight and completely irrelevant.

The Aquaveo article has already been discussed elsewhere, and I see no need to rehash things here.

The Heritage Internet Technologies entry on the Provo, Utah page followed the same format as other entries there (a link to the article and an explanation of why the company was notable, supported by reliable sources), and all of the information in that paragraph was supported by the included article from Inc., which is considered a very reliable source for business information. ···日本穣 · 投稿 · Talk to Nihonjoe · Join WP Japan! 18:10, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Evidence presented by AddWittyNameHere

Timeline of Nihonjoe and D. J. Butler

• April 2019: Nihonjoe starts editing a pre-existing AfC draft and subsequently moves it to mainspace and nominates it at DYK.
• May-June-July 2019: a number of additional edits to the article.
• 2021: Per Nihonjoe's own explanation in the section above, in 2021 he developed a COI in regards to the article's subject. (At very latest by July 2021, but in practice--between the charity anthology and the fact that publishing does not happen from one day to the next--most likely several months before). He did not declare this COI.
• 2022: Several more edits to the article: a string of 4 edits on 6 January 2022, a string of 3 on 15 June 2022, followed by a string of 6 on 27 June 2022. He did not declare this COI.
• February 2024: When asked about a COI with D. J. Butler, Nihonjoe denied this.
• March 2024: Nihonjoe lists D. J. Butler as one of several articles on which he would have a COI now due to publishing work [he has] done, but not when they were created.

Considering Nihonjoe has identified the relevant publishing work as having taken place in 2021, his 2022 edits were therefore done with an (at the time undeclared) COI. AddWittyNameHere 20:20, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Evidence presented by Serial Number 54129

Representing evidence of now-(rightly) blocked sock. Interesting points in the chronology are raised, unfortunately questioning much of the accepted chronology, and probably require further investigation in the context of the broader narrative. ——Serial Number 54129 21:45, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Nihonjoe at Action Target

In 2010 Nihonjoe wrote a draft article for Action Target which he has only recently declared was done while he was a temporary employee. [18] Per that declaration he seems to think he now has "no COI" for his subsequent edits, since he had left that role by the time he moved it into mainspace (also in 2010 [19]). What he doesn't mention is that no other person edited that article before he moved it, and it was written as a draft in his personal user space.

In 2014 Nihonjoe reverted a user named "Action Target" trying to remove a small amount of content from Action Target [20] that was essentially the same as that which was in the article when Nihonjoe wrote it as a draft. In doing so he advised them "Please especially take note of our conflict of interest guideline. As you are likely directly related to the company in question (given your username), it is generally recommended that you do not directly edit the article." [21]

In 2017 when the user returned and self identified as an employee of Action Target seeking Nihonjoe's input regarding updating the company logo (which Nihonjoe had originally uploaded), Nihonjoe soft blocked them for a username violation. [22]

With the benefit of hindsight only, it is hard to see how Nihonjoe thought he was acting in the best interests of Wikipedia by continuing to edit articles only he knew he had written while having a direct financial conflict of interest.

Articles he knew at the time had never been reviewed by anyone who knew he had written them with a COI. Which observers would certainly not have thought was the situation as they were seeing it. Not given his status and given he was happily giving advice to new users with a suspected or declared conflict, as he reverted their edits to content he had written with an actual and active COI of equal significance.

It is hard to draw any firm conclusions as to intent, given Nihonjoe's very limited public statements on these matters, but given the need for trusted users to be accountable and transparent and the fact COI is about appearances as much as it is proveable intent or even effect, that is in itself surely a cause for concern. Action Johnson (talk) 15:50, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Evidence presented by DanCherek

Nihonjoe's full protection of Dave Wolverton in 2022

• On 13 January 2022, Nihonjoe applied indefinite full protection to the article Dave Wolverton. The protection reason was: still waiting for a confirmation source, but he just passed away according to several well-known authors, protecting to prevent vandalism. There was no recent history of vandalism [23].
• This prevented anyone who wasn't an administrator from being able to directly make updates to the article, and led to edit requests on the talk page from several editors.
• On 15 January 2022, another administrator lifted the full protection. The unprotection reason was: revert application of full protection per WP:PREEMPTIVE...I can't think of any other deaths that were full protected, and not sure why this would be any different (no recent history of abuse).
• Nihonjoe listed this article among his COIs in March 2024.

DanCherek (talk) 21:50, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Nihonjoe's full protection of Brad R. Torgersen in 2021

• On 11 August 2021, Nihonjoe applied full protection for two weeks to the article Brad R. Torgersen. The protection reason was: Persistent disruptive editing: Slow edit war happening. Take it to the talk page and come to a consensus rather than arguing via edit summary..
• There indeed had been an edit war prior to the full protection [24]. Several IP editors and one registered editor – who was autoconfirmed but not extended-confirmed – were in dispute over the inclusion of details of Torgersen's military service. Some of the disputed content had previously been removed or edited by Nihonjoe in his earlier edits to the article [25][26].
• Nihonjoe listed this article among his COIs in March 2024.

DanCherek (talk) 21:50, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Evidence presented by Fram

Things we can't discuss

It is rather ridiculous that we still have to pretend that Nihonjoe's real life identity is off-limits here, making it much harder to have a practical discussion of his COI edits, where editors (not just passive ArbCom members) may have a meaningful discussion, elaborating (or contradicting) claims made by others. Worse, people can continue to proclaim that we should be very careful and vigilant about outing, for the sake of their privacy, safety, family...

In reality, Nihonjoe has edited about things very close to his life and work for at least 15 years, with many COI and PAID issues, and at least from time to time in a problematic manner. But we are not allowed to mention his name, company, publications. So I can't link to his own Wikidata creations of entries for his supposed real name, own company, other employees of the company, publications from the company, and people they published. Because, well, despite the few reluctant COI declarations, they haven't outright stated that they are that person, so we should pretend that it is some dangerous secret (well, I guess it is a somewhat dangerous secret for them, it would be quite embarassing if people found out that they were giving themselves glowing reviews on review sites with the nihonjoe handle I guess). Which also makes it impossible to provide evidence in public that e.g. already in 2018, the year before Nihonjoe created the DJ Butler article, they called Butler their "good friend" elsewhere.

His incomplete User:Nihonjoe/Contribs/Intro COI declarations seem to indicate a lack of knowledge, even now, of what COI editing is, with the weird repeated insistence on whether they created an article or not, as if that change the nature of the COI in any way.

Missing, for example, is an online wiki where they are an admin, and where they have not only used it often as a source here, but insisted in a discussion that it is a reliable source (contrary to the own claims of the site) without as far as I can see disclosing his COI while doing this. There is quite a big difference between "as a neutral observer, I consider this a reliable source" or "as a major contributor and admin to this source, I consider it to be reliable". But even though they use the same handle there as here, I may not link to it, as, you guessed it, that would presumably be outing somehow, and a blockable offense. Fram (talk) 14:59, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

Oh well, no reason to be coy about it. Nihonjoe brought Brandon Sanderson, BYU alumnus, to GA status, in part by adding numerous citations to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database[27]. The ISFDB is a wiki, see their general disclaimer. The information on Brandon Sanderson, which Nihonjoe used to turn the page into a GA, was verified on the ISFDB during the same period by an admin named ... nihonjoe[28]. Now, I have no way to know if they are the same or not. Would be quite an unhappy coincidence if not. But if they are the same, then there isn't much outing involved if they use the same username and adds links to the site. And if this is considered outing, then our outing policy truly needs adjustments. Oh, and the above mentioned discussion about the reliability of the ISFDB is at Talk:Dan Wells (author)#cns and bsns. An article about a Mormon and BYU alumnus of course, extensively edited by BYU editors (see my new section below), and where Nihonjoe has a direct COI (not declared at the time, declared now on his user page). Fram (talk) 10:33, 12 March 2024 (UTC)

Tool misuse

Apart from instances mentioned by others, and ignoring perhaps barely acceptable protections like at Takao Yaguchi, where an IP had dared to format references differently, there also is what seems to be much more obvious misuse at Japanese archipelago. In June 2021, an editor removed the claim that part of the Japanese archipelago was Russian[29]. Half a year later, another editor adjusted the text as well to align with this[30]. Months later, Nihonjoe reverted the June 2021 edit[31], but was reverted a week later by an IP[32] with an edit summary showing that this was not some vandal edit, but part of an ongoing content dispute. So, the next day Nihonjoe reverts again[33] and then protected the page in their preferred version[34] because of "persistent vandalism", depsite there being no evidence of vandalism or persistence (two edits and editors nearly a year apart?). And sure enough, the "vandalism" was reinstated by yet another GF editor[35] and remains in the article as of now. It may deserve a talk page discussion, but it isn't or wasn't any kind of vandalism or protect-worthy. Fram (talk) 14:59, 11 March 2024 (UTC)

The walled garden

The more I (and others) look into it, the more clear it becomes that beyond the individual problems of Nihonjoe and his COI/PAID editing, we seem to have an issue with a walled garden of Mormon editors associated with the Brigham Young University (BYU), the Harold B. Lee Library of that university, the Association for Mormon Letters and its AML Awards. Some of the editors involved (those openly associating with Wikipedia:GLAM/Harold B. Lee Library and with (BYU) in their user name) at least do some effort to abide by the WP:PAID rules, although even those are e.g. very reluctant to post COI notices on article talk pages. Others, like Nihonjoe, Thmazing, or P_Makoto, seem to do everything they can to disguise the association and pose as editors without a COI. At Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)#Wikipedia in Residence: is this a way around conflict of interest rules? a number of issues have been raised. One can also see e.g. Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Brandon Dayton where Thmazing votes keeps without disclosing his clear COI, or Template:Did you know nominations/Coriantumr (Last Jaredite King) where P-Makoto gives the article a pass without indicating any COI they may have (it later got rejected by a uninvolved editor). Later discussions at Talk:Coriantumr (son of Omer) are also of the same variety. Or when Nihonjoe edits and Rachel Helps reviews to get an article to pass GA (about an artist whose masterpiece hangs in the BYU, of course) at Talk:William Bliss Baker/GA1. Other editors have expressed concerns about the promo nature of the articles, DYKs and GAs from the BYU editors, see e.g. Talk:Orson Scott Card/GA1. See also the Dan Wells issues highlighted in an above section. This is just from a cursory glance through some pages, I guess more examples can easily be found. Fram (talk) 10:33, 12 March 2024 (UTC)

Evidence presented by {your user name}

before using the last evidence template, please make a copy for the next person

{Write your assertion here}

Place argument and diffs which support your assertion; for example, your first assertion might be "So-and-so engages in edit warring", which should be the title of this section. Here you would show specific edits to specific articles which show So-and-so engaging in edit warring.