Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/R.Lemkin

R.Lemkin

R.Lemkin (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)

Populated account categories: confirmed

For archived investigations, see Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/R.Lemkin/Archive.

13 February 2024

– A checkuser has placed this case on hold pending further information or developments.

Suspected sockpuppets

• Phantomette (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• 442DB (talk⁺ · tag · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · spi block · block log · CA · CheckUser(log) · investigate · cuwiki)
• Tools: Editor interaction utility · Interaction Timeline · SPI Tools

R.Lemkin was indefinitely blocked by L235 on behalf of the Arbitration Committee on 22 August 2023. Phantomette, who joined Wikipedia on 10 June 2021 and made minor edits throughout June–August 2021 in what appears to be an effort to meet WP:XC, soon turned into a dormant account and remained so until December 2023, i.e. less than four months into R.Lemkin's ban. At this point, Phantomette reemerged and continued making edits. As soon as the 500-edit threshold was reached, the user shifted to Armenia–Azerbaijan-related articles, in which they had originally been completely inactive. The two accounts can be seen not only interested in the same topics but editing the exact same articles: [1], including quite obscure ones, such as INKAS, adding similar content and removing what both of them distinctly refer to as "promotion" [2] [3]. R.Lemkin was particularly prolific in the article Blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh, while Phantomette is currently actively editing two spin-offs of that article, namely 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh and Flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians (they did not yet exist at the time of R.Lemkin's ban). The style of the edit summaries of the two accounts is visibly identical. Meanwhile, 442DB is another suspicious account with similar interests and edit summaries. Parishan (talk) 20:36, 13 February 2024 (UTC)

• @Moneytrees In my opinion, this goes beyond sharing POVs and editing in the same topic area. The syntax and word choice in the edit summaries are identical, and some of the phrases are too idiosyncratic to be merely coincidental.

  • "citation overkill"
    • R.Lemkin: [4]
    • Phantomette: [5] [6] [7]
  • "tightened up the language / the wording"
    • R.Lemkin: [8] [9]
    • Phantomette: [10] [11]
  • "removed redundant text"
    • R.Lemkin: [12] [13] [14] [15]
    • Phantomette: [16] [17]
  • "removed / broke run-on sentence"
    • R.Lemkin: [18]
    • Phantomette: [19]
  • "juxtaposing"
    • R.Lemkin: [20]
    • Phantomette: [21]
  • "added Lemkin Institute reaction / statement"
    • R.Lemkin: [22] [23] [24]
    • Phantomette: [25] [26]

  Parishan (talk) 23:48, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

Comments by other users

Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.

To me the behavioral evidence looks very compelling. Since R.Lemkin was banned by the arbitration committee, maybe the arbcom should be notified about this SPI report as well? Grandmaster 09:16, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

It is also of note that both accounts use the same editing tools, such as 2017 wikitext editor: [27] [28] Grandmaster 09:51, 3 March 2024 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

•  Check declined by a checkuser -  Stale. Reaper Eternal (talk) 21:35, 14 February 2024 (UTC)
• Parishan-- Could you provide more evidence of overlap here? I see some similarities-- enough to be suspicious-- but not enough to block on. It needs to go further than the article overlap-- just because people share similar POVs and edit large articles in the same topic area doesn't mean they're a sock. Moneytrees🏝️(Talk) 21:50, 19 March 2024 (UTC)

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