Can you tell us what MENA stands for? From, I dream of horses She/her
> On Dec 6, 2022, at 8:28 AM, Wikimedia Trust and Safety <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Hello all, > > On December 6th 2022, the Foundation undertook 16 global bans to users who > were engaging in conflict of interest editing on Wikipedia projects in the > MENA region. While we are unable to discuss Foundation office actions in > detail due to legal limitations and for the safety of our communities, we > would like to speak a little more to this situation as it involves the safety > and security of all of us. > > As Wikimedia projects have risen in prominence across the world, it has > attracted increasing attention of those who would like to control the > information published on it, for political or other reasons. Community > members have addressed concerns of this sort for many years, but sometimes > volunteers who intervene in such cases may themselves face retaliation for > their actions. The Foundation does its best to support volunteers in such > cases, in order to preserve their safety. > > In January of 2022, the Foundation began an investigation into alleged > conflict of interest editing on Wikipedia projects in the MENA region. In > that investigation, we were able to confirm that a number of users with close > connections with external parties were editing the platform in a coordinated > fashion to advance the aim of those parties. These connections are a source > of serious concern for the safety of our users that go beyond the capacity of > the local language project communities targeted to address. Due to the > gravity of this situation, and in order to keep our users and the projects > safe, the Foundation issued these 16 global bans. > > Such actions can be distressing to those who know individuals involved and to > those who don’t. They can cause volunteers to mistrust each other and to > mistrust the Foundation and to be unsure if they can safely contribute. We > are unable to share more details about this situation due to the reasons > mentioned above, but we want to assure you that the Foundation will continue > to explore various ways to keep everyone safe and free to contribute to the > projects. We want to thank those community members across the globe who > address such situations every day and encourage all of you to consider how to > be safe in your volunteer activities. We recognize that as we move forward, > we will need to work with our communities to find a global process to > navigate safety challenges that allow such situations to be dealt with as > transparently as possible while also prioritising avoiding risk to the safety > of our users. > > For anyone who feels unsafe on Wikimedia projects we encourage you to use the > local community processes or to contact us for assistance. The Foundation and > the community will work together, or in parallel, to enhance the safety of > all users whenever necessary with whatever means we can. > > To contact the Trust & Safety team please email [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>g. > > Kind regards, > > WMF Office/Trust and Safety > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l > Public archives at > https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/NJUOKYM2UTKFH53OKGIXW6OSEEDUI3AL/ > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
_______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list -- [email protected], guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l Public archives at https://lists.wikimedia.org/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/SOYG4CIA6H7WMAMWGRZWT3HJXPFEFVCJ/ To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
