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RfC proposal for BLOCKEVIDENCE, August 2022

RfC: Updating BLOCKEVIDENCE

{{rfc|policy|prop}}

Should WP:BLOCKEVIDENCE be updated to explicitly allow administrators to make blocks based on off-wiki evidence, as long as that evidence will be made available to all uninvolved administrators and recorded with the Arbitration Committee? 21:51, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

Currently, WP:BLOCKEVIDENCE, WP:ADMIN#Special situations, de facto community practice, and ArbCom's recent statement on Special Circumstances blocks provide inconsistent guidance and are open to varying interpretations. The key point of contention is under which circumstances an administrator may block a user based on evidence that is not shared on-wiki. This disagreement recently received significant attention at the arbitration noticeboard talk page. The proposers of this RfC disagree on the current meaning of BLOCKEVIDENCE, but agree that it is both ambiguous and out-of-date with respect to current practices. It was written 15 years ago, long before the advent of widespread COI/UPE blocks, which are often based on off-wiki evidence such as Upwork postings or, more trivially, Googling a username and finding a social media profile documenting a COI the user has denied.

This proposed change to BLOCKEVIDENCE would explicitly allow administrators to block based on off-wiki evidence as long as that evidence will be made available to any uninvolved administrator upon request. In order to ensure the retention of evidence supporting these blocks, administrators would be required to record the evidence supporting these blocks with the Arbitration Committee when making these blocks.

If ~~a user needs to be blocked~~ an administrator blocks a user based on information that ~~will not be made available to all administrators~~ not all administrators have access to, that information should be submitted to the Arbitration Committee immediately after the block to ensure that the information is recorded in the event of any appeal. These blocks typically should not be marked as "appeal only to ArbCom". Evidence supporting these blocks must be made privately available by the blocking administrator to any uninvolved administrator upon request (e.g. for the purpose of peer review or on appeal). In the event that the blocking administrator is unavailable to transmit the evidence, the Arbitration Committee will do so. ~~sent to the Arbitration Committee or a checkuser or oversighter for action. These editors are qualified to handle non-public evidence, and they operate under strict controls.~~
If the blocking administrator is unwilling to share this evidence with any uninvolved administrator upon request, the administrator may not issue a block. The community has rejected the idea of individual administrators acting on evidence that cannot be peer-reviewed. Instead, the administrator should request action from the Arbitration Committee, or from the CheckUser or Oversight team, as appropriate. These editors are qualified to handle non-public evidence, and they operate under strict controls.

A separate set of requirements apply to ~~An exception is made for~~ administrators holding Checkuser or Oversight privileges; such administrators may block users based on non-public information revealed through the checkuser tool, or on edits that have been suppressed ("oversighted") and are inaccessible to administrators, without emailing the Arbitration Committee. ~~As such, an administrative action is generally viewed to be made in the user's capacity as an oversighter or checkuser, although the action itself is an administrative one.~~ These blocks are considered to be Checkuser or Oversight actions, as appropriate, although the technical action to issue a block is an administrative one. All such blocks are subject to direct review by the Arbitration Committee.

old
If a user needs to be blocked based on information that will not be made available to all administrators, that information should be sent to the Arbitration Committee or a checkuser or oversighter for action. These editors are qualified to handle non-public evidence, and they operate under strict controls. The community has rejected the idea of individual administrators acting on evidence that cannot be peer-reviewed. An exception is made for administrators holding Checkuser or Oversight privileges; such administrators may block users based on non-public information revealed through the checkuser tool, or on edits that have been suppressed ("oversighted") and are inaccessible to administrators. As such, an administrative action is generally viewed to be made in the user's capacity as an oversighter or checkuser, although the action itself is an administrative one. All such blocks are subject to direct review by the Arbitration Committee.

old

If a user needs to be blocked based on information that will not be made available to all administrators, that information should be sent to the Arbitration Committee or a checkuser or oversighter for action. These editors are qualified to handle non-public evidence, and they operate under strict controls. The community has rejected the idea of individual administrators acting on evidence that cannot be peer-reviewed.
An exception is made for administrators holding Checkuser or Oversight privileges; such administrators may block users based on non-public information revealed through the checkuser tool, or on edits that have been suppressed ("oversighted") and are inaccessible to administrators. As such, an administrative action is generally viewed to be made in the user's capacity as an oversighter or checkuser, although the action itself is an administrative one. All such blocks are subject to direct review by the Arbitration Committee.

new
If an administrator blocks a user based on information that not all administrators have access to, that information should be submitted to the Arbitration Committee immediately after the block to ensure that the information is recorded in the event of any appeal. These blocks typically should not be marked as "appeal only to ArbCom". Evidence supporting these blocks must be made privately available by the blocking administrator to any uninvolved administrator upon request (e.g. for the purpose of peer review or on appeal). In the event that the blocking administrator is unavailable to transmit the evidence, the Arbitration Committee will do so. If the blocking administrator is unwilling to share this evidence with any uninvolved administrator upon request, the administrator may not issue a block. The community has rejected the idea of individual administrators acting on evidence that cannot be peer-reviewed. Instead, the administrator should request action from the Arbitration Committee, or from the CheckUser or Oversight team, as appropriate. These editors are qualified to handle non-public evidence, and they operate under strict controls. A separate set of requirements apply to administrators holding Checkuser or Oversight privileges; such administrators may block users based on non-public information revealed through the checkuser tool, or on edits that have been suppressed ("oversighted") and are inaccessible to administrators, without emailing the Arbitration Committee. These blocks are considered to be Checkuser or Oversight actions, as appropriate, although the technical action to issue a block is an administrative one. All such blocks are subject to direct review by the Arbitration Committee.

new

If an administrator blocks a user based on information that not all administrators have access to, that information should be submitted to the Arbitration Committee immediately after the block to ensure that the information is recorded in the event of any appeal. These blocks typically should not be marked as "appeal only to ArbCom". Evidence supporting these blocks must be made privately available by the blocking administrator to any uninvolved administrator upon request (e.g. for the purpose of peer review or on appeal). In the event that the blocking administrator is unavailable to transmit the evidence, the Arbitration Committee will do so.
If the blocking administrator is unwilling to share this evidence with any uninvolved administrator upon request, the administrator may not issue a block. The community has rejected the idea of individual administrators acting on evidence that cannot be peer-reviewed. Instead, the administrator should request action from the Arbitration Committee, or from the CheckUser or Oversight team, as appropriate. These editors are qualified to handle non-public evidence, and they operate under strict controls.
A separate set of requirements apply to administrators holding Checkuser or Oversight privileges; such administrators may block users based on non-public information revealed through the checkuser tool, or on edits that have been suppressed ("oversighted") and are inaccessible to administrators, without emailing the Arbitration Committee. These blocks are considered to be Checkuser or Oversight actions, as appropriate, although the technical action to issue a block is an administrative one. All such blocks are subject to direct review by the Arbitration Committee.

If this proposal is successful, the change would be communicated to all administrators via MassMessage, as has been done with past changes to blocking procedure. Misplaced Pages:Appealing a block would also be updated to reflect this change to blocking policy. Finally, the Arbitration Committee would be recommended to establish a new unmonitored VRTS queue to receive evidence supporting these blocks (distinct from its handling of "appeal only to ArbCom" blocks), with ticket numbers that can be included in the block log.

Co-signed:
-- Tamzin (she|they|xe)
KevinL (aka L235 · t · c)

Administrators are also encouraged to do the same where their interpretation of on-wiki evidence might not be obvious to an administrator reviewing an unblock request—for instance, a sockpuppetry block justified by subtle behavioral "tells".
Administrators are also encouraged to do the same where their interpretation of on-wiki evidence might not be obvious to an administrator reviewing an unblock request—for instance, a sockpuppetry block justified by subtle behavioral "tells".