Wikipedia:BLP deletion process

Purpose

CSD G10 currently provides for the speedy deletion of articles or other pages that are comprised primarily of unreferenced negative information concerning living persons, where the problem cannot be remedied by reverting to an earlier version of the article or removal of the offending information, or where such a remedy would itself result in a page subject to speedy deletion on other grounds. However, a number of administrators have asserted that biographies of living persons which are well-sourced, but which are deemed to constitute harmful publicity created through no fault of the article's subject, are also subject to speedy deletion. Attempts to speedily delete articles on the grounds of "harmful publicity" have often resulted in extensive wheel warring and other disruption, as described in Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Badlydrawnjeff. This proposal aims to (1) provide a means by which to quickly delete articles which constitute "harmful publicity (2) a means by which to prevent on-wiki discussion of such deletions from generating additional "harmful publicity", (3) avenues by which to appeal the deletion of articles asserted to constitute "harmful publicity" and to prevent the abuse of the deletion process, and (4) a method for the prevention of wheel-warring over deletions and other disruption.

New speedy deletion criterion

Any administrator may speedily delete an article or other page which primarily provides publicity which is harmful to a living person who is the subject of the article, where the publicity was created through no fault of the article's subject, and the problem cannot be remedied by reversion to an earlier version of the article or removal of the offending content, or such a remedy, if applied, would result in a page subject to speedy deletion under the existing criteria, provided that "WP:BLP" is cited in the deletion summary. Additionally, if the reason for the deletion of a biography of a living person might not be immediately obvious, it is recommended (though not required) that the deleting administrator add an explanation of the specific grounds for deletion to the article before deleting it, so as to assist in the review of the deletion.

Prohibited acts related to deleted pages

No administrator should undelete articles which have been deleted with "WP:BLP" cited in the deletion summary, except as expressly permitted in the "Permissible avenues of appeal" section. Any administrator who undeletes an article in violation of this provision may be subject to emergency desysopping. On-wiki discussion of articles which have been deleted with "WP:BLP" cited in the deletion summary is prohibited in any fora, including but not limited to WP:DRV, until/unless the articles have been undeleted through the proper process. Editors who post discussion of such articles in violation of this provision may be warned and blocked; the offending discussion may be removed, and deleted from the history of the page(s) into which it was inserted.

Permissible avenues of appeal

Editors who believe that articles were improperly deleted with "WP:BLP" cited in the deletion summary may appeal such deletions privately to the Arbitration Committee via email. Under no circumstances should a request for arbitration concerning the deletion of articles for which "WP:BLP" is cited as a justification be posted on-wiki. The Arbitration Committee may examine the deleted articles, and order the undeletion of any articles found to have been deleted improperly. The Arbitration Committee may also sanction administrators who improperly invoke "WP:BLP" as a justification for the speedy deletion of articles, including desysopping if necessary, without a request for arbitration having been filed on-wiki. If an administrator has been deleting articles with "WP:BLP" cited in the deletion summary in a manner that is clearly frivolous and disruptive, an editor may contact a steward on #wikimedia-stewards, or through another off-wiki method of communication. If a steward finds that an administrator has been invoking "WP:BLP" to justify clearly frivolous deletions, he/she is empowered to summarily desysop the offending administrator, and to undelete any articles deleted in such a frivolous manner. It is anticipated that a steward would quickly respond to a report of this nature on #wikimedia-stewards, and that frivolously deleted articles would be restored in a short period of time. Desysoppings and undeletions under this provision would be subject to review by the Arbitration Committee.