Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2022-02-27/Arbitration report

Arbitration report

Parties remonstrate, arbs contemplate, skeptics coordinate

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By JPxG

So here's what happened this month.

Discretionary sanctions shakeup

A very large announcement was made regarding a number of very old discretionary sanctions, which the Committee began a process to review last month. The beginning of this process was covered in last month's arbitration report; its conclusion will be covered in this one. Essentially, a number of sanctions were lifted in areas where they hadn't been relevant for years, or in some cases, over a decade. The full list of sanctions lifted are:
Senkaku Islands (instituted in 2011)
Waldorf education (instituted in 2013)
Ancient Egyptian race controversy (instituted in 2014)
Landmark Worldwide (instituted in 2015)
Transcendental Meditation movement (instituted in 2011)

Additionally, some article probation remedies were abolished:

Remedy 5 ("Mentorship") of the Neuro-linguistic programming case (instituted in 2006)
Remedy 2.1 ("Article probation") of the Occupation of Latvia case (instituted in 2007)
Remedy 2 ("Article-related Probation") of the Shiloh case (instituted in 2006)
Remedy 14.3 ("Articles semi-protected") of the Obama articles case (instituted in 2009)
- Finding of Fact 3 ("Articles placed on probation") of the Obama articles case (instituted in 2008), which was the subject of a 2009 review in Remedy 1.1 ("Article probation review") and addressed by a March 2015 ANI thread

Cases and motions

Timwi, an administrator who gained the bit in 2003, was the subject of a case this month regarding the use of administrator tools in content disputes; a lengthy arbitration request with statements from many parties concluded with a February 11 motion warning him that "the use of the administrator toolset must conform to the policies set by the community". The Committee further said that it would consider "any further misuse of the toolset within a two-year period to be immediate cause for opening de-sysop proceedings".
Another case was opened, this one regarding Jonathunder. It bore strong similarities to the Timwi case – a user who had been an administrator for nearly two decades (in this case since 2006) was accused of inappropriate tool use during a content dispute. While the Committee accepted the case request, Jonathunder's lack of response to the proceedings caused it to be suspended on the 26th. During this time, Jonathunder was temporarily desysopped, pending the outcome of the case. The case will automatically close in six months with a permanent desysop if Jonathunder does not return to Wikipedia and request the case to be resumed.
The Skepticism and coordinated editing case, accepted by the Committee and covered by The Signpost last month, has proceeded. Since I made a preliminary statement in the case urging it to be accepted, I will again err on the side of caution and not go into too much detail. Various pieces of additional evidence were supplied, the evidence phase was closed, the workshop phase took place, and the proposed decisions are currently being voted on by arbitrators.
HazelBasil and SquareInARoundHole were placed under a mutual interaction ban by a February 11 motion, with SquareInARoundHole additionally being forbidden to edit a specific article under dispute.

Miscellaneous goings-on

Miki Filigranski was unblocked on January 30, following a successful appeal of a May 2021 indefinite block.
Following a period of inactivity, the checkuser and oversight rights of Callanecc were removed on February 2. On behalf of the Committee, Maxim thanked Callanecc for his service as a functionary.
The Committee made a general comment, in which it was clarified that the granting of an appeal regarding sanctions "does not necessarily mean that the initial decision that resulted in the sanction was incorrect at the time, unless the appeal announcement specifically says so". Moreover, the Committee said that they would "continue to consult with the community, or to have appeals posted for review by the community, in appropriate cases".

Enforcement requests

Arbitration enforcement action appeal by FDW777, on February 1, was closed with the sanction being lifted.
Just another Wikipedian editor, on February 2, was closed after Just another Wikipedian editor was blocked as a sock.
Clean Copy, on February 3, was closed with Clean Copy topic-banned from Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy, broadly construed.
71.114.58.144, on February 3, resulted in the IP address in question being blocked for six months as a standard administrative action.
207.47.175.199 was closed with no action on February 11.
Ypatch was also closed with no action, on February 12.
Arbitration enforcement action appeal by Iskandar323 closed with the duration of Iskandar323's topic ban being "reduced to time served" on February 13.
Grandmaster, on February 18, closed with Grandmaster being indefinitely topic-banned from the Armenia–Azerbaijan topic area.
Iskandar323, on February 18, was closed without action, and with the filer cautioned against filing arbitration enforcement requests without having attempted prior venues of dispute resolution.
Venkat TL, closed on February 18 with no action taken and a reminder issued to involved parties to "moderate their tone, and to refrain from edit warring".
Mzajac, February 19, was closed as an issue beyond the remit of arbitration enforcement (namely, an accusation of administrator misconduct).
Hemantha was closed without action on February 22, with an exhortation to exhaust other means of dispute resolution before requesting arbitration enforcement.
Kautilya3, February 22, was withdrawn by the filer.
ObtuseAngles, February 26, was closed after the user in question was blocked as a sock.

Three enforcement requests are currently open:

ARCAs

Two clarification requests were opened this month: Non-ARBPIA Western Asia disruption (closed) and Palestine-Israel articles (still open).

Enforcement log

There have been a total of 87 enforcement actions logged this month.

Abortion: 1 semi-protection
American politics 2: 7 semi-protections and 1 indefinite PC.
Armenia-Azerbaijan 2: 1 warning, 1 topic ban and 1 semi-protection
Biographies of Living Persons: 1 topic-ban vacated and 10 semi-protections
BLP issues on British politics articles: 1 indefinite PC.
COVID-19: 3 EC-protections and 5 semi-protections
Eastern Europe: 6 EC-protections and 31 semi-protections
Gender and sexuality: 1 semi-protection, 1 PC and 1 indefinitite article ban
India-Pakistan-Afghanistan: 1 EC-protection and three semi-protections
Iranian politics: 1 PC
Kurds and Kurdistan: 1 semi-protection
Macedonia: 1 semi-protection
Palestine-Israel articles: 6 EC-protections
Pseudoscience: 1 topic ban and one semi-protection