Wikipedia:Threats of violence
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This page describes the attitude and response of some Wikipedians to threats of violence on Wikipedia. It is not a policy or guideline, and editors are not obliged to follow it.
Please update the page as needed, or discuss it on the talk page. |
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An earlier version of this page was proposed as a policy or guideline but did not gain consensus. |
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This page in a nutshell: Specific threats of violence are serious, and should be reported. |
Police and emergency authorities generally offer the advice that if a specific threat is made it should be taken seriously and reported immediately if possible.[1]
Should a threat be made on Wikipedia against a person, institution or building, it is unlikely the community of editors, including administrators, will be able to make an appropriate "real world" response. Accordingly, if there is any possibility that a "real world" threat has been made, it should immediately be reported to authorities, and consideration should be given to posting a note at Wikipedia's Administrator's noticeboard for Incidents, or through our 'OTRS' email notification system, where help can be received to quickly address the matter. [2]
All threats are to be taken seriously, and to minimize distraction and disruption on Wikipedia, consider: Report. Revert. Ignore. Consider reporting threats of violence including terrorism and homicide to your local law enforcement agencies or the law enforcement agencies that have jurisdiction where the threat was issued or where the threat says the violence will occur.
[edit] Incidents
- An example of a shooting threat: it was reported to AIV, and was reported to the police. A threat that mentioned names was oversighted, and another was deleted.
- Threat of homicide to a high school, which was reported to police.
- A terrorist threat which was reported to Department of Homeland Security.
[edit] References / External Advice
- ^
- Violent threats on Wilson High's Wikipedia page went unchecked - "Parents and students cannot be expected to police the sites alone, said Los Angeles County Sheriff's Det. Dan Jackson. "How do you make them accountable for policing it? It's pretty much impossible," he said. "Somebody with authority, like the administrator, should be monitoring it" and reporting threats to police, because "we certainly can't cruise the Internet on thousands of sites."
- The Met. Police in UK - "we continue to urge both the public and the business community to remain vigilant at all times and to report anything suspicious or unusual to police."
- NSW (State of Australia) advice - "it may be the missing piece that police need."
- Federal Australian Advice - "Every Detail Helps"
- SHS gets threat of violence - "people within the area are encouraged to contact the police department"
- abc7.com "extra security is taken at a high school after a threat is made on wikipedia"
- Violent threats on Wilson High's Wikipedia page went unchecked - "Sheriff's investigators said that after Wikipedia staff notified them of the first threat at 10:30 p.m. April 16, they assigned 13 detectives to the case and notified the six students mentioned in the threat, along with their families. They also dispatched officers to patrol outside the students' homes."
- ^ Jimbo Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, has advised "it is very important that we respond appropriately to threats" and "I encourage people to err on the side of caution and report things to AN/I quickly." [1]
