Wikipedia:Contentious topics
Wikipedia Arbitration |
---|
![]() |
|
Track related changes |
Discretionary sanctions are a form of sanction imposed by administrators acting on the authority of the Arbitration Committee. The Committee generally authorizes discretionary sanctions for use in a particular topic area, which is referred to as the "area of conflict".
The discretionary sanctions process is summarised as follows:
- Discretionary sanctions are a fast-track procedure to tackle misconduct within defined topic areas and/or to prevent disputes from within the defined topic area overflowing freely into other areas of the encyclopedia;
- Discretionary sanctions may be imposed by any uninvolved administrator after giving due warning;
- Best practice includes seeking additional input prior to applying a novel sanction or when a reasonable, uninvolved editor may question whether the sanction is within the scope of the relevant case;
- Warnings should be clear and unambiguous, link to the decision authorising the sanctions, identify misconduct and advise how the editor may mend their ways;
- Notices of imposed sanctions should specify the misconduct for which they have been imposed as well as the appeal process;
- Discretionary sanctions have an established and clearly defined appeal process, which must be adhered to;
- Overturning arbitration enforcement actions out of process is strictly prohibited per longstanding principle;
- Discretionary sanctions should be used with caution where the community is already dealing with the specific issue through dispute resolution processes.
Sanctions
Discretionary sanctions are authorised for areas of conflict by the Arbitration Committee, usually following an arbitration case relating to the area in question. The wording of the discretionary sanctions provision is either:
- As specified in the case decision page or other announcement of the decision; or
- As in the standard wording, which are specified in the panel below.
In either case, unless otherwise explicitly stated, the contents of this page and other relevant sources constitute authoritative guidance to administrators on the use of discretionary sanctions. Of particular importance are Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Procedures#Reversal of enforcement actions and Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Procedures#Discretionary sanctions.
Authorization
Any uninvolved administrator may, on his or her own discretion, impose sanctions on any editor working on a page within the area of conflict (or for whom discretionary sanctions have otherwise been authorized) if, despite being warned, that editor repeatedly or seriously fails to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behavior, or any normal editorial process. The sanctions imposed may include blocks of up to one year in length; bans from editing any page or set of pages within the area of conflict; bans on any editing related to a topic within the area of conflict or its closely related topics; restrictions on reverts or other specified behaviors; imposition of mandated external review; or any other measures which the imposing administrator believes are reasonably necessary to ensure the smooth functioning of the project.
Warnings
Prior to any sanctions being imposed, the editor in question shall be given a warning with a link to the decision authorizing sanctions; and, where appropriate, should be counseled on specific steps that he or she can take to improve his or her editing in accordance with relevant policies and guidelines.
Appeal
Discretionary sanctions imposed under these provisions may be appealed to the imposing administrator, the appropriate noticeboard (currently Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Enforcement), or the Committee. Administrators are cautioned not to reverse such sanctions without familiarizing themselves with the full facts of the matter and engaging in extensive discussion and consensus-building at the administrators’ noticeboard or another suitable on-wiki venue. The Committee will consider appropriate remedies including suspension or revocation of adminship in the event of violations.
Logging
All sanctions imposed under the provisions of a particular arbitration case are to be logged in the appropriate section of the case page.
Guidance
For administrators
In determining whether to impose sanctions on a given user and which sanctions to impose, administrators should use their judgment and balance the need to assume good faith and avoid biting genuinely inexperienced editors, and the desire to allow responsible contributors maximum freedom to edit, with the need to reduce edit-warring and misuse of Wikipedia as a battleground, so as to create an acceptable collaborative editing environment even on our most contentious articles.
Administrators must also follow the Committee procedures set down at Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Procedures#Discretionary sanctions.
{{Uw-sanctions}} can be used to satisfy the "Warning" provision of the discretionary sanctions process. A warning need not be issued by an administrator; see the template's documentation for further details.
For editors
Editors wishing to edit in these areas are advised to edit carefully, to adopt Wikipedia’s communal approaches (including appropriate conduct, dispute resolution, neutral point of view, no original research and verifiability) in their editing, and to amend behaviors that are deemed to be of concern by administrators. An editor unable or unwilling to do so may wish to restrict their editing to other topics, in order to avoid sanctions.
Affected areas
- The following list is stored at Template:Contentious topics/list.
The following topics are currently designated as contentious topics. The italicised link after each topic names the associated arbitration decision.
- Pages relating to Abortion (Abortion)
- All edits about, and all pages related to post-1992 politics of the United States and closely related people, broadly construed. (American politics 2)
- All edits about, and all pages related to anti-Semitism and Jewish history in Poland, specifically in relation to World War II and The Holocaust. (Antisemitism in Poland)
- Pages relating to Armenia, Azerbaijan, or related ethnic conflicts (Armenia-Azerbaijan 2)
- Pages relating to Climate change (Climate change)
- All edits about, and all articles related to, COVID-19, broadly construed. (COVID-19)
- Any edit about, and all pages relating to, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (Acupuncture)
- Pages relating to Eastern Europe or the Balkans (Eastern Europe)
- Articles with biographical content relating to living or recently deceased people, and edits relating to the subject (living or recently deceased) of such biographical articles (Editing of Biographies of Living Persons)
- Pages relating to Falun Gong (Falun Gong)
- All edits about, and all pages related to, any gender-related disputes or controversies or people associated with them (Gender and sexuality)
- All pages relating to genetically modified organisms and agricultural biotechnology, including glyphosate, broadly interpreted (Genetically modified organisms)
- Any edit about, and all pages relating to, the governmental regulation of firearm ownership; the social, historical and political context of such regulation; and the people and organizations associated with these issues (Gun control)
- Pages relating to the Horn of Africa (defined as including Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and adjoining areas if involved in related disputes) (Horn of Africa)
- Pages relating to India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan (India-Pakistan, motion)
- All edits about, and all pages related to, post-1978 Iranian politics, broadly construed. (Iranian politics)
- Discussions about infoboxes and to edits adding, deleting, collapsing, or removing verifiable information from infoboxes (Civility in infobox discussions).
- The topics of Kurds and Kurdistan, broadly construed. (Kurds and Kurdistan)
- Pages relating to the Manual of Style and article titles policy (Article titles and capitalisation)
- Pages relating to the Arab-Israeli conflict (Palestine-Israel articles)
- Pages relating to Pseudoscience and Fringe science (Pseudoscience)
- Pages relating to the intersection of race/ethnicity and human abilities and behaviour (Race and intelligence)
- This includes restoring edits by banned editors in the Race and intelligence topic area (motion)
- Pages relating to Sri Lanka (motion)
- Pages relating to The Troubles, Irish nationalism, and British nationalism in relation to Ireland (The Troubles)
Previously authorised
The following topics have previously been designated as contentious topics, or had discretionary sanctions authorised under the previously used procedure, but this designation has been rescinded or superseded by later cases. The italicised link after each topic names the associated arbitration decision.
- Pages related to the Austrian school of economics and the Ludwig von Mises Institute (Austrian economics)
- Ayn Rand and related pages (Ayn Rand)
- Pages relating to Cold fusion (Cold fusion 2)
- Discussions about the integration of Wikidata on the English Wikipedia (Crosswiki issues; expired by its own terms one year after authorization)
- Pages relating to Gibraltar (Gibraltar)
- Pages relating to Homeopathy (Homeopathy)
- Any page relating to or any edit about: (i) the Gender Gap Task Force; (ii) the gender disparity among Wikipedians; and (iii) any process or discussion relating to these topics, all broadly construed (Interactions at GGTF)
- Pages relating to the Balkans (Macedonia); incorporated into the Eastern Europe discretionary sanctions by motion
- All pages related to the Monty Hall problem, broadly interpreted (Monty Hall problem)
- Pages dealing with transgender issues including Chelsea Manning and paraphilia classification (e.g. hebephilia) (Sexology and Manning naming dispute); superseded by the GamerGate decision (which was later superseded by Gender and sexuality by motion)
- All edits about, and all pages related to, (a) GamerGate, (b) any gender-related dispute or controversy, (c) people associated with (a) or (b), all broadly construed (GamerGate); superseded by Gender and sexuality by motion
- Pages relating to the Tea Party movement (Tea Party movement)
- The topic covered by the article currently located at tree shaping, interpreted broadly (Tree shaping)
- Pages relating to the Senkaku Islands topic area (Senkaku Islands)
- Pages relating to Waldorf education (Waldorf education)
- Pages relating to Scientology (Scientology, motion)
- The topic of Landmark Worldwide, broadly construed (Landmark Worldwide, motion)
- Pages relating to the Ancient Egyptian race controversy, and associated articles (Ancient Egyptian race controversy)
- Pages relating to Transcendental meditation (Transcendental Meditation movement)
- Pages relating to Muhammad (Muhammad images))
- The topic of Electronic cigarettes, broadly construed (Editor conduct in e-cigs articles)
- Pages relating to Liancourt Rocks (Liancourt Rocks)
- Pages related to longevity, broadly construed (Longevity)
- All discussions about pharmaceutical drug prices and pricing and for edits adding, changing, or removing pharmaceutical drug prices or pricing from articles (Medicine)
- Pages relating to the September 11 attacks (September 11 conspiracy theories)
- Pages relating to the Shakespeare authorship question (Shakespeare authorship question)
See also
- Boilerplate warning text for discretionary sanctions
- Full list of general sanctions
- Committee review of the DS system, 2013–14 (the review was conducted on the review talk page)