Stories

A deadly threat

The community shares threats with the Foundation when they find them. When an anonymous poster made an alleged bomb threat, we found that the edit was made from an IP address that was near the apparent threat location. As permitted by our Privacy Policy, we alerted local police, passing on the IP address and details we had about the threat. The police informed us they had located and arrested the person in question, who allegedly had weapons available and reportedly confessed.

Protecting schools

Our community members are vigilant. We work with them to address rare threats of harm that they encounter on the Wikimedia projects. In one such case, community members told us about a shooting threat, made against a school in the United States. We reported the user’s IP address and user agent information to the FBI, as allowed under our Privacy Policy in these circumstances. They passed the information on to local police, who identified the person who made the threat and prevented the situation from escalating.

Representation of efforts to raise awareness of suicide for world suicide awareness day

Dealing with suicide

Authorities advise contacting emergency services when a loved one threatens suicide. When someone shared what appeared to be a credible intent to commit suicide, we notified their local police department. The person was able to get medical help, and later let us know they were okay. If you are considering suicide, please seek out a mental health professional immediately. You can also contact emergency services; visit an emergency room or psychiatric walk-in clinic; or call a suicide prevention hotline.

Augsburger Wunderzeichenbuch — Folio 123? „Monster bei Salzburg festgenommen worden“

Plot twist

Wikipedia can be a great place to learn about new films or TV shows. Sometimes, information becomes public and is added to articles before a project is released. In January, we received a Digital Millennium Copyright Act request from a media company to remove the plot summary of an animated movie about training mythological beasts from English Wikipedia. To ensure proper evaluation of DMCA notices, we require requesting parties to provide us all the necessary information. Since the request in this case did not meet the DMCA standards, we asked the company to provide the missing details. They did not respond, so the summary remained on the projects.

Thomas Leopold I in a costume for a horse-ballet

Prince Charming

In February, a self-identified European prince requested that we add his name to the Italian Wikipedia article about princes in his region. We referred him to the community of editors, and informed him of Wikipedia’s policy on verifiability. As it turns out, he had already personally tried to make the edits to the article, and then called other editors names when they found his edits lacked independent verifiability. Without such sources, the community of editors removed the alleged prince’s edits from the article.

Elvis Presley - TV Radio Mirror, March 1957

All shook up

We recently received a complaint from a music fan, who expressed concern about Wikipedia’s coverage of American musicians Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. The sender took issue with the two singers’ articles, particularly information about their respective record sales and causes of death, and went on to accuse Wikipedia of pro-Elvis bias. We recommended that the sender work with the Wikipedia community to resolve their concerns, provided that they support their corrections with neutral, verifiable sources.

Licensing mistake

Members of the Wikimedia communities strive to ensure that all material on the projects is freely licensed or otherwise properly available. Sometimes, however, incorrectly licensed material from elsewhere unfortunately turns up on the projects. In January, a photographer sent us a DMCA notice regarding some of their work on Wikimedia Commons, our repository for free-use images and other media. Unfortunately, someone else had uploaded and freely licensed their copyrighted image, without the photographer’s permission. The image had made its way onto Commons, with the incorrect licensing information. We reviewed the request, confirmed that the requester did indeed own the image’s copyright, and took the photo down from Commons.