Wikipedia:English Wikipedia non-discrimination policy

The following is a draft working towards a proposal for adoption as a Wikipedia policy, guideline, or process.
The proposal must not be taken to represent consensus, but is still in development and under discussion, and has not yet reached the process of gathering consensus for adoption. Thus references or links to this page should not describe it as policy, guideline, nor yet even as a proposal.

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We already have some rules on how editors should behave here – our code of conduct includes a civility policy, a harassment policy, vandalism policy, and one to prevent personal attacks against editors, specifying ten protected classes. We would like to propose a non-discrimination policy for the English Wikipedia. It would prevent discrimination against additional protected classes and in any instance, more than just editor-to-editor disputes. If there is support, we would propose that the entire Wikipedia community develop this into a policy.

There is enormous precedent behind such a policy, with non-discrimination laws in:

United States ∙ Canada ∙ United Kingdom ∙ European Union ∙ Full list of national laws

Non-discrimination policy for Wikimedia events, on Meta
Non-discrimination policy for Wikimedia technical spaces
Non-discrimination policy for Wikimedia New York City events
Non-discrimination policy for Wikimedia Foundation employees and contractors
Wikimedia Foundation non-discrimination policy for current or prospective users, active from 2006 to 2017
Wikidata has a list of non-discrimination policies at various language Wikipedias.^[1]
2009 proposal for a non-discrimination policy largely mirroring WP:NPA

This proposal is co-nominated by User:Ɱ, User:Thsmi002 and User:PointsofNoReturn. Please feel free to add your name here if you wish to co-sponsor this or help in its development and approval process!

The intent of the non-discrimination policy is to make English Wikipedia an accessible place where anyone can contribute and a community which anyone is welcome to join. Discrimination negatively affects editor retention.

Proposed non-discrimination policy

The English Wikipedia community is committed to maintaining open, inclusive, and productive environments. We invite people of all attributes to join and participate in the community, and thus this policy prohibits any discrimination based on identity.^[2] This policy also prohibits users from engaging in hate speech: verbal, written, or visual discrimination; harassment; threats; or violence on the basis of any of those factors.^[3] This policy prohibits discrimination and hate speech even if the targeted individual or group does not identify as, or is not seen as, part of the protected class they are targeted for.

The community supports equal opportunity through this policy, especially regarding user rights requests and reviews, grant applications, and admission to WikiProjects and other associations on the English Wikipedia, as well as informal boards and committees.

Examples

Discriminatory practices affected by this policy include but are not limited to:

Discriminatory language (serious, lighthearted, humor, or satire) either from one user to another or generally stated. This includes user pages, any talk pages, pages intended for humor, or any similar spaces.
Prejudice, stereotypes, and profiling against members of protected groups.
Obstructing changes to articles that aim to improve accessibility for readers (see MOS:ACCESS).
Attempts to delete content such as articles, categories, templates, files, data, etc. or an article’s text, images, or other media for discriminatory reasons.
Placing unreasonable requirements, conditions, or practices that disadvantage individuals or groups based on their characteristics.
Article creation or individual edits to an article that add undue bias or perpetuate stereotypes against protected groups.
Granting or reviewing user rights with prejudice against any protected classes the user is or is seen to be a part of.

Posting of personal information

Revealing a user's protected class that is not public on Wikipedia, in the course of discriminatory misconduct or a following discussion about the misconduct, is sufficient grounds for an immediate block. Posting another user's personal information is considered harassment, unless that person has voluntarily posted his or her own information, or links to such information, on Wikipedia. Posting such information about another user is an unjustifiable and uninvited invasion of privacy and may place that user at risk of harm outside their activities on Wikipedia.

Any edit that "outs" someone must be reverted promptly, followed by a request for oversight to delete that edit from Wikipedia permanently. Any administrator may redact it pending oversight, even when the administrator is involved. If a user has previously posted their own personal information but later redacted it, it should not be repeated on Wikipedia, although references to still-existing, self-disclosed information are not considered outing. If the previously posted information has been removed by oversight, then repeating it on Wikipedia is considered outing. Threats to out a user will be treated as a personal attack and are prohibited.

If you see a user post personal information about another person, do not confirm or deny the accuracy of the information. Doing so would give the person posting the information, and anyone else who saw the page, feedback on the accuracy of the material. For the same reason, do not treat incorrect attempts at outing any differently from correct attempts. When reporting an attempted outing take care not to comment on the accuracy of the information. Outing should usually be described as "an attempted outing" or similar, to make it clear that the information may or may not be true, and it should be made clear to the users blocked for outing that the block log and notice does not confirm the information.

If you have accidentally posted anything that might lead to your being outed (including but not limited to inadvertently editing while logged out, which reveals your IP address, and thus, your approximate location), it is important that you act promptly to have the edit(s) oversighted. Do not otherwise draw attention to the information. Referring to still-existing, self-disclosed posted information is not considered outing, and so the failure of a user to have the information redacted in a timely manner may remove it from protection by this policy.

Consequences for violations

Users who violate this Non-Discrimination Policy are to initially be given warnings, and may face serious consequences such as blocks, community bans, or arbitration. Single incidents of user-to-user personal attacks related to a user's protected class will result in a 24-hour site-wide block. Subsequent misconduct of a similar nature will result in incrementally longer blocks. Incidents of altering content or preventing users from rights, access to groups, and similar offenses, as well as a pattern of discriminatory statements or actions will result in a block with a minimum term of 30 days. Users should feel free to report violations of this policy to an uninvolved administrator, or report at Wikipedia:Discrimination noticeboard.^[4]

Notes

^ Currently, all these policies refer to the policy which WMF has for its own staff. However, the WMF policy does not claim to apply to the Wikimedia community.
^ This proposal for protecting marginalized people may be simply passed given agreement that a policy needs to be in place to protect them on Wikipedia. Following this, debate could take place over specifically which identities should be protected. These identities have been recommended so far.
^ One exclusion applies: users may add text or media to articles, drafts, portals, and other spaces for readers that depicts hate speech in an appropriate context, e.g. an antisemitic poster in the article Antisemitism.
^ The developing user reporting system may supersede this noticeboard if or when it becomes available to use.

[1] Currently, all these policies refer to the policy which WMF has for its own staff. However, the WMF policy does not claim to apply to the Wikimedia community.

[2] This proposal for protecting marginalized people may be simply passed given agreement that a policy needs to be in place to protect them on Wikipedia. Following this, debate could take place over specifically which identities should be protected. These identities have been recommended so far.

[3] One exclusion applies: users may add text or media to articles, drafts, portals, and other spaces for readers that depicts hate speech in an appropriate context, e.g. an antisemitic poster in the article Antisemitism.

[4] The developing user reporting system may supersede this noticeboard if or when it becomes available to use.

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