Wikipedia Bans Seven Chinese Users Amid Concerns of 'Infiltration, Physical Harm'

Thelasko writes: The Wikimedia Foundation has revealed efforts to gather personal information on some Chinese Wikipedia editors by entities opposed to their activities on the platform and likely to threaten the targets' privacy or well-being. The foundation's response has been to ban seven users in mainland China, cancel sysop privileges for another dozen, and warn plenty more Wikipedia editors to modify their behaviour. The bans and warnings were revealed in a Monday letter from Maggie Dennis, the foundation's vice president of community resilience and sustainability. This move followed the detection of what Dennis described in a statement as 'information about infiltration of Wikimedia systems, including positions with access to personally identifiable information and elected bodies of influence.'

The foundation contracted a security firm, which assessed that the ongoing situation 'placed multiple users at risk.' Dennis's letter describes the exposure of personal information of Chinese editors, and states 'we know that some users have been physically harmed as a result.' The Wikimedia Foundation therefore decided some of the perpetrators had to be sanctioned. 'We have banned seven users and desysopped a further 12 as a result of long and deep investigations into activities around some members of the unrecognized group Wikimedians of Mainland China,' Dennis wrote. 'We have also reached out to a number of other editors with explanations around canvassing guidelines and doxing policies and requests to modify their behaviors.' The letter and statement don't explain the source of the conflict, but do mention 'recent world events' as one catalyst.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.