Training modules/Dealing with online harassment/slides/investigating-reports

Off-wiki harassment: Investigating reports

When you receive a complaint about off-wiki harassment, it may or may not say who the reporting party believes the perpetrator is. If it does include such an allegation, your first priority should be to verify, if possible, this claim: is the Wikipedia user actually the same user as whoever is doing the off-wiki harassment? A user in distress may not be a reliable judge. It is always possible for a malicious third party to be carrying out an impersonation that victimizes both the alleged target and the alleged perpetrator, or for someone to take advantage of our system to target a good faith user they disagree with.

Verifying the identity of the harasser may be a simple task, or it may be essentially impossible. It is your team's or community's responsibility to determine what amount and type of evidence is adequate to take action. In general, you should remember that a wiki is not a court of law, and your team has been entrusted with your advanced rights because your community trusts you to make good decisions.

Some ways you may be able to investigate the identity of the harasser include:

Comparing the off-wiki perpetrator's interests or writing style with the alleged on-wiki user
Using search engines to try to connect the off-wiki perpetrator's username on that site with the details of a Wikipedia account
Checking to see if the Wikipedia username has ever mentioned the other account being theirs anywhere on-wiki (the reverse, where the off-wiki account identifies itself off-wiki as a Wikipedia account, is not verification of the linkage.)

Some ways your team may be able to request more information about the identity of the harasser from outside parties include:

Reaching out to the off-wiki site's Trust and Safety team for assistance
Filing a complaint with the perpetrator's ISP, if it is identifiable
In extreme cases, a legal representative may be able to subpoena information about the perpetrator

In all cases, you must remember that there is a difference between investigating a harasser and doxing someone. Rarely will you need to find actual personal information about the harasser; most of the time you will simply be trying to find a link between one account and another. Even in cases where real-life identity becomes relevant, it is your obligation to not do more research than you must, and to think carefully about how to store such information.