Training modules/Dealing with online harassment/slides/when-to-contact-the-wikimedia-foundation

Handling reports: When to contact the Wikimedia Foundation

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The Trust and Safety task force (T&S), within the Support and Safety team (shortened to "SuSa"), deals with severe harassment complaints, performing investigations where appropriate. These can, and have in the past, led to global "office bans" in the most serious of cases.

There are several situations where it might be appropriate to refer a report to T&S:

  • Threats to life and limb: Serious threats, such as death threats or threats of terrorism, may be sent immediately to emergency@wikimedia.org. If you are comfortable doing so, you should also consider contacting your (or the target's) local authorities to report such threats. Assume all threats are serious, even if they don't sound plausible. If you are not comfortable making a call yourself, email the threat into the emergency email.
  • Serious complaints of harassment: In the case of ongoing and serious harassment, serious enough that you or your team don't feel comfortable handling it yourself, the report may be forwarded to ca@wikimedia.org. All members of the SuSa team are on this mailing list and can assist with investigating reports if need be.