Training modules/Dealing with online harassment/slides/wwyd-answering-questions-about-a-case

What would you do?: Answering questions about a case

This module will periodically present you with "what would you do?" scenarios - hypothetical accounts of difficult situations. The goal in these sections is not to test whether you arrive at an objectively "correct" single answer, but rather to give you a chance to think about the different types of situations you may encounter, and the many issues and decision points that affect any eventual outcome you settle on.

After an on-wiki dispute with user:A that escalates, user:B is blocked from Wikipedia for a month. During that period, user:B creates an account on Anti-Wikipedia, a wiki where users who have left Wikipedia for various reasons create satirical content about Wikipedia and its users. B uses their new Anti-Wikipedia account to create an article there about user:A, in which they post information supposedly about A, including a photo, a home address, and the names of A's children and the school they attend. The article encourages readers to call A's home "for a good time."

Shortly before B's month-long block expires, A is made aware of the Anti-Wikipedia article about them. They contact your team to ask for help, noting that B does not seem to have let go of their disagreement and saying that they, A, are now concerned for the safety of themselves and their children. Since B has been open both on Wikipedia and on Anti-Wikipedia about owning both of those accounts, there is little question that the Anti-Wikipedia page was created by B. B rejects a private request from your team that they stop publicly posting information about A.

Your team determines that this behavior is enough of a threat to community safety that B should no longer be allowed to edit Wikipedia. You place a ban on B and post the following statement on your project's administrative noticeboard: "For engaging in conduct that violates Wikipedia's Harassment Policy, user:B is banned from Wikipedia. They may appeal privately to [your team name]".

Community members subsequently begin to ask questions about your team's justification for this action, noting that user:B has not edited Wikipedia, even on their talk page, for more than a month, and that B has no block log or sanction history involving harassment. Some of the community members asking these questions appear to believe your team may have exaggerated or misinterpreted whatever behavior you banned B for, since you aren't willing to describe it.

Your team knows you need to post a reply to these questions, but you are concerned about how you can justify this action to the community without releasing information that can be used to identify one or more of the target, the venue for the harassment, or the content of the harassment.

If you were in this situation... what would you do? Leave your thoughts here.