Support and Safety

Support and Safety (SuSa, formerly Community Advocacy) serves the Wikimedia Foundation, contributors and the public by providing support on Foundation initiatives with a focus on community consultations, governance, and training, and by addressing trust and safety concerns including around appropriately escalating threats communicated on our projects and helping to safeguard the safety of attendees of Wikimedia Foundation supported events. Support and Safety comprises part of the Community Engagement department and works closely with the Legal team. Much of our time is spent "fire-fighting" and triaging customer service contacts to get them to the correct group of editing volunteers. We also monitor issues of emerging concern for the communities and attempt to provide support to other departments so that they can effectively work with communities. We also serve as a bridge, connecting resources and domain expertise to the staff. What we do Poster presenting the Wikimedia Foundation's Support & Safety team and broad areas of their work. The Support and Safety team supports staff, the public and volunteers in our community through approximately 12 workflows in three broad areas. The team is composed of two sub-teams: Trust & Safety and Support. Direct community support The Support and Safety team works to build bridges between our international and linguistically diverse editor base and maintains contact with communities across the globe. We facilitate interactions among volunteers, Wikimedia Foundation and the public and support several key community functionary groups in their work. Projects undertaken by the Support team include researching harassment and behavioral issues – conducting discussions with contributors and stakeholders, and analyzing data on how various Wikimedia communities handle issues. We have also developed multiple training modules on best practices for dealing with online harassment and on event safety, and are working with the Community Resources team to streamline these for use at in-person events. Regular workflows include: Liaison work: to OTRS, CheckUser, arbitration committees, Oversighters, and other global functionaries Correspondence support: Answers@Wikimedia email system, Business@Wikimedia, postal mail, the Wikimedia Resource Center's “Ask a Question" page, and product ownership of the mailing lists Change management and support for program roll-outs Internal wiki support: Wikis for the Stewards, CheckUsers, Ombuds commission, and election committee Trust and Safety The Wikimedia Foundation aims to defer to local and global community processes to govern on-wiki interactions. However, at times, we must step in to protect the safety and integrity of our users, our contributors, and the public. We support a healthy environment on our projects through several work areas. Among other measures, we receive and handle reports of major safety issues on Wikimedia projects, including suicide threats, threats of violence, and child pornography. We also own the policies regarding Wikimedia Foundation bans of users from the projects and from Foundation-funded or supported events, and we work with other Foundation teams to address concerns about user privacy and freedom that do not necessarily rise to the level of bans. As a part of the Foundation’s commitment to respect community autonomy, the Trust & Safety team does not handle general community or community-member disputes that may be addressed through community processes, nor does it serve as an appeal venue for community-made policies and decisions. While we are happy to assist community members in need of help, many times that help will consist of assisting the person to find the right community venue to solve their problem. Regular workflows include: Evaluation and reporting: Child pornography reports, Emergency@Wikimedia Global & Event bans: requests, inquiries, investigations & maintenance Identification and access rights for community T&S database management: mandatory and best-practice record-keeping Resources For a curated list of resources for users in crisis or thinking about suicide see our mental health resources page. For a curated list of resources for users facing harassment (including legal and security resources) see the Harassment resources page. For some of the resources we are investigating, see Online harassment resource guide. Internal support We provide guidance, advice and support to Foundation staff, the Board, and committees. We assist staff routinely with community and content related concerns, including processing DMCA takedown and notification requirements and, where necessary, responding to search warrants and legally valid subpoenas. We help onboard new staff about community norms and practices, and we manage requests for advanced user rights required for staff members to do their work by assessing needs and liaising with the stewards. Regular workflows include: Supporting Executives: the Executive Director, the Executive Office, Jimmy Wales. Liaison work: to the election committee, the cross-wiki Ombudsman Commission, and other WMF teams. Consultations on community issues are made available on request to all non-engineering teams and departments. (Engineering teams and departments work with Community Liaisons) Supporting the staff: Advanced privileges and user rights for staff, community on-boarding Legal support: DMCA takedown and notification requirements, search warrant and subpoena compliance Who we are The Support and Safety team consists of the following people. Jan Eissfeldt Jan became a registered editor on the German Wikipedia in March 2004 as User:Jan eissfeldt, focusing heavily (but not exclusively) on topics related to philosophy and argumentation theory. He joined the Wikimedia Foundation as a Community Advocate (International) in April 2013. In January 2017, he became Senior Strategist, helping both the "Support" and "Trust & Safety" teams plan, prioritize and coordinate their work. In January 2018, he became the Lead Manager of Support and Safety. Support task force Patrick Earley Patrick registered as User:The Interior on Christmas Day 2008. With a focus on topics related to his home country of Canada and on bringing access to resource materials to other volunteers through the Wikipedia Library, Patrick began at the Wikimedia Foundation as a Community Liaison (International) in July 2013. He became Senior Community Advocate in February 2015 and is now Manager, Support. Sydney Poore Sydney, also known as FloNight, created her account on the English Wikipedia in September 2005. She became an administrator there in 2006, and has served on its Arbitration Committee in the past. She joined the Wikimedia Foundation in March 2017 as a Community Advocate, working closely with the Anti-Harassment Tools team. Christel Steigenberger Christel, also known as Kritzolina, created her account on the German Wikipedia in January 2014. She became an administrator there in 2015 and also started to upload to commons, where she is most active at the moment. She then joined the Wikimedia Foundation in July 2017 as a Community Advocate, primarily focused on Support tasks. She has a professional background of having worked as a Social Worker for more than 20 years. Joe Sutherland Joe began editing in July 2006 and now serves as an administrator and functionary on the English Wikipedia as "Fox". He joined the Wikimedia Foundation as a Communications Volunteer in September 2013, before becoming a Communications Intern in May 2015 and Communications Fellow in March 2016. He moved to the Support and Safety team in May 2016 as a Community Advocate (International), primarily focused on Support tasks. Trust & Safety task force James Alexander James joined the movement as User:Jamesofur on 22 November 2006. He came on board with the Wikimedia Foundation in August 2010, originally as an Associate Community Officer for the fundraiser and has since then contributed in many areas, including as Wikimedia Fellow, Business Analyst, and Manager Wikimedia Merchandise. He is currently the Manager, Trust & Safety. Karen Brown Karen, also known as Fluffernutter, created her account on the English Wikipedia in April 2008. She became an administrator and oversighter there in 2011, and then joined the Wikimedia Foundation in September 2015 as a Community Advocate, primarily focused on Support tasks. She moved to the Trust and Safety taskforce in July 2017. Kalliope Tsouroupidou Kalli came on board with the Wikimedia Foundation as a Community Advocate (International) in April 2015, bringing with her over 7 years of trust & safety experience from Couchsurfing. She is a key component, alongside James, of the Trust & Safety Taskforce. Contacting us Do you have a question for or about the Support and Safety team? You can reach us at cawikimedia.org.

Sousa! (help | download | file info) The Support and Safety team (SuSa) Jan Eissfeldt Lead Manager of Support and Safety James Alexander Manager, Trust & Safety Karen Brown Community Advocate (Trust & Safety) Patrick Earley Manager, Support Sydney Poore Community Advocate (Support) Christel Steigenberger Community Advocate (Support) Joe Sutherland Community Advocate (Support) Kalliope Tsouroupidou Community Advocate (Trust & Safety)