Training modules/Dealing with online harassment/slides/off-wiki-harassment
"Off-wiki" harassment
[edit]The Wikimedia projects' low tolerance for harassing behavior sometimes leads people to take Wikimedia-related harassment to other platforms and websites. This often, but not always, occurs after a Wikimedia account has been blocked; less commonly, a user in good standing will go off-wiki to target an opponent in the belief that doing this off-wiki means they cannot get in trouble on-wiki. Off-wiki harassment is among the most difficult types of harassment to deal with because local administrators and users with advanced rights cannot directly stop or remove the harassment.
Often, helping a harassment target with off-wiki harassment means educating yourself on the policies and procedures of the site where the harassment occurs, so that you can help the person figure out what options are available to them. Some websites have good procedures to help people remove harassing comments or images, while others may expressly ignore the problem.