Universal Code of Conduct/Coordinating Committee/Cases/Sysop abuse in Swahili Wikipedia

Parties

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Kisare

Description of the problem - (Kisare)

I am reporting severe UCoC violations by the admins of Swahili Wikipedia. There is frankly a lot to report, but I'll try to be concise and detail everything in chronological order.

2008

In the article tendo la ndoa (sexual intercourse), Riccardo wrote:

"Jinsia zinalenga kukamilishana katika ndoa. Kadiri ya Biblia Mungu baada ya kumuumba Adamu alisema, 'Si vema mtu awe peke yake. Nitamfanyia msaidizi wa kufanana naye' (Mwa 2:18)."

Translation: "The genders complement one another in marriage. According to the Bible, God after creating Adam said, 'It is not good that man be alone. I will create for him a helper suitable for him' (Gen. 2:18)."

He goes on to write in that same section giving his personal opinions on the spirit of men and women. He also incorrectly states that the breaking of hymen is a sign that a woman has lost her virginity.

Here[9] Riccardo wrote a new article on uzazi wa mpango (family planning). He writes that

"(njia za teknolojia za uzazi wa mpango) zinaweza zikaandaa njia kwa mauaji ya halaiki."

Translation: "(technological methods of family planning) can lead the way for genocide"

He goes on to promote abstinence as a superior method of family planning, stating about contraceptive methods:

"zinategemea uamuzi hata wa mmojawao tu, zinajenga ubinafsi, zinamfanya mwanamume hasa azingatie kujamiiana tu hata mwanamke asiridhike na hivyo asipende kuungana na mumewe tena, zinaelekeza kutembea nje ya ndoa bila ya wasiwasi."

Translation: "they depend on only one of them, they build selfishness, they make the man focus only on sex to the point that the woman is not satisfied and therefore does not want to be with her husband anymore, they lead to leaving the marriage carelessly."

He furthermore promotes a conspiracy theory that the U.S. government is trying to spread contraception to poor countries because they need new markets since people in rich countries are supposedly seeing the harms of contraception.

2013

In this edit of the article on contraceptives, Riccardo removes someone else's statement that contraception reduces the likelihood of STDs, and adds a statement which claims without evidence that contraception lead to the spread of "ukimwi na maradhi mengine" (AIDs and other diseases). [10]

2016

In this discussion between Riccardo and another wikipedian, the wikipedian laments that the family planning article is extremely biased and written from a strictly religious viewpoint, and that the article needs to be neutrally written. Translated into English, he responds:

"Brother, thank you for your comment. As you read above, there is another page on birth control that presents a different position, namely the one promoted by those who profit from the contraceptives business, abortions and fetal remains. Let people also hear the pro-life perspective, or edit that page as well. In any case, let us not deceive ourselves that abortion is a method of family planning, because if there is a pregnancy, the birth has already begun. Abortion is the murder of an innocent person. Even if it is small, it has all its identity in its DNA. Peace to you!

In addition to that, Swahili is an African language and our people have their own values ​​that do not necessarily align with those of Western countries. For example, in Tanzania abortion is a criminal offense, as is homosexuality. But the English Wikipedia leans towards supporting them."[11]

It should be noted that although Riccardo Riccioni often makes references to "our people" and "our culture", he himself is an Italian born[12] catholic missionary [13] [14] [15] in Tanzania. Using this "us vs them" language, which he does often, is extremely hypocritical and dismissive, but there's more of that later.

2020

Here, Riccardo proselytizes about Christianity. [16]

2021

Here, in the context of same-sex marriage, Riccardo writes:

"inabidi kulinda maadili ya jamii ili iweze kustawi dhidi ya tamaa zisizoijenga" [17]

Translation: "it is necessary to protect social values so that it can thrive against desires that do not build it ('it' being society)"

2024

Finally, what brought this all to my attention was the article on homosexuality. The article was originally written by a user in 2019 in a fairly neutral manner albeit with no sources[18]. Riccardo dramatically altered the article. He wrote that gay people are sometimes gay because they have "been subjected to or has allowed themselves to be subjected to the temptation until they become so addicted to it that they are unable to break free" (translated).[19]. He wrote the rhetorical question "Is it permissible to follow any direction that we feel or have accustomed ourselves to by repeatedly committing evil deeds?" (translated).[20]. The amount of hateful and biased edits he made are frankly too numerous to list here. Just simply look through the difference history and look at any of the edits he made, and you are guaranteed to find something comparing gay people to pedophiles,[21] comparing gay sex to rape,[22] conflating gay people with transgender people, claims that gay people are trying to force children to transition,[23] links to extreme right wing articles as if they are reputable sources,[24] etc. Multiple people attempted to rectify this article before me, [25][26] but Riccardo promptly undid these edits [27][28]. This resulted in arguments with those two users, one of whom was banned [29][30].

Originally not knowing this long history, I similarly attempted to edit the article, and I was similarly attacked and accused of imperialism by Riccardo [31]. He of course undid my edits repeatedly.[32] A similar conflict occurred in the article on transgender people.

Previous attempts at a solution - (Kisare)

I reported this situation as a steward request.[33] A request for comment was also created by a global sysop. [34] This same global sysop attempted to restore my edits[35] but Riccardo once again undid this.[36][37] I was then temporarily banned for reporting these abuses by Asterlegorch367, who was supported by Riccardo and Hussein m mmbaga, and Justine Msechu, all of whom are admins of swwiki.[38] Neither the steward request nor the request for comment have been resolved, despite the original report occurring in April of 2024.

Suggested solutions - (Kisare)

The moderation at swwiki seems fundamentally flawed. They apparently coordinated together to maintain the misinformation and hateful content in the article [39]. This has been a problem in some form going back all the way to 2008. Multiple people have brought up this issue, and each time they are shot down or even banned. At the very least I think Riccardo Riccioni needs to lose his privileges, as he has absolutely abused them and has shown a complete a total disregard to neutral point of view. I don't know what should be done about the other administrators who were complicit and supportive of Riccardo, but perhaps they should lose privileges too.

Other feedback

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Discussion between the involved parties and the U4C members

Only the involved parties and U4C members may edit in this section.

• Just a note that, given the holiday period, our usual service standard of two weeks might get slightly pushed, but we do encourage everyone involved to leave at statement as soon as they are able so we can proceed with the case. To the respondants (Swahili Wikipedia administrators in particular), I want to note the importance of providing a complete response here - these are serious allegations that could suggest a systemic failure to enforce the UCOC on your project. @Kisare: I see the notification diffs you have provided above only give notice that you intend to file a U4C case. Please provide a subsequent notice that the case has been filed, linking those users to this page, and update the diffs when done. – Ajraddatz (talk) 19:10, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

  Will do Kisare (talk) 21:49, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

• Hello @Kisare:, what appeals have you attempted locally on sw.wp so far? --Ghilt (talk) 15:56, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

  Adding to the question of my colleague: why did you got Meta earlier this year rather than ask the sw.wp community for help? Barkeep49 (talk) 00:06, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

  For one, Riccardo is highly respected in swwiki,[40] having been around since its founding. He is essentially the main admin and by far the one that is most active. Additionally, I saw this had been an issue in swwiki for literally years. As I explained, multiple people had brought up this problem, attempted to resolve it, and nothing was ever done about it. So it seemed like a fundamental failure of governance in swwiki. Lastly, Tanzania is a very homophobic country (homosexuality can result in years in prison). The average Tanzanian finds homosexuality to be a perversion (I'm speaking from experience in my family as well as statistically). The collection of those facts meant I thought appealing on swwiki would be absolutely fruitless. And as I later found out, it turns out the admins of swwiki had actually coordinated the homophobic content.[41] Kisare (talk) 01:29, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

  You haven't shown diffs for "multiple people had brought up this problem, attempted to resolve it, and nothing was ever done about it.". Barkeep49 (talk) 01:31, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

  Yes I did. For the homosexuality article specifically, see: "Multiple people attempted to rectify this article before me, [25][26] but Riccardo promptly undid these edits [27][28]. This resulted in arguments with those two users, one of whom was banned [29][30]." The section labeled 2016 also describes this problem in a different article, but I didn't know about that at the time of reporting this on meta. Kisare (talk) 01:39, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

  When the other swwiki admins learned of my report on meta, they decided to ban me temporarily [1]. Discussion with them was fruitless. They only decided to unban me once my banning got attention on meta[42]. Kisare (talk) 01:21, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

U4C decision

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U4C member discussion

• One of the parties has privately shared some reasons they won't be able to respond soon. Combined with the holidays many members on the U4C will be celebrating over the next two weeks, I think we should plan to extend our 2 week accept/decline window. Barkeep49 (talk) 16:55, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

  No objections from me. – Ajraddatz (talk) 18:49, 25 December 2024 (UTC)

Motions

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Updates

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