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Wikipedia:Sockpuppetry

A toy puppet made from socks with buttons for eyes
In Internet terms, sock puppets are online identities used for disguised activity by the operator.
Conduct policies

On Wikipedia, sockpuppetry, or socking, refers to the misuse of multiple Wikipedia accounts. To maintain accountability and increase community trust, editors are generally expected to use only one account. While there are some valid reasons for maintaining multiple accounts, it is improper to use multiple accounts to deceive or mislead other editors, disrupt discussions, distort consensus, avoid sanctions, evade blocks, or otherwise violate community standards and policies.

Sockpuppetry takes various forms:

  • Logging out to make problematic edits as an IP address
  • Creating new accounts to avoid detection or sanctions
  • Using another person's account (piggybacking)
  • Reviving old unused accounts (sometimes referred to as sleepers) and presenting them as different users
  • Persuading friends or colleagues to create accounts for the purpose of supporting one side of a dispute (usually called meatpuppetry)

Misuse of multiple accounts is a serious breach of community trust. It may lead to:

  • a block of all related accounts
  • a ban of the user (the sockmaster or sockpuppeteer) behind the accounts (each of which is a sockpuppet or sock)
  • on-project exposure of all accounts and IP addresses used across Wikipedia and its sister projects
  • the (potential) public exposure of any "real-world" activities or personal information deemed relevant to preventing future sockpuppetry or certain other abuses.[1]

An editor using multiple accounts for valid reasons should, on each account's user page, list all the other accounts with an explanation of their purpose (see below). Optionally, the user and user talk pages of some of the accounts can be redirected to those of another. Editors who use unlinked alternative accounts, or who edit as an IP address editor separate from their account, should carefully avoid any crossover on articles or topics because even innocuous activities such as copy editing, wikifying, or linking might be considered sockpuppetry in some cases and innocuous intentions will not usually serve as an excuse.[a]

While there are legitimate use of alternative accounts, undisclosed alternative accounts might be connected publicly through a variety of means.

Inappropriate uses of alternative accounts

Editors must not use alternative accounts to mislead, deceive, disrupt, or undermine consensus. This includes, but is not limited to:

Internal discussions: Undisclosed alternative accounts generally may not be used in discussions internal to the project outside of limited circumstance.[2] A legitimate undisclosed alternative account is permitted to contribute to project space discussions that directly affect the account.
  • Circumventing policies: Policies apply per person, not per account. Policies such as the three-revert rule are for each person's edits. Using a second account to violate policy will cause any penalties to be applied to your main account.
    • Strawman socks: Creating a separate account to argue one side of an issue in a deliberately irrational or offensive fashion, to sway opinion to another side.
  • Circumventing blocks, bans or sanctions: Sanctions apply to individual editors as people, not to accounts, unless specified otherwise. Using a second account to edit in violation of an active block, community ban or other sanction imposed on your original account will result in further sanctions, which may include reversion of your contributions. See also Wikipedia:Blocking policy § Evasion and enforcement.
  • Contributing to the same page or discussion with multiple accounts: Editors may not use more than one account to contribute to the same page or discussion in a way that suggests they are multiple people. Contributing to the same page with clearly linked, legitimate, alternative accounts (e.g. editing the same page with your main and public computer account or editing a page using your main account that your bot account edited) is not forbidden.
    • Avoiding scrutiny: Using alternative accounts that are not fully and openly disclosed to split your editing history means that other editors may not be able to detect patterns in your contributions. While this is permitted in certain circumstances (see legitimate uses), it is a violation of this policy to create alternative accounts to confuse or deceive editors who may have a legitimate interest in reviewing your contributions.
    • "Good hand" and "bad hand" accounts: Using one account for constructive contributions and the other one for vandalism or other types of disruptive editing.
  • Editing while logged out in order to mislead: Editing under multiple IP addresses, or editing under both a named account and as an IP, when done deceptively or otherwise violating the principles of this policy, may be treated as the same level of disruption as editing under multiple accounts. When editors log out by mistake, they may wish to contact an editor with oversight access to ensure there is no misunderstanding.
  • Misusing a clean start: Switching accounts or concealing a clean start in a way that avoids scrutiny is considered a breach of this policy; see Wikipedia:Clean start.
  • Role accounts: Because an account represents your edits as an individual, "role accounts", or accounts shared by multiple people, are (as a rule) forbidden and blocked. Many first-time editors may sign up an account with a username that implies it is a role account or is being shared. Such accounts are permitted only if the account information is forever limited to one individual; however, policy recommends that usernames avoid being misleading or disruptive. As such, if you edit for an organization, please refer to Wikipedia's username policy for guidance on choosing a name or a replacement name that can avoid these problems. Role account exceptions can be made for non-editing accounts approved to provide email access, accounts approved by the Wikimedia Foundation (list below), and approved bots with multiple managers. See Username policy § Sharing accounts.
  • Deceptively seeking positions of community trust. You may not run for positions of trust without disclosing that you have previously edited under another account. Adminship reflects the community's trust in an individual, not an account, so when applying for adminship, it is expected that you will disclose past accounts openly, or email the arbitration committee if the accounts must be kept private. Administrators who fail to disclose past accounts risk being desysopped, particularly if knowledge of them would have influenced the outcome of the RfA.
  • Using more than one administrator account: Editors may not have more than one account with administrator user rights, except for bots with administrator privileges. However, Wikimedia Foundation staff may operate more than one admin account, though they must make known who they are. If an administrator leaves the project, returns under a new username, and is nominated for adminship, they must resign or give up the administrator access of their old account.
  • Posing as a neutral or uninvolved commentator: Using an alternative account to participate in a discussion about another account operated by the same person.

    • Legitimate uses

    Alternative accounts have legitimate uses. For example, editors who contribute using their real name may wish to use a pseudonym for contributions with which they do not want their real name to be associated, or long-term users might create a new account to better understand the editing experience from a new user's perspective. These accounts are not considered sockpuppets. If you use a legitimate alternative account, it is your responsibility to ensure that you do not use it in an illegitimate manner according to this policy.

    Operating a legitimate alternative account, even for a reason listed in this policy, does not prevent the accounts from being connected to one another publicly. Individuals operating undisclosed alternative accounts do so at their own risk and against the recommended operating processes of this project.

    Valid reasons for an alternative account include:

    • Pseudonyms used to edit sister projects in a different language: Although SUL no longer requires Wikimedians to register different accounts to edit different projects, users who wish to have a separate account to edit a sister project written in a different script may do so. The other account should be treated as a Doppelgänger on the English Wikipedia, and vice-versa. These accounts may be marked with the {{User Alias}} tag to show a connection.

    Alternative accounts should always be identified as such on their user pages, unless where doing so would defeat the point of the account. Templates such as {{User alternative account}} or one of a selection of user boxes may be used for this purpose.

    Editing while logged out

    There is no policy against someone with an account editing the encyclopedia while logged out, per se. This happens for many reasons, including not noticing that the login session had expired, changing computers, going to a Wikipedia page directly from a link, and forgetting passwords. Editors who are not logged in must not actively try to deceive other editors, such as by directly saying that they do not have an account or by using the session for the inappropriate uses of alternative accounts listed earlier in this policy. To protect their privacy, editors who have edited while logged out are never required to connect their usernames to their IP addresses on-wiki.

    If you have concerns that an IP editor is actually a user with an account who is editing while logged out in a way that is inappropriate, you can give the IP editor notice of this policy ({{subst:uw-login}} is available for this purpose), and if the behavior continues, you should contact a CheckUser privately and present the evidence to them.

    Alternative account notification

    Unless when doing so would defeat the purpose of having a legitimate alternative account, editors using alternative accounts should provide links between the accounts. Links should ideally take the form of all three of the following:

    1. Similarities in the username (for example, User:Example might have User:Example public or User:Example bot).[3]
    2. Links on both the main and alternative account user pages, either informally or using the userbox templates made for the purpose. To link an alternative account to a main account, use the main account to tag any secondary accounts with {{User alternative account | main account}} (using the main account shows it's genuine) or {{Public user}} if the account is being used to maintain security on public computers. The main account may be marked with {{User alternative account name|OtherName|...|OtherName[n]}}.
    3. Links in the alternative account signature: if not linking to both the alternative and main account, link to the alternative account, and if necessary provide a note there requesting contact be made via the main account, or simply redirect the user talk page.

    Editors who have multiple accounts for privacy reasons should consider notifying the Arbitration Committee if they believe editing will attract scrutiny. Editors who heavily edit controversial material, those who maintain single purpose accounts, and editors considering becoming an administrator are among the groups of editors who attract scrutiny even if their editing behavior itself is not problematic or only marginally so. However, it is worth noting that making such notifications does not in any way protect the user or allow them to otherwise violate this policy. Properly maintaining separation between the main account and the alternative account is entirely the responsibility of the user. If the connection is discovered, prior notification is not a "get out of jail free card" and users should not expect that checkusers nor arbitrators will act to conceal the connection if it is made on-wiki. Conversely, neither checkusers nor arbitrators monitor disclosed accounts to ensure compliance with policy. This is also entirely the responsibility of the user.

    Editors who have abandoned an account and are editing under a new identity are required to comply with the clean start policy.

    Meatpuppetry

    High-profile disputes on Wikipedia often bring new editors to the site. Some individuals may promote their causes by bringing like-minded editors into the dispute, including enlisting assistance off-wiki. These editors are sometimes referred to as meatpuppets, following a common Internet usage. While Wikipedia assumes good faith, especially for new users, actively recruiting new accounts or users on Wikipedia, or recruiting people (either on-wiki or off-wiki) to create an account or edit anonymously in order to influence decisions on Wikipedia, is prohibited. A new user who engages in the same behavior as another user in the same context, and who appears to be editing Wikipedia solely for that purpose, may be subject to the remedies applied to the user whose behavior they are joining. Sanctions have been applied to editors of longer standing who have not, in the opinion of Wikipedia's administrative bodies, consistently exercised independent judgment.

    Wikipedia has processes in place to mitigate the disruption caused by an influx of single-purpose editors:

    The term meatpuppet may be seen by some as derogatory and should be used with care, in keeping with Wikipedia:Civility. Because of the processes above, it may be counterproductive to directly accuse someone of being a "meatpuppet", and doing so will often only inflame the dispute.

    Sharing an IP address

    If two or more registered editors use the same computer or network connection, their accounts may be linked by a CheckUser. Editors in this position are advised to declare such connections on their user pages to avoid accusations of sockpuppetry. There are userboxes available for this; see {{User shared IP address}}.

    Closely connected users may be considered a single user for Wikipedia's purposes if they edit with the same objectives. When editing the same articles, participating in the same community discussion, or supporting each other in any sort of dispute, closely related accounts should disclose the connection and observe relevant policies such as edit warring as if they were a single account. If they do not wish to disclose the connection, they should avoid editing in the same areas, particularly on controversial topics.

    Handling suspected sockpuppets

    Sockpuppet investigations
    Information pages
    SPI clerk pages
    IRC
    SPI archives

    Sockpuppet investigations

    Wikipedia:Signs of sockpuppetry lists some of the signs that an account may be a sockpuppet. If you believe someone is using sockpuppets or meat puppets, you should create a report at Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations. In reporting suspected sockpuppetry, you must obey the rules of WP:OUTING with regard to disclosure of personal or identifying information. Only blocked accounts should be tagged as Category:Suspected Wikipedia sockpuppets and only upon sufficient evidence that would stand up to scrutiny.

    CheckUser

    Editors with access to the CheckUser tool may consult the server log to see which IP addresses are linked to which accounts. The CheckUser tool cannot confirm with certainty that two accounts are not connected; it can only show whether there is a technical link at the time of the investigation. In accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Privacy and CheckUser policies, checks are only conducted with good cause, and (subject to the exceptions in those policies) results are reported in such a way as to avoid or minimize disclosure of personal identifying information. Particularly, "fishing"—the use of the CheckUser tools without good cause specific to a given user account—is prohibited.

    Blocking

    If a person is found to be using a sockpuppet, the sockpuppet account(s) should be blocked indefinitely. The main account may be blocked at the discretion of any uninvolved administrator. IP addresses used for sockpuppetry may be blocked, but are subject to certain restrictions for indefinite blocks.

    Banning

    Editors who are confirmed by a CheckUser to have engaged in sockpuppetry on at least two occasions after an initial indefinite block that is active, for any reason, are to be considered site banned by the Wikipedia community.[5]

    Tagging

    List of role accounts

    See also

    Guidelines

    Essays

    References

    External links

    Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sockpuppeteers.
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