Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Gabterrier/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets
Since November 2019, the master has had a near single focus on the articles on St. Francis College and its President, Miguel Martinez-Saenz. On August 8, the master received a warning from relating to what ElKevbo described as conflict-of-interest editing. Given that the master has referred to the trademarked property of the college as "our new corporate logo", it seems more than reasonable to conclude that the account is connected financially to St. Francis College.

Less than one week later, the sockpuppet was created. Almost immediately, the sockpuppet began to edit the page for St. Francis College, continuing to do so nearly 150 times before they were blocked by for failing to disclose their relationship with St. Francis College and on suspicion of WP:UPE.

Separately, with respect to the IP, it is a Verizon Business IP that geolocates to New York City. Its edits were promotional in nature and changed the title capitalization to reflect the standard in marketing materials.

In particular, the master, sock, and IP have worked to revamp the page with respect to similar material. The IP, on August 1, added promotional language about the new state-of-the-art facility at 179 Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn. Later, the sock account would add flowery language to the same section on the new campus; almost all of the language in those edits can be found verbatim on website of SFC. A few hours later, the master added an updated logo for the college and updated the infobox to reflect the new address. The sock proceeded to summarily remove large portions of the page relating to the former campus of the university and to insert the new address into another portion of the article. After a revert by, the sock proceeded to again make edits that inserted promotional language relating to the new campus. After much of the insertion was removed as promotional by, the sock summarily removed information that pertained to the old campus of the college. The Verizon Business IP proceeded to fix a typo introduced by the sock. The remainder of the sock's edits were copyedits or style edits.

The timing of this indicates that the sock may have been made to avoid scrutiny following the main account's conflict of interest warning. And, given that both the master and the sock appear to have a financial connection to St. Francis College, this appears to be a case of institutional sockpuppetry. The use of the IP, meanwhile, appears to be standard loutsocking; they admitted to being the director of communications for St. Francis College in an edit on August 21. I am requesting a checkuser to check for sleepers. —  Red-tailed hawk (nest) 17:30, 23 August 2022 (UTC)


 * In short, we know that both of the accounts have financial connections to the University and it looks quite likely that the sock account (which is currently blocked) was created to evade scrutiny. In addition, the IP has admitted to having a financial COI with the University. If these are operated by the same person (or on direction of the same person), then the master needs a block. —  Red-tailed hawk (nest) 17:33, 23 August 2022 (UTC)

Comments by other users

 * Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * The named accounts are ❌. It appears to be purely a coincidence. . Reaper Eternal (talk) 19:49, 29 August 2022 (UTC)
 * It seems likely that Gabterrier has a COI with the university but I don't see compelling enough evidence that they are engaging in socking or meatpuppetry with respect to Maria Asteinza. The IP is obviously Maria Asteinza, but their the only edit after the block was to their own talk page. Closing. Spicy (talk) 04:34, 30 August 2022 (UTC)