Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/KJ12102/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets
These are three WP:SPAs who focus entirely on adding positive content to Tom Malinowski.

The master first edited in 2021, adding content regarding Malinowski's time at Human Rights Watch. Shortly before the 2022 midterm election, the account re-activated, adding a link regarding threats Malinowski had received as well as some campaign-related information, adding information related to an ethics inquiry and his caucus membership, and Malinowski's time in the 116th congress. Some of these edits were reverted by, who left the sockmaster a COI note on their user talkpage.

Two minutes after this edit by the master was made, a sock (Gigi2200012) was created at 17:23, 3 November 2022. The sock has made two edits: added content regarding a piece of legislation Malinowski sponsored and adding content about another piece of legislation Malinowski sponsored. The edits contain some unsourced promotional claims, such as the claim that Malinowski's work landed him a spot on the House Committee on Homeland Security the following term, with a citation simply pointing to the membership on the Committee without any sort of indication as to why Malinowski was selected for it.

The second sock (RLL34234) has made one edit. Like the first sock, the edit from the second sock focused on Malinowski's congressional actions. The second sock added a citation to the congressional website to source content that the first sock had added, while also adding unsourced promotional information claiming Malinowski's work had a tangible effect (Such work ushered the release of the Khashoggi Report and the subsequent Khashoggi ban).

What appears to have happened is that the first account got scared after receiving a COI notice, stopped editing, and moved on to using different single-use accounts in order to continue to engage in promotional editing on this page while evading any sort of scrutiny with respect to what one editor saw as a likely COI issue.

Additionally, the clerk/CU reviewing this should read 2022120510017132.

Given that these are single-purpose accounts who come onto this page, a checkuser is requested in order to confirm them to each other and to identify any other visible sleeper accounts technically connected to the master and their socks. —  Red-tailed hawk (nest) 22:12, 5 December 2022 (UTC)


 * Thank you for the quick check. Is this meant to be left in  status for a double-check, or should the clerks handle this as closed/admin requested? —  Red-tailed hawk  (nest) 04:20, 6 December 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

 * All 3 are ✅ to each other and blocked. There were a couple of failed login attempts to accounts which do not exist but otherwise no likely sleepers. Barkeep49 (talk) 00:06, 6 December 2022 (UTC)
 * , closing. Mz7 (talk) 05:04, 6 December 2022 (UTC)