Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Sophisticat.femme/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets
The article in question is Rade Basta. Initially, I was unsure whether to file a case to COI/N or here though advised me to file a SPI case instead. In this edit, Sophisticat.femme inserted a copyrighted photo, removed content that they do not like, and added improperly formatted and unsourced content that is written like a biography. The edit didn't look neutral to me nor it was an improvement, so I've reverted it. It is important to note that Sophisticat.femme uploaded two photos on Commons (Ministar of Economy of the Republic of Serbia - Minister Rade Basta.jpg and Basta Judo.jpg), claiming that it is their own work in the summary. I've added the template to at least see whether they have the evidence of permission to use the photos as they're copyrighted (the first photo was taken by the ministry's photographer while the second photo is present on Rade Basta's Instagram account).

Sophisticat.femme kept edit-warring over the photo (1, 2). As they seemed to have ignored my edit summaries, I warned them on their talk page (see here). I've also told them that they should not edit the article if they are connected in any way with the individual, as COI editing is "strongly discouraged on Wikipedia". They've then again removed content that they do not like, saying that it's untrue in the edit summary. Shortly after Sophisticat.femme's contributions, 109.245.34.146 appeared and basically did the same thing (see: 1, 2, 3, 4). 109.245.34.146 also inserted back photos that were uploaded by Sophisticat.femme. Luckily, a user saw what's happening and they've reverted the article back to LGV. On Sophisticat.femme's talk page, 212.200.65.93 replied to my comment saying "I have been made familiar and the photos are publicly available so no reason why not to have them insteas since better resolution"; whether this IP is connected to the account or is just pretending to be Sophisticat.femme I don't know. Sophisticat.femme later tried to "report" me, claiming that I'm "biased" and saying "The user Vacant0 was using a poor image and incorrect data which causes me to believe he might be concected with an opposition political party or the likes.".

Meanwhile, account Rade Basta was created and uploaded two photos on the Commons (MB final.jpg, a similar-looking photo to Ministar of Economy of the Republic of Serbia - Minister Rade Basta.jpg, same author; and Judo Black Belt 4th day.jpg, the same photo that Sophisticat.femme uploaded). No permission has been provided yet. The account Pokret zena srbije was also created during this period and inserted these two photos and made very-similar contributions like Sophisticat.femme and 109.245.34.146 (see: 1, 2). Another user saw this and they've reverted the article to LGV, though Pokret zena srbije made another contribution, restoring the article to a similar state (see: 1). Pokret zena srbije then created Draft:Minister Rade Basta, which contains content already present on Rade Basta's article.

I believe that these accounts could be well-connected to each other. It could even be ran by a single user, though what I'm sure about is that this is also a clear case of COI editing as these edits do not appear to be neutral and try to present Basta in a positive way by removing content that they do not personally like. If this appears to be the case, the article could be even semi-protected too for some period, otherwise, this could possibly continue happening in the future. Vacant0 (talk) 10:26, 10 April 2023 (UTC)


 * Edit: Another user saw this and they've reverted the article to LGV, though Pokret zena srbije made another contribution, restoring the article to a similar state how it was before. Vacant0 (talk) 10:37, 10 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Pointed out on my talk page that the draft article which was submitted by Pokret zena srbije was declined and that Sophisticat.femme responded by saying "Idi try and improved it however the user Vacant0 keeps removing them!" (see here). Vacant0 (talk) 14:26, 10 April 2023 (UTC)
 * It is correct that the user Rade Basta has not made any contributions to en.wiki yet, though their uploads to Commons were added to en.wiki by Pokret zena srbije. The user itself also has the same name as the article in question. Vacant0 (talk) 23:03, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

Comments by other users

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

-> This promptly leads me to a conclusion that the two accounts are definitely linked SeanTVT (talk)
 * I agree with Vacant0's conclusion. All of the above mentioned users follow the same pattern, re-add the same stuff and truly it seems like one user closely related to Rade Basta himself. Elserbio00 (talk) 10:32, 10 April 2023 (UTC)
 * User Pokret zena srbije tried to nominate a new article with exact name of Rade Basta here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Pokret_zena_srbije, and after it has been rejected by Nthep as "the subject of this article already exists in Wikipedia", Sophisticat.femme commented below "Idi try and improved it however the user Vacant0 keeps removing them!" at 13:40 UTC

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * The user Rade Basta has made no edits at en.wiki, only at Commons.--Bbb23 (talk) 15:57, 13 April 2023 (UTC)
 * The three accounts are ✅ (Rade Basta has non-edit activity on this wiki). for the IP addresses. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 13:57, 21 April 2023 (UTC)
 * All . Initially I blocked the master 2 weeks, but then I saw they've made a legal threat on their talk page so they're now indeffed per WP:NLT. Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 14:03, 21 April 2023 (UTC)
 * master. IPs have not edited in a while. Closing. MarioGom (talk) 12:47, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets
The user in question did not contribute to Rade Basta's article but instead created a draft for his newly-formed organisation (Draft:Pokret Evropski Put). The whole draft article is written in a promotional way, something that Sophisticat.femme and their socks did too (eg. :Special:Diff/1149034282), and there is a lot of bolded text, something that Sophisticat.femme did too (Special:Diff/1148991648). This suspects me that this could be the same user, just under a different account. Vacant0 (talk) 09:21, 10 July 2023 (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

 * Pretty based on data from the CU logs; behaviour is enough for me. Blocking.   Girth Summit  (blether)  09:05, 18 July 2023 (UTC)