Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/Victor Salvini/Archive

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

Both have repeated an almost identical edit to Identity and Democracy, specifically, both have added "right-wing" to the infobox based on weak sources:

Based on comments at the ANI thread that led to Victor Salvini's block, this new username is again a combination of right wing nationalist political figures (Nigel Farage and Shinzo Abe)

Comapre Nigel Abe's userpage Hello, I am Nigel Abe, I am into politics, philosophy, and theology. This is why the majority of my edits may be in articles related to these topics. To Victor Alvini's old userpage: Hello, I am Victor Salvini (not my real name)! I have a love of politics and political science, which is why you may see me editing a lot in political articles and sometimes active in their talk sections. I also enjoy theology, history, and law.

Compare also these two edits and their summaries:

Both accounts have also edited Vox (political party) and its talk page. Grayfell (talk) 22:32, 5 May 2020 (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

 * This is and I've blocked and tagged the account. Closing. Callanecc (talk • contribs • logs) 09:45, 7 May 2020 (UTC)

Suspected sockpuppets



 * Tools: Editor interaction utility • Interaction Timeline • User compare report Auto-generated every hour.

FollowTheSources was created a couple days after Nigel Abe's last edit, and created blank a user page and talk page to avoid the redlink effect. FollowTheSources is conspicuously precocious and prolific, and doesn't seem good at keeping track of their own edits. At an ANI discussion FollowTheSources says they were not involved with a merge discussion, but this is false.

Victor Salvini and the previous sock Nigel Abe were heavily focused on fudging the ideology field of infoboxes, often without clear reason or based on weak sources. FollowTheSources is continuing that pattern, starting with their third edit to Free Democratic Party (Germany). This one is especially similar, compare to this, or this, this, etc. There are too many examples of these edits by socks to keep track of them all.

There is also a overlap with right-wing and far-right social media pundits and movements. Victor Salvini edited Laura Loomer and Paul Joseph Watson (again to adjust ideology). Nigel Abe tweaked ideology at Dinesh D'Souza and made several edits to Nick Fuentes. FollowTheSources started Talk:Patriot Prayer, and tweaked Jennifer Rubin (journalist), both changes being about precise wording for political ideology.

FollowTheSources and Victor Salvini also show interest promoting climate change skepticism. Victor Salivini edited Climate change skepticism and its talk several times, specifically to make it seem more legitimate. FollowTheSources edited Planet of the Humans and its talk page to emphasize negative criticism of the film.

The only direct article overlap is one non-controversial edit at Citizens (Spanish political party). Nigel Abe spent a lot of time on that article and its talk page. Grayfell (talk) 23:57, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

Comments by other users
''Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.''

Grayfell already mentions the interest in right-wing organizations and people, but there is a specific focus on the term "far right" and changing it to "centre right" or "right wing" (and arguing that "right wing" is a position in itself rather than the umbrella under which "centre right" and "far right" exist) that is characteristic of the sockmaster's editing, and which you can see on display in the first edits of this sock. The same core argument is used, too, that RS support these changes, but that the RS which supported "far right" are somehow being given undue weight. Diction, grammar, writing style are all the same. Grandpallama (talk) 18:18, 19 May 2020 (UTC)


 * I completely agree, especially with the obviously deceptive early edits, the fact that this is clearly not a new editor and is immediately active in sanctioned areas, so is extremely likely to be sanction evasion (block, ban or topic ban). Enough people have identified the stink of fish by now. Guy (help!) 19:03, 19 May 2020 (UTC)


 * Someone should look into this carefully. I somehow don't think this is the sockmaster. Their ideology is different. In Patriot_Prayer, FollowTheSources was against changing "far-right". While the other accounts seem to support changing the term "far-right" from articles. FollowTheSources seems like a supporter of the Democratic party in the U.S. while I doubt the other accounts are supporters of the democratic party.-- SharʿabSalam▼ (talk) 23:25, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
 * While an opponent of a Biden opponent might seem like a Democrat, an opponent of a trending MeToo accuser might seem like a Republican. Or neither. In my view, having chatted, FTS didn't seem like a Biden fan or a Trump fan, more a Twitter-savvy "hater". Never met these other two accounts, so no opinion on whether they're similar. New guy used to work here in some capacity, though, maybe registered. InedibleHulk (talk) 12:14, 20 May 2020 (UTC) InedibleHulk (talk) 11:41, 20 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I noticed that, and also with the previous sock. I think this is all pretty consistent. All three have superficially opposed the "far-right", but they use the same idiosyncratic definition of far-right. The end result is gate-keeping which movements are really far-right, so that mere "right-wing" groups become more centrist in comparison. This is entirely compatible with POV-pushing. It doesn't really matter whether or not these accounts are truly far-right or not (and there is not test for that anyway) what matters is that this is deceptive and manipulative. For whatever it's worth, fully agree with the changes to Patriot Prayer, but dishonest behavior like this only makes consensus harder in the long run. Grayfell (talk) 23:54, 19 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Exactly--there's a high degree of consistency in the approach at play here, even down to word choice and the content of the overall arguments being made. Grandpallama (talk) 04:27, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

Here's a lead: --Pudeo (talk) 15:12, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

 * Sock blocked yesterday. Nothing more to do. Closing. Cabayi (talk) 16:47, 20 May 2020 (UTC)