Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-04-08/News and notes


 * This week's lead story is a collaboration between the French news outlet Regards sur l'actualité de la Wikimedia (RAW) and the Signpost.



Last Friday, the Wikimedia movement awoke to news that one of their number—Rémi Mathis, a French volunteer editor—had been summoned to the offices of the interior intelligence service DCRI and threatened with criminal charges and fines if he did not delete an article on the French Wikipedia about a radio station used by the French military.

The 30-year-old Mathis graduated from the prestigious École Nationale des Chartes for archivists and librarians in 2007. He is now a historian, library curator, and free-culture advocate, specialising in archival science—the diagnosis and restoration of decayed or damaged artifacts. Since 2010 he has been editor-in-chief of the scholarly journal Nouvelles de l'estampe ("News about prints"), which is supported by his employer, the National Library of France in Paris.

The "atypical" Mathis has been described as a "conveyor of knowledge", occupying a space "between two ages", represented by archival prints and modern technologies such as Twitter. Until the past few days, he was a volunteer administrator on the French Wikipedia, which he has edited since February 2006; he is the chair of Wikimédia France.

The bulk of the French-language article on Station hertzienne militaire de Pierre-sur-Haute (Pierre-sur-Haute military radio station) was written by Qvsqvs, who has a total of just four edits. The article remained in this state from [//fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Station_hertzienne_militaire_de_Pierre-sur-Haute&oldid=81104004 July 2009 to March 2013], and while no sources were cited, French Wikipedians have noticed many similarities between the article and a publicly available video in which a reporter is given a tour of the base and conducts an interview with its commander.

The story began on 4 March, when the Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur, abbreviated DCRI and translated as "Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence", contacted the Wikimedia Foundation and demanded that they take down the article under articles 413-11 of the French penal code ("jeopardizing the national defense"). The Foundation declined, saying that it could not see what the DCRI thought was classified, and requested additional information to identify the security issue; however, the agency did not respond. An anonymous source has since said the problematic text revolved around the base's role in the advent of a major nuclear war.
 * The initial sequence of events

After a surprisingly long interval of four weeks for a matter purported to concern national security, DCRI then chose a different tack, summoning Rémi Mathis to its offices on 4 April and ordering him to delete the page. The DCRI agents told Mathis that the law applies to the article and to him personally&mdash;despite the absence of any link between him and the article or its subject, or his knowledge of either. If he had refused, the agents told him, he would be thrown into jail and prosecuted (under French law, which lacks habeas corpus, citizens may be held for up to 48 hours without cause).

Christopher Henner, the vice-president of the Wikimédia France chapter, told the Guardian that "The DCRI regularly asks us to go and explain to their operatives how Wikipedia works, so this volunteer thought he'd been summoned to explain or show them something. Had the DCRI presented us with documents or a legal order showing us this was a threat to national security we would have taken down the page at once. Instead they summoned one of our volunteers and ordered him to take it down, saying he would be held in custody if he didn't. Yes, he felt threatened and he was shocked."

A spokesman for the French government disputed the characterization of the agents' actions as threatening: "in a state of law, the threat of taking legal action against a passage that poses a problem for national security cannot be considered a threat."

Facing this stark choice, Mathis [//fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sp%C3%A9cial%3AJournal&type=delete&user=&page=Station+hertzienne+militaire+de+Pierre+sur+Haute&year=&month=-1&tagfilter= complied] with their demands. Mathis told other administrators of his out-of-process deletion and explained that any French citizen who restored it could be sanctioned, as he believed that it was covered under 413-11. This could carry significant penalties, including five years in prison and a fine of €75,000 euros. (The related 413-10 is even harsher, specifying seven years in jail and a €100,000 euro fine.) The article was [//fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sp%C3%A9cial%3AJournal&type=delete&user=&page=Station+hertzienne+militaire+de+Pierre+sur+Haute&year=2013&month=4&tagfilter= restored] on 5 April by a Swiss Wikipedian, who is outside French jurisdiction.
 * Deletion, discussion, and surrender of admin status

Mathis's action drew many comments from French Wikipedians. It was noted that a picture of the station is still on Commons, which the agency appeared to have missed. Someone else suggested that it be hidden from public view, but oversighting is "uncommon" and does not apply in this case. Another contributor asked why the Foundation did not intervene; but Arkanosis [//fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia%3ABulletin_des_administrateurs%2F2013%2FSemaine_14&diff=91679630&oldid=91679400 replied]: "It would not be the first time that the foundation has relied on volunteers to make a decision that it does not want to take itself." Arkanosis [//fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia:Bulletin_des_administrateurs/2013/Semaine_14&diff=next&oldid=91684254 pointed out] that Wikimédia France has no authority over article content, but the Foundation offers legal counsel to any editor under threats or pressure because of their Wikimedia involvement (Editor's note: Arkanosis' comment is not accurate; the Foundation cannot give legal advice, but it can refer contributors to the Legal Fees Assistance Program or their policy on the defense of contributors, through which it may be possible to "[secure] local independent counsel to defend individual users, or [provide] public support.")

Administrator Hégésippe Cormier [//fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia:Bulletin_des_administrateurs/2013/Semaine_14&diff=next&oldid=91723757 asked] other administrators to support Mathis, while others [//fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikip%C3%A9dia:Le_Bistro#Le_Bistro.2F6_avril_2013 suggested] that a defense fund should be created to cover any legal costs. To reduce the external pressure on Mathis, Dr Brains [//fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Discussion_utilisateur%3ARemi_Mathis&diff=91718250&oldid=91650398 asked] him to give up his administrator status for his personal safety—a suggestion that was [//fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia%3ABulletin_des_administrateurs%2F2013%2FSemaine_14&diff=91724504&oldid=91724060 poorly received] by some administrators. Dr Brains [//fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia:Bulletin_des_administrateurs/2013/Semaine_14&diff=next&oldid=91724504 replied] that Mathis's two Wikimedia-related roles—his administrator status and chairmanship of Wikimédia France—were a danger to both him and Wikipedia. However, the Signpost notes that despite Mathis's high visibility, under similar circumstances any French citizen volunteer contributor could be pressured into deleting allegedly offensive content where the DCRI or a similar agency knows their name and address.

The debate quickly snowballed into a much larger question: should the French Wikipedia allow someone to be an administrator if they are a member of a chapter, as their names, addresses and phone numbers are public, making them easy targets for the French intelligence agencies? This exchange coalesced around Ash Crow (WMFR employee), Benjism89 (WMFR board), Remi Mathis (WMFR board) and Serein (WMFR employee), then [//fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikip%C3%A9dia:Bulletin_des_administrateurs/2013/Semaine_14&diff=next&oldid=91726360 widened its scope]: since some countries have anti-democratic legal and security practices, should their citizens be automatically disqualified from stewardship?

On 6 April 2013, five contributors of the French Wikipedia—all citizens of France and including the four named WMFR employees and board members—[//fr.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sp%C3%A9cial%3AJournal&type=rights&user=&page=&year=2013&month=4&tagfilter= requested] the withdrawal of their administrator rights, which was implemented.

Reactions to the event from media outlets were swift, with blogs chiming in first (Geekosystem, Battleground); this was followed by online news outlets (arstechnica, zdnet, Boing Boing); and then by major news outlets (the Guardian, France24, Russia Today).
 * Media coverage

Wikimédia France and the Wikimedia Foundation promptly issued statements, with the chapter's—alongside a post on wikimedia-l—the first to break the news. The chapter stated, in part:

The Foundation responded via its legal counsel, Michelle Paulson. She detailed the Foundation’s interactions with the DCRI on the matter before issuing a strong condemnation of their tactics:

Rémi Mathis declined the Signpost's invitation to comment on the matter.

In a comedic irony for the French intelligence service, articles have suddenly popped up in [//www.wikidata.org/w/index.php?title=Q10369016&oldid=24305326 26 other Wikipedias], while Twitter has been abuzz with the matter (Editor's note: this includes the Signpost ' s Twitter account). The article's views skyrocketed in the day after the event, up by more than 45,000%.

It appears that the French Wikipedia article on the Pierre-sur-Haute military base will be around for quite some time; however, internet freedom and intimidation by nation states of people who contribute to the net is still a burning question. Only last week, the Russian government published the list of Wikipedia pages they intend to blacklist. The action comes as part of a new law passed last year that spawned protests and the Russian Wikipedia blackout last July. The law allows "extrajudicial blacklisting of web content deemed to be promoting suicide, pedophilia or drug use", according to the state-owned news agency, RIA Novosti.


 * Further information on the timeline of events (Google translation)

In brief

 * Milan conference: The annual Wikimedia Conference will be held in Milan, Italy, Thursday–Sunday next week, 18–21 April. It will include a meeting of the Foundation's Board of Trustees, and an Education Program Leaders Workshop.
 * Wikimedia chapter staff changes: The national Wikimedia chapter in Israel has announced the appointment of an executive director, Dorit Shafir Dyamant. At the same time, Wikimedia Switzerland has three new hires, including a Chief Information Officer/Event Manager, German-speaking Community manager, and a Italian-speaking Community/GLAM manager. Details of their duties is available in the announcements.
 * Requests for adminship: There have been no legitimate requests for adminship since 31 March, but a new Admin Nominators WikiProject has been formed to "[support] editors who are interested in acting as nominators for potential administrators".