Last week, a gunman who declared himself an “anti-contact non-offending” pedophile rushed the stage at WikiConference North America in New York City and threatened to kill himself in protest over the Wikipedia child protection policy, which bans self-identified pedophiles. A member of the site’s Arbitration Committee, often likened to a Supreme Court, claimed the gunman is Connor Weston, who was banned earlier this year under the aforementioned policy.
In a public statement, the committee member complained of failures on the part of the Wikimedia Foundation that owns Wikipedia to secure the conference. He specifically criticized their failure to impose a Trust and Safety Ban prior to the incident, stating Weston months earlier threatened suicide and discussed protesting at the Foundation headquarters. The Foundation responded that it was reviewing its policies following the incident.
The incident occurred during the opening ceremony of WikiConference North America, which was held at Civic Hall in New York City. An annual event where contributors to Wikipedia and its affiliated sites gather to network and discuss matters involving the community of contributors to the online encyclopedia, the conference was set to run all weekend starting last Friday. The gunman stepped on stage next to Maryanna Iskander, the Chief Executive Officer of the Wikimedia Foundation that owns Wikipedia, during her keynote address and announced that he was an “anti-contact no-offending” pedophile who was planning to kill himself in protest of the site’s child protection policy.
He described the child protection policy as a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, a term used by site co-founder Jimmy Wales in leaked e-mails to describe a secret prohibition on self-identifying pedophiles that Wales officially made public policy in 2010. Under current policy, editors identifying as pedophiles are banned indefinitely. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” references a policy previously in place in the U.S. military regarding homosexuality prior to allowing homosexual individuals to serve openly.
The man, later allegedly identified as Connor Weston, waved a gun around before being subdued by two volunteer security members at the conference, Richard Knipel and Andrew Lih, site admins who edit as “Pharos” and “Fuzheado” respectively. Lih is also author of The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World’s Greatest Encyclopedia, a book praising the online encyclopedia. Both received numerous accolades for their role in subduing Weston from other editors, such as awarding them “barnstars” in recognition of their actions. Editors have also created an open letter to thank both of them. Jake Orlowitz, a former Foundation employee who edits as “Ocaasi” on Wikipedia, received praise for attempting to talk Weston down.
Police detained the gunman and subsequently charged him with criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment. In an official statement, Iskander noted the incident, adding the Foundation was “not going to be providing more information about the individual involved while investigations are ongoing, and would ask others to not share details in this public forum.” No motive was mentioned and there was no official confirmation that Weston had a Wikipedia account. On Tuesday this week, the Foundation quietly banned the Gapazoid account from all Wikipedia-affiliated sites and events under its global ban policy. Such bans can be done for many reasons and do not include a public explanation.
Arbitration Committee Announcement
A day later, Arbitration Committee member “ScottishFinnishRadish” (SFR) published an announcement to a committee noticeboard that Weston was the individual behind the Gapazoid account and the committee had actively lobbied for the Foundation to implement a global ban after SFR banned his account on the English Wikipedia in February. Such a ban would have officially barred Weston from attending the WikiConference event. Weston had made over a hundred edits and translated an article from the Japanese Wikipedia, before commenting on the discussion page of the child protection policy to complain the policy conflated “non-offending pedophiles and supporters of child sex abuse.” He was banned several days later.
In his statement about the incident, SFR noted he was violating a non-disclosure agreement, though a majority of committee members endorsed the publication of the announcement. SFR wrote he was making the announcement “to do everything possible to protect the community that I belong to and love.” Adding he serves the community, not the Foundation, SFR noted he pledged when running for the committee that he would push for transparency. He stated the WikiConference North America incident was forcing him to break his NDA “to make sure the community that I serve is safe, and has all the information they need to make informed decisions about their continued safety.”
He stated Gapazoid identified as Connor Weston on his deleted profile page, which was restored following the announcement. Noting Weston’s account had also been banned on the English Wiktionary site, SFR stated he e-mailed the Foundation’s Trust and Safety team lobbying for a global ban over several months. On April 25, Weston sent an e-mail expressing intent to protest at the Foundation headquarters. An included copy of the e-mail was redacted by former committee member “Barkeep49” who currently sits on the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) that helps enforce a code of conduct imposed by the Foundation. The e-mail can be viewed on Wikipedia criticism site Wikipediocracy.
Both a copy of that e-mail and information about Weston threatening suicide had been sent to the Trust and Safety Team at the time. On August 11, the Foundation closed its investigation of Weston’s account. The Foundation stated to the Arbitration Committee: “Having carefully weighed the evidence, we found no indication that Gapazoid’s contributions amount to advocacy or encouragement of illicit activity.” While acknowledging the committee’s concerns, Foundation staff argued they “must be able to legally defend our decisions to take action, including their consistency with our policies over time. This includes the need to have evidence of a risk of harm that violates our policies.”
Criticizing this as allowing Weston to attend the WikiConference, SFR further lamented that committee members and others raised concerns about security yet, despite assurances that adequate security measures were being taken, there were no “bag checks and no checks with a metal detector or wand.” He noted that he had personally attended the conference, assuaging his wife’s concerns about safety by noting the Foundation’s security assurances. When Weston appeared on stage, he stated he immediately recognized him and alerted Foundation staff on site. SFR stated the Foundation’s inaction explicitly allowed the incident at the WikiConference to occur and “put everyone attending the conference in life-threatening danger.”
Stating that thanks to “heroism by members of our own community, the threat was mitigated” he noted this “doesn’t mitigate the trauma we all suffered.” Adding it was “essential that nothing like this ever happen again” SFR stated “the community must be aware of the extent of the failures that occurred.” He noted that the community had done everything right, but “due to systemic failures from the [Foundation] we were almost all party to an incredible tragedy.” In the discussion about the statement, Foundation Vice President Maggie Dennis who oversees the Trust and Safety team left a response to acknowledge the statement.
Expressing concerns for everyone involved, Dennis stated “the Foundation immediately began a review of its protocols related to event security, including procedures for screening event attendance” following the incident and was reviewing its standards for Foundation-imposed bans. Dennis stated the Foundation was already re-examining security measures for future events in coordination with organizers and was increasing communications regarding security. She stated the Foundation was discussing its approach to bans with the Arbitration Committee and would be receiving input from the U4C and the general community, describing a need for a balanced approach that respects the autonomy of site communities. The response concluded by assuring the Foundation was taking the matter seriously.
Response to Revelations
Community members praised SFR for his transparency and echoed his concerns about the Foundation’s handling of the situation, many noting they were also in attendance at the conference. One member noted children attend the conference and suggested the situation evidenced lack of concern at the Foundation for the community. Hannah Clover, who edits as “Clovermoss” on Wikipedia, noted she had engaged with Weston’s account on Wikipedia and was present at the conference when Weston went on stage, making the revelation particularly concerning for her.
Robert Fernandez, who edits as “Gamaliel” on Wikipedia, stated he helped organize WikiConference North America in 2016 in San Diego, California and worked with Foundation Trust and Safety to intercept an individual threatening to disrupt that event. He stated this should have been how the situation with Weston was handled. Expressing his view that he wanted Foundation staff to take more responsibility for event security, he stated he was reconsidering in light of SFR’s statement. Feeling the Foundation was often wrongly criticized by the community, he stated they deserved it in this case and added “this should be a fireable offense for whoever is responsible for this failure.”
Former Foundation board member Samuel Klein thanked SFR for sharing the information, adding such information should have come from the Foundation in a swift report immediately following the incident. One editor noted the Foundation’s controversial ban of administrator “Fram” in 2019 and questioned how they could be so reluctant to take action against Weston. Former members of the Arbitration Committee responded that the subsequent community revolt over that admin’s ban, which was ultimately overturned after the Foundation capitulated to community demands, was likely a major factor in the Foundation’s hesitance in exercising its authority to ban users.
Committee member Kevin Li further called for the Foundation to expand the Trust and Safety team, while expressing concern the current Committee’s sharing of information could compromise the Foundation’s willingness to be forthcoming with information in the future. Another former committee member warned about potential escalating security measures and other implications of the situation for the community and echoed the argument that the Foundation would be wary of increasing action given the Fram incident.
Roy Smith, who served on the “safe space subcommittee” for the conference, expressed shock that they were unaware of Weston prior to the event and was glad SFR brought the matter to light. However, Smith also expressed concerns about disclosing confidential information. Noting recent controversy regarding the Foundation rejecting two candidates right before a community board election, which sparked a revolt suggesting Israeli and U.S. government pressure, he stated SFR’s disclosure could increase friction between the Foundation and the community. Smith remarked how one candidate was purportedly rejected due to concerns from the Board of Trustees that the candidate might release confidential information and SFR’s disclosures would reinforce such fears.
Regarding the response from Foundation Vice President Dennis, Clover noted a comment on the mailing list stating CEO Iskander’s comments about not sharing details on the incident came off differently in light of SFR’s announcement. She noted there had been a conference speech given “about how we shouldn’t talk to the press while we are at the event as well.” She expressed concern about potential pressure to keep the incident quiet to avoid reputational damage for the Foundation, stating the recent events with the board election motivated her concerns. Clover had submitted a petition calling for reform of the board following the recent rejection of board candidates.
Wiki Education Foundation staffer Ryan McGrady, who edits as “Rhododendrites” on Wikipedia, questioned whether security measures could have prevented Weston’s attendance. He noted attendees did not need to disclose an account. An editor previously involved in screening conference registrants stated Trust and Safety typically aided review, but approved of getting other groups involved. Pacita Rudder, Executive Director of the Wikimedia New York City community chapter involved in organizing the conference, replied to note they were unaware of Weston and had asked to review a list of Foundation-banned users before the event, but he was not listed since the Foundation had not yet banned him.
Pedophilia Policy History
Wikipedia’s handling of issues related to pedophilia has previously aroused controversy. In 2006, one notorious case involved a pedophilia userbox, which allowed editors to identify as pedophiles on their profile pages. Admins deleted and restored the userbox repeatedly in a “wheel war” where administrators repeatedly undo each other’s actions. Some also resorted to banning their opponents with admins also engaging in retaliatory bans after others unbanned them. The case included several admins being stripped of their privileges by co-founder Wales himself, though most had their privileges eventually restored by the Arbitration Committee in its final decision on the dispute.
Several years later, co-founder Larry Sanger criticized alleged instances of child pornography, including drawings, on Wikipedia-affiliated file repository Wikimedia Commons. Wales deleted many of the images in response, but community outcry over perceived censorship of legal artistic works resulted in him surrendering his deletion privileges on the site. He has since surrendered nearly all privileges on Wikipedia following an unrelated controversy in 2023 where he falsely accused a former Arbitration Committee member of undisclosed paid editing, despite evidence of impersonation. Wales retains a “founder” seat on the Board of Trustees.
The Foundation started becoming more proactive in banning editors in late 2014, including instances involving alleged inappropriate conduct with children, though it was criticized for the secrecy of the process. More recently, in 2023, several editors were found authoring articles regarding pedophilia activist terms such as “minor-attracted person” and “stigma of pedophilia” white-washing the subjects or promoting normalization of pedophilia, including a page attacking an anti-pedophilia organization. Numerous editors, some with little prior editing history, voted to keep the articles. All pages were eventually deleted, and many editors advocating for the articles were banned under Wikipedia’s child protection policy with several being banned by the Foundation.
(Disclosure: The author has previously been involved in disputes on Wikipedia with some parties referenced in this article)
T. D. Adler edited Wikipedia as The Devil’s Advocate. He was banned after privately reporting conflict of interest editing by one of the site’s administrators. Due to previous witch-hunts led by mainstream Wikipedians against their critics, Adler writes under an alias.
