Wikipedia:Responding to threats of harm

Although experts recommend urging potentially violent or suicidal individuals to seek professional care (typically at a hospital emergency department), Wikipedia editors receive no special training in dealing with such individuals. Nobody on Wikipedia is obligated to deal with threats of harm, but should you wish to do so here are the recommended steps:

Treat all claims seriously

Many threats are empty, but Wikipedians cannot make such evaluations, so treat all threats as real. If you are in immediate danger, call your local emergency services.

Contact the Wikimedia Foundation

• Immediately email emergencywikimedia.org, which is monitored around the clock. This address is for true emergencies only‍—‌see Wikipedia:Contact us for alternatives.
• If you have email enabled in your Wikipedia preferences, you can also use Special:EmailUser/Emergency to contact this address.
• Emailing other addresses, or telephoning the Wikimedia Foundation office, will not help and creates confusion.
• Staff will typically acknowledge your email immediately.
• Staff will take appropriate action, such as tracing locations and contacting authorities.

Contact administrators

In addition to emailing Wikimedia Foundation as above:

• Notify Wikipedia administrators (even an administrator discovering a threat should notify other administrators). Use email, IRC, or other low-visibility methods. Avoid high-traffic noticeboards when reporting. If in doubt, join #wikipedia-en-revdel ^connect <<< Click green button to connect or failing that, in true emergencies there is almost always a steward on #wikimedia-stewards ^connect. <<< Click green button to connect.

• Also request oversight, as such posts often contain personal information requiring oversighter attention.

Administrator action

• Threats of violence against others should be met with blocking, generally including removal of talk page access, and possibly blocking email. Such threats should be removed from any relevant pages and are frequently deleted from page history; revdel may be appropriate.
• Threats of suicide or self-harm require discretion on the questions of blocking or removal of posts.
• If in doubt, email the office.

External links

• A behind the scenes look at the Wikimedia Foundation’s emergency response system, User:Mdennis (WMF), September 22, 2014
• Crisis support resources curated by Wikimedia Foundation Support and Safety.