Hi, everyone.

It is being recently reported on Portuguese Wikipedia and Commons (at
least) the increasing ammount of improper editing coming from IP addresses
located in Angola. Some users believe that this may be related with
Wikipedia Zero and a partnership between WMF and a cellphone company [1]
that allows reading and editing at free cost.

One of the first reactions to that is a large range block that was just set
on Commons in order to prevent these edits [2], as they are being done in a
way that volunteers can't handle.

That seems to be some kind of "second wave" as the first that hit Commons
[3] had been already reported months ago [4] and seemed to be controled or
just paused for a while. On Portuguese Wikipedia, one thing that seemss to
be clear is that edits are done in good faith. However, they end by being
undone as they are incorrect for some reason, whether being pages of files
about themselves or just test edits. One of the users identified actually
confirm [5] that he is editing through Wikipedia Zero.

Concerning that more partnerships may occur in future, I think it is time
for us to start talking about ways of dealing with that, other than
blocking. Sadly, I don't have an answer to that problem, but I tend to
believe that some way of mass reaching these potential users should be made
out.

The current process is that editors will be the ones to notice that (as I
am not aware of any kind of follow up by WMF on that) and they will try to
solve their way, which may cause too many collateral damage.

I wonder if there is any kind of way to diminish the problem, by using any
off-wiki strategy.

Kind regards.

Teles

[1] -
http://www.telecompaper.com/news/movice ... a--1116012
[2] -
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.p ... 84#Unblock
[3] - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User ... ebook_Case
[4] -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php? ... _copyright
[5] -
https://pt.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?ti ... d=45095087


*Lucas Teles*

*+55 (71) 98290 7553Steward at Wikimedia Foundation. Administrator *
*at Portuguese Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.*- wikipedista.com

So, they are finally reaching that little girl in Africa... and blocked her.

So, they are finally reaching that little girl in Africa... and blocked her.

So, they are finally reaching that little girl in Africa... and blocked her.

Such ingratitude after all the great white father Jimbo has done for those people...

Problems with Angolan editors adding piracy links

Motherboard reports "Wikimedia and Facebook have given Angolans free access to their websites, but not to the rest of the internet. So, naturally, Angolans have started hiding pirated movies and music in Wikipedia articles and linking to them on closed Facebook groups, creating a totally free and clandestine file sharing network in a country where mobile internet data is extremely expensive." The program they're referring to regarding Wikipedia is Wikipedia Zero. I was curious whether you, Mr. Wales, had any idea as to how to stop these editors from adding links to websites hosting pirated content to WP, given that the same article claims that "no one knows what to do about it." [15] Everymorning (talk) 15:27, 23 March 2016 (UTC)

Adele Vrana, head of the Wikimedia Zero program, told me in a phone interview that the foundation has been aware of the situation since at least last summer, and said that blanket bans or alterations of the Wikipedia Zero are “not on the table.” She wrote in an email to the listserv that the Wikimedia Foundation is as stumped as its editors.

Jason Koebler's Motherboard article.Adele's email to wikimedia-l.

Such ingratitude after all the great white father Jimbo has done for those people...