Universal Code of Conduct/Initial 2020 Consultations/Chinese

Introduction/ Basic Information/Facilitation process

In general, the Chinese community is largely falling into three main groups, including the Taiwanese community, the Hong Kong and Macau community, and the Mainland China community. These three groups use different social media for their conversations, have different political and identity backgrounds, and conflict between members of these groups is unfortunately quite common.

22 user interviews were conducted throughout the whole consultation period, in order to find out how the current conduct policies are working in the Chinese community, and how people are expecting to improve the current policies. Most of the people interviewed claim that they follow and support the policy, and at the same time, that it would be nice to improve the policy a bit more, to provide a safer place for everyone, which includes LGBTQ, female Wikipedians, or Wikipedians who share different political opinions. The current UCoC is proposed to be created by the Wikimedia Foundation, which they believe will be based on ‘western’ values, and it is possible that the policy will not be suitable for the Chinese community. Volunteers interviewed expressed hope that the Foundation will create a new UCoC for the Chinese community.

Chinese community UCoC consultation-medium of engagement

At the beginning of the consultation period, I shared the news about the consultation on different social media platforms used by the three groups, which include Facebook, QQ, and Telegram. People were not that active in the discussion, and only a few people showed that they support the UCoC and the consultation in these group settings, but some people approached me separately after seeing the posts on the social media platforms. Later on, I tried to arrange individual conversations with them. 22 people shared their opinions on UCoC with me, but there were also 5 other people, which showed their support and interest on the topic when I posted it on social media, but they have never replied to my invitation for individual conversations afterwards.

For the 22 interviewees, seven are from Hong Kong, three from Mainland China, eleven from Taiwan, and there is one interviewee who is now living overseas but as a Wikipedian is still active in the Chinese Community. The five people who showed their support and interest on the topic did not participate in individual conversations. They are from Mainland China. The individual conversations were on Google Hangout, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger. Fifteen of the participating users identify as male, one of them is female, and eleven of them did not share their gender identity. The purpose of the interviews was to investigate the major challenges that the community is facing with respect to conduct issues in the projects, how they usually resolve the issues, things they would like to see in a UCoC, and things they would not like to see in a UCoC. Four out of the 27 user total sharing opinions either on social media or in the interviews expressed their support, two of them expressed their concerns, and two of them stayed neutral. The remaining nineteen expressed their support, but also shared concerns at the same time.

Interview/ Community’s Feedback

The Chinese language Wikimedia community is facing a very unique situation. It is mostly separated into three main groups, including the Taiwanese community, the Hong Kong and Macau community, and the Mainland China community. The three different groups share the same language (the written forms would be a little bit different from each other, but still they can understand each other), but the cultures are very different, and this brings a lot of arguments to the community. To conclude the 22 interviews that I had with the community, there are three main challenges that the community is facing with respect to behavioural issues in the projects, as below,

People abusing the ‘Wikipedia/Wikimedia’ branding
Gender/Disability discrimination
People violating conduct policies because of their different political ideas

The mentioned challenges are growing in the community, and the community is not quite happy with some parts of the current conduct policies, as they think that the Wikimedia Foundation does not react to these violations. At the moment, they do not have a proper system to resolve the mentioned challenges locally. It is difficult for them to resolve the arguments by themselves, and usually, the situation would escalate after their attempts to resolve the problems. People tend to leave the conversation when the situation escalates but the issues then remain not solved. Previously, they tried to report the violations to the Foundation, but the Foundation did not really react to them. The community members are still very frustrated about the lack of intervention and reactions of the Foundation. These issues are still in the community and they keep growing, and it is necessary to resolve the problems as soon as possible.

The community also shared the ideas on things they would like to see in a UCoC, and things they would not like to see in a UCoC. Here is the list of the things that they would like to see in a UCoC.

There should be a clear guideline (UCoC) for the community members.
We have to emphasize the consequences if the people violate the UCoC.
The Foundation should work harder to enforce the UCoC.
The Foundation should create a special UCoC for the Chinese community, especially for the fact that people share distinctly different political ideas.
We have to think about how we, as the community members, can enforce the UCoC in the community.

As mentioned before, most of the people are okay with the current conduct policies, but still, they share their concerns. They believe that there are some loopholes in the current policies, and sometimes people violate them without any consequences. For example, the people from the Chinese community communicate on different social media platforms, including QQ, Telegram, Whatsapp, and Facebook. The violations usually happen on these platforms, but not on wiki. It will be difficult for the Foundation to enforce the UCoC on these platforms. Therefore, the community hopes that there should be a clear guideline about off-wiki harassment in the UCoC. At the same time, the community feels the Foundation has never emphasized the consequences if the people violate conduct policies. The community believes that the Foundation should emphasize the consequences if the people violate the UCoC so that the violations would decrease, as people might be afraid of the consequences.

The Chinese community understands that they are different from the other communities in the movement, and it would be nice that the Foundation will create the UCoC, especially for the Chinese community. They believe that the current policies are created by the Foundation based on the ‘western’ values, which is very different from the ‘eastern’ one, and it is possible that the current policies are not that suitable for the Chinese community. Meanwhile, the Chinese community members believe that they should also try their best to enforce the UCoC in the community, in order to provide a safe and friendly environment to everyone who would like to share free knowledge.

On the other hand, they shared their concerns on the topic, as shown,

It is not a strict guideline for the community, and many people violate the rules every day.
The UCoC cannot really work in the Chinese Community, as the political differences mainly impacting off-wiki conduct related to the movement play a huge part here.
Right now the Foundation is not really enforcing conduct policies in the community. It is useless.
The cultural differences in the community make it difficult to have just one UCoC. It depends on the people.
People can ignore the UCoC and do whatever they want. As volunteers, people do not 'have to' listen to the Foundation.
The Mainland Chinese government/CCP influences the community with their soft power, but there is nothing we can do.

It is necessary to improve the UCoC for the Chinese community as soon as possible, and at the same time, the political differences make it very difficult for the Foundation to work on the UCoC so that everyone from the Chinese community would be satisfied.

Case Study

Case 1: Gender/Disability discrimination

Distribution by gender identities

Originally, some of the community members were discussing an article on Wikipedia, for the choice of vocabulary, in an off-wiki conversation. One of the members, who is a female, revealed her gender identity, and the discussion became weird. The female Wikipedian received comments about her gender, appearance, and also her tone of speaking. She was told that she should be talking in a gentle way as she is female and respect what the men have said in the discussion, which is totally irrelevant to the discussion of the Wikipedia article’s content itself. Given that the comments were on non-wiki platforms, it was/is difficult for this female member to report the case to the Foundation. She started to be less active after this discussion.

Case 2.1: People violating the UCoC because of their different political ideas

As mentioned before, the Chinese community is actually separated into 3 main groups, including the Taiwanese community, the Hong Kong and Macau community, and the Mainland China community. These 3 groups share different political backgrounds, and usually, the Mainland China community brings the opinion about politics to the community. It is a fairly wide shared perception that most of them support the China government and CCP. This would be considered very inappropriate as they do not see Wikipedia as the platform to share free knowledge, but a place for them to share political opinions. They do not allow others to share any opinion which is against the mainland Chinese government or they would be very aggressive. If the articles on Chinese Wikipedia are against the mainland Chinese government or CCP, interviewees expressed concerns that they would violate the UCoC as revenge.

When the Foundation launched this consultation to collect the opinions from the community, it happened that it was the time of COVID-19 pandemic (which is still ongoing.) The Chinese community has been only discussing articles related to this topic. When it came to the discussion about the name and the origin of the virus (which is originally from Wuhan Province, China), users from Mainland China refused the others to edit the articles to show this basic information. They even edited these articles to indicate that the virus was originally from the US, that the US government hoped to control the Chinese government with the virus. When the others disagreed with them, the members from Mainland China started to harass the others, by blocking the others on Wiki to stop them from editing and sending private messages on social media platforms, to threaten the others that they would be kicked out from the Wikimedia Movement if they would not like to cooperate.

Case 2.2: People violating the UCoC because of their different political ideas

Due to the different political ideas, user A (from the Taiwanese community) was harassed by user B (from the Mainland China community, who claimed that they are related to/ supported by the Chinese government). User A received some threatening messages off-wiki which included their personal information (His home address, the universities they had attended), and they tried to report to the Foundation (Trust and Safety Team) about the situation. However, the team did not really resolve the concern for them, as the harassments took place on different non-Wikimedia social media platforms, and user A was very frustrated about the experience.

Case 2.3: People violating the UCoC because of their different political ideas

The members from Mainland China would like to claim that Taiwan is an island which belongs to China, but this claim is highly controversial. Taiwan has its own culture, language, currency, and legal system, etc. However, the members from Mainland China insist that Taiwan belongs to China, and they tried to sabotage the articles about this topic, by editing them in a vicious way. When the members from the Taiwanese community complained about the situation, the members from Mainland China would pretend to be the victims here in this discussion.

Case 3: People abusing the ‘Wikipedia/Wikimedia’ branding

Community feedback

Some Wikipedians approached local organizations, to ask for cooperation, by showing the name of Wikipedia/Wikimedia Movement, without asking the local chapter. The cooperation was not successful, due to the lack of resources (as it was without the support from the local chapter), and later on, these organizations contacted the local chapter. The situation is not exactly what the UCoC is for, but it creates a tricky situation - when the local chapters found out about the situation and asked the Wikipedians not to approach the local organizations without asking for the permission from the chapter, the Wikipedians accused the chapter of violating policy. Policy, in this case, became a ‘weapon’ when people argued in the community.

Conclusion

It is very important for the Foundation to help create a better conduct environment for the Chinese community. Even though most of the people are okay with the current policies, there are so many parts to be improved. The differences of the political ideas have been a serious issue in the community, and the violations of UCoC would often be caused by this problem. The Wikimedia Foundation has to find the solution for this particular situation before creating the new UCoC for the community. It is well-known that the Wikimedia Movement is a platform for people to share free knowledge, but some members in the Chinese community bring their opinions about politics to the community all the time, and it is not healthy for the community development.

第一部分：簡介/基本信息/簡化流程

總體而言，中文社群主要分為三個主要群體，包括台灣社群，香港和澳門社群，以及中國大陸社群。這三個群體使用不同的社交媒體進行對話。由於這三個群體具有不同的政治和身份背景，他們之間的衝突非常普遍。

在整個諮詢期間，我們一共進行了22次用戶訪談，以了解當前的行為準則（UCoC）在中文社群的運作方式，以及人們期望如何改進當前的政策。多數受訪者聲稱他們遵循並支持該政策，同時又可以進一步改善該政策，以便為所有人（包括LGBTQ，女性維基人，或擁有不同的政治見解的維基人）提供更安全的平台去分享免費和自由的知識。當前的UCoC提議是由維基媒體基金會創建，中文社群的受訪者認為這是基於「西方」的價值觀，而該政策可能不適用於中文社群。接受采訪的志願者表示希望維基媒體基金會基金會將為中文社群建立一個新的行為準則。

關於通用行為準則諮詢而接觸中文社群的媒介

諮詢開始時，我在不同社交媒體平台上共享了有關諮詢的資訊，包括Facebook，QQ，和Telegram。人們在公開的討論中並不那麼活躍，只有少數人表明他們在這些平台上表示支持維基媒體基金會創建的行為準則和磋商，但是有些人在社交媒體平台上看到有關諮詢的資訊後分別與我聯繫。之後，我嘗試安排與他們的個人對話，並有22個人與我分享了對行為準則的意見，但是有5個人，當我在社交媒體上發布該主題時，他們表達了對該主題的支持和興趣，但此後他們從未回復我的個人對話邀請。

這22位受訪者中，有7位來自香港和澳門地區，11位來自台灣，3位來自中國大陸。目前有1位受訪者居住在海外，但作為維基百科的一員仍活躍於中文社群。另外，有5個來自中國大陸的維基人對主題表示支持和興趣，但是沒有參加個人對話。個別對話分別在 Google Hangout，Telegram，和 Facebook Messenger上進行。參與的用戶之中，有15個為男性，有1個是女性，另外有11個未有共享性別身份。訪談的目的是調查中文社群在計劃實施方面面臨的主要挑戰，他們解決問題的方案，他們希望行為準則中看到的發展，以及他們在行為準則中不想看到的情況。在這27個用戶的總體共享意見這中，有4個表達了他們的支持，有4個表達了他們的關注，有2個保持中立。其餘19人表示支持，但同時也表示關注。

第2部分：對話/社群反饋

中文維基媒體社群面臨著非常獨特的情況，主要分為三個主要群體，包括台灣社群，香港和澳門社群，以及中國大陸社群。這三個不同的群體使用相同的語言（書面形式可能會有所不同，但他們仍然可以互相理解對方。），但是他們的文化差異很大，而這給整個社群帶來了很多爭議。中文維基媒體社群在不同計劃中的行為準則方面面臨著三個主要挑戰，如下所示：

濫用「維基百科/維基媒體」（Wikipedia / Wikimedia）品牌的情況
性別/殘疾歧視
人們因政治思想不同而違反行為準則

對話所提到的挑戰在中文維基媒體社群中正在增長，並且社群對當前的行為準則的某些部分並不滿意，因為他們認為維基媒體基金會對這些違規行為和違規者沒有反應。目前，中文維基媒體社群的成員沒有一個適當的系統來解決上述的挑戰。這讓他們很難自己去解決這些問題，通常，在他們嘗試解決問題後，情況反而會惡化。當情況惡化時，中文維基媒體社群的人會傾向於離開對話，但是問題仍然沒有解決。以前，他們試圖將違規行為報告給維基媒體基金會，但是基金會並沒有真正對這些問題做出反應。中文維基媒體社群的成員仍然對基金會缺乏干預和反應感到沮喪。這些問題仍在中文維基媒體社群之中，並且還在不斷增加，因此我們有必要盡快解決這些問題。

同時，中文維基媒體社群分享了他們希望在行為準則中看到的發展，以及他們在行為準則中不想看到的情況。這是他們希望在行為準則中看到的發展的列表。

社群成員應有明確的行為準則指南。
如果人們違反了行為準則，我們必須強調後果的嚴重性。
維基媒體基金會應該更加努力地執行行為準則。
維基媒體基金會應該為中文維基媒體社群建立一個特別的行為準則，尤其是因為人們有著與西方截然不同文化，以及社群成員有不同的政治思想。
作為社群成員的我們必須考慮如何在社群中有效地實施行為準則。

如前所述，大多數人都對當前的行為政策表示滿意，但他們仍然有一些擔憂。他們認為當前的政策存在了一些漏洞，而有時人們會違反這些行為政策但不會產生任何後果。舉例來說，中文維基媒體社群的成員在不同的社交媒體平台上進行交流，包括QQ，Telegram，Whatsapp，和Facebook。行為政策的違規通常發生在這些平台上，而不發生在維基的平台上，因此維基媒體基金會很難在這些平台上實施行為政策。中文維基媒體社群希望對行為政策中的非維基騷擾制定明確的指導原則。同時，中文維基媒體社群感到維基媒體基金會從未強調過如果成員違反行為政策會帶來的後果。中文社群認為，如果成員違反了行為政策，基金會應該強調後果，以便減少違反行為，因為成員可能會擔心違反行為帶來的後果。

中文維基媒體社群明白他們在維基媒體運動中與其他社群不同，而維基媒體基金會應該為中文維基媒體社群創建一個適用於中文維基媒體社群的行為準則指南。他們認為，現行的行為準則指南是維基媒體基金會根據「西方的價值觀」制定的，而這與「東方的價值觀」截然不同，所以當前的行為準則指南可能不適用於中文維基媒體社群。同時，中文維基媒體社群的成員認為，基金會的他們應盡力在社群中實施行為準則指南，以便為每個希望共享免費知識的成員提供安全和友好的環境。

另一方面，中文維基媒體社群的成員分享了對行為準則指南的關注，如下所示，

對於中文維基媒體社群來說，行為準則指南不是嚴格的準則，並且每天都有許多成員違反規則。
行為準則指南在中文維基媒體社群沒有真正的作用，中文維基媒體社群的政治分歧在這裡影響行為準則指南的實施。
目前，維基媒體基金會並未真正在中文維基媒體社群中實施行為政策。
中文維基媒體社群中的文化差異使僅擁有一個行為準則指南變得困難。
人們認為他們可以忽略行為準則指南，並做任何他們想做的事情。作為志願者，他們認為他們不必「聆聽」維基媒體基金會的話。
中國大陸政府（CCP）的軟實力影響著中文維基媒體社群，但是我們對此無能為力。

因此，我們有必要盡快為中文維基媒體社群改善行為準則指南。同時，中文維基媒體社群的政治分歧使維基媒體基金會在行為準則指南上開展工作變得非常困難，這使中文維基媒體社群的成員未能感到滿意。

第3部分：案例分析

案例1：性別/殘疾歧視

參加者的性別分佈

最初，一些社群成員在非維基的平台對話中討論維基百科上的文章，以選擇適合的詞彙，而其中一名成員是女性，她透露了她的性別身份，然後討論變得怪異。這個女性維基成員收到了有關她的性別，外貌，以及說話語氣的評論。她被告知，她身為女性，應該以溫柔的方式講話，並尊重男性成員在討論中所說的話，談話內容這與對維基百科文章內容本身的討論完全無關。鑑於這些評論是在非維基的平台上發表，因此該女性成員很難向維基媒體基金會報告此案。討論之後，她開始變得不太活躍。

案例2.1：成員由於政治觀念不同而違反行為準則指南

如前所述，中文維基媒體社群主要分為三個主要群體，包括台灣社群，香港和澳門社群，以及中國大陸社群。這三個群體有著不同的政治背景。通常，中國大陸社群會把他們對政治的看法帶來中文社群。他們中的大多數人支持中國政府。他們不將維基百科視為共享自由知識的平台，而是將其視為分享政治見解的地方。他們不允許任何人分享任何反對中國大陸政府的意見，否則他們變得非常激進。如果中文維基百科上的文章是針對中國大陸政府或中共的，那麼他們會以違反行為準則指南作為報復。

當維基媒體基金會發起此諮詢以徵集社群對行為準則指南的意見時，碰巧是2019冠狀病毒（COVID-19）大流行的時候（病毒情況現在仍在流行）。中文維基媒體社群討論與該主題相關的文章。在討論2019冠狀病毒的名稱和來源（無可非議，2019冠狀病毒最初來自中國武漢市）時，來自中國大陸的用戶拒絕其他人編輯文章以顯示此基本信息。他們甚至編輯了這些文章，以表明該病毒最初來自美國，而美國政府希望以此病毒控制中國政府。當中文維基媒體社群的其他成員不同意時，中國大陸的成員開始騷擾其他成員，在維基百科上阻止他們編輯，以及在社交媒體平台上發送十分滋擾的私人消息，以威脅他們如果不想合作的話，他們將被趕出維基媒體運動。

案例2.2：成員由於政治觀念不同而違反行為準則指南

由於不同的政治想法，來自台灣社群的用戶A受到來自中國大陸社群的用戶B的騷擾，而後者聲稱他們與中國政府有關並受其支持。用戶A在維基之外的平台收到了一些威脅性消息，而其中包括他的個人信息（包括他的家庭住址，和所曾就讀的大學），因此他試圖向維基媒體基金會（信任和安全小組）報告有關情況。但是，該團隊並未真正解決他的擔憂，因為這些騷擾發生在不同的非維基社交媒體平台上，用戶A對此體驗感到非常沮喪。

案例2.3：成員由於政治觀念不同而違反行為準則指南

來自中國大陸社群的成員想宣稱台灣是屬於中國的一個島嶼，但是這種說法引起了很大爭議。台灣有自己的文化，語言，貨幣，和法律制度等，而這些都和中國完全不同。但是，來自中國大陸的成員堅持認為台灣屬於中國，並試圖通過惡意編輯來破壞有關該主題的文章。當台灣社區的成員抱怨這種情況時，中國大陸的成員會假裝是該討論中的受害者。

案例3：濫用「維基百科/維基媒體」（Wikipedia / Wikimedia）品牌的情況

社群的反饋

一些中文維基媒體社群的成員通過使用「維基百科/維基媒體」（Wikipedia / Wikimedia）的名稱來聯繫當地組織要求合作，但是沒有通知當地的分支機構。由於他們缺乏資源（因沒有當地分支機構的支持），合作未能成功，而後來這些組織聯繫了當地分會。這些情況不完全是行為準則指南可以解決，但它為中文維基媒體社群的發展造成了一個棘手的情況。當當地分支機構發現該情況時，並要求這些成員在未徵得分支機構許可的情況下不要與當地組織接觸。在這種情況下，當成員在社群中爭論時，行為準則指南就成了爭論中的「武器」，因為他們指控分支機構違反行為準則指南。

第4部分：結論

對於維基媒體基金會而言，為中文維基媒體社群創造一個更好的行為準則指南非常重要。即使大多數的成員對當前的政策都表示滿意，但政策中仍有很多地方需要改進。政治觀念的差異在中文維基媒體社群中一直是一個嚴重的問題，而很多違反行為準則指南的行為通常是由這個問題引起的。維基媒體基金會必須在為中文維基媒體社群創建新的行為準則指南之前找到針對特定情況的解決方案。眾所周知，維基媒體運動是人們分享免費知識的平台，但是中文維基媒體社群中的一些成員一直將自己對政治的觀點帶給社群，這對社群發展不利。