Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/TechGenWikinator03/Archive


TechGenWikinator03

26 August 2023

Suspected sockpuppets

The user is first observed creating a page named The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 which is the draft legislation of Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 which already exists. Later the page was marked for copyright violation and a template related to the copyright issue is added by a user on The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 page.

The user initially has removed the template wholly and was warned not to do so on their talk page. Later the user who is suspected to be using the above mentioned accounts from one of their suspected account with username - PracesHa removed the template just before the page is about get removed as there is no evidence from the page author to not remove the Article under copyright violation.

Upon checking the contributions of the above the mentioned accounts, the user has had contact with each other(usernames) and appears to be supporting their edits by creation of the above multiple accounts. The user's login timeline, sequence and all the accounts appear to have supporting claims of same article at the same time.

Evidence links - User removing template - Link - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Digital_Personal_Data_Protection_Bill%2C_2022&diff=1170978500&oldid=1170964113

Suspected user removing template - Link - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Digital_Personal_Data_Protection_Bill%2C_2022&diff=1172145665&oldid=1170989538

User making changes to page named Chayanika Shah at the same time - Link 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chayanika_Shah&oldid=1147202505 Link 2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chayanika_Shah&oldid=1147200218 Link 3 - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chayanika_Shah&oldid=1147208841

User again making changes to page named The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 at the same time like they did in Chayanika Shah with their suspected multiple accounts - Link 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Digital_Personal_Data_Protection_Bill,_2022&oldid=1170807003 Link 2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Digital_Personal_Data_Protection_Bill,_2022&oldid=1170807440 Link 3 - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Digital_Personal_Data_Protection_Bill,_2022&oldid=1170808544 Link 4 - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Digital_Personal_Data_Protection_Bill,_2022&oldid=1170811629 Link 5 - https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Digital_Personal_Data_Protection_Bill,_2022&oldid=1170805513

Consolidated timeline can be found here - https://spi-tools.toolforge.org/spi/timeline/TechGenWikinator03?users=ShohiniRia&users=PrancesHa&users=TechGenWikinator03&users=Sh.foo

Hence requesting sockpuppet investigation and WP:DUCKTEST Thewikizoomer (talk) 13:32, 26 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

  • Hi!
    Shockingly there are 2 more accounts, which appear to be created newly and doing the same like WP:DUCK. Should I add them to the investigation template above?
    The usernames are
    1) @Zuzbao Made edits to User:Bishdatta/sandbox, Abha Khetarpal, The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 and interacted with the suspected @ShohiniRia in their initial edits like how other user have interacted in each other talk pages.
    2) @Blossompumpkin This user made heavy text additions to The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 article while it was undergoing multiple rapid edits at the time of its creation. The suspected above accounts also did the same kind of text additions while creating an article making this account a possible suspect.
    Thank you Thewikizoomer (talk) 14:22, 26 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
    @Thewikizoomer It's really nice to meet new editors at wiki edit-a-thons, and it's a really fun to interact with them and collaboratively build pages together. Would love to collaborate with you as well, to make the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 page stronger and more rigorous. It's incomplete as of now.
    Collaboration is what drives the wiki community. We can do better TOGETHER. :) TechGenWikinator03 (talk) 07:18, 28 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by other users

Accused parties may also comment/discuss in this section below. See Defending yourself against claims.
  • Dear Girth Summit,
    Thank you so much for your involvement in this matter. I have been eagerly awaiting the intervention of an administrator, as the painstakingly created page by myself and fellow Wiki collaborators was unfortunately, and rather abruptly, deleted by @daxserver upon the request of @Thewikizoomer : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DaxServer (re: Duplicate page creation by user creating confusion) Look at the bottom of the page.. Allow me to assure you, this is not a case of sockpuppetry. The individuals tagged in this matter are all independent contributors from the Wiki editor community in India who occasionally join forces to enhance articles/create articles.
    @Thewikizoomer created the page for Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Regrettably, this page merely scratches the surface and provides only a cursory introduction to the intricacies of on the ongoing developments in legislation and its history. The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 attempts to provide this historical context. It baffles me as to why such a detailed and meticulously crafted page, the result of considerable effort, has been subjected to such an abrupt deletion. The allegations of "duplication" and "copyright issues" were made without any substantive engagement. Furthermore, the claims regarding copyright have been rigorously contested in the talk page, specifically: Talk:The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 as well as the copyright bulletin. @Thewikizoomer has chosen to refrain from meaningful discourse and instead opted for more aggressive measures such as the deletion of the page.
    I have dedicated countless months to researching these bills and acts. It is essential to recognize that the precursors to the Digital Personal Data Protection Act,2023, namely Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 and The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 are starkly different from the act and warrant independent pages as they are based on entirely different public documents and the scope and responses are different for each. It is impossible to add their detailed context in the act page, and also, will confuse the readers further. I am also more than happy to edit the Act page, and add some context there, but i fear @Thewikizoomer will bring hostility there as well and remove all hardwork and edits.
    Thank you so much!
    Always happy to answer if you have more questions. TechGenWikinator03 (talk) 14:49, 26 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • The violation here is about the removal of the copyright template multiple times by the suspected sockpuppets without following the due process which raised the suspicion for a the existence sockpuppet issue and not because of them having few edits as being misinterpreted by TechGenWikinator03.
    Thank you so much @Girth Summit! Really appreciate you reaching out to other administrators to look at the page. :) It's been restored by an administrator.
    Alright, back to the sock puppetry accusations: I met my fellow editors at an edit-a-thon! And in the spirit of Wikipedia, we often collaborate on creating wiki pages for Notable Women and LGBTQIA+ Personalities in India/other important pages, contributing to Wikipedia's diversity.
    The allegations made by @Thewikizoomer are really odd and biased against people who are not as established as others in the community. Just because someone has "few edits" - are there contributions and labour not valid? And warrant suspicion? Is mere number of edits more important than the quality of edits?
    Anyway, i'm reiterating that this is not a case of sock puppetry and request fellow editors to "Act in good faith, and assume good faith on the part of others. Be open and welcoming to newcomers."
    Thank you! TechGenWikinator03 (talk) 06:26, 28 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]


Clerk, CheckUser, and/or patrolling admin comments

  • There's something very funny going on with TechGenWikinator03, PrancesHa, ShohiniRia and Sh.foo. Those four accounts have very few edits between them, and a huge amount of article overlap - not just at The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022, but also at User:Bishdatta/sandbox, Chayanika Shah, Abha Khetarpal and a few other pages. I have run CU on them, and while they're all in the same country, they don't appear to be related. Possibly members of some sort of project? TechGenWikinator03, PrancesHa, ShohiniRia and Sh.foo - I invite you to comment in the section above, explaining what is happening here. (I will also observe that I don't understand why we would need separate articles for the bill and for the act - one is a precursor to the other, I would expect them both to be covered at the same article, but that isn't a sockpuppetry matter.)
  • I don't see any reason to think that Wikishovel is involved in this - they appear to have just been doing some wikignoming on the NPP queue, I haven't run CU on them. Girth Summit (blether) 14:00, 26 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
    @TechGenWikinator03:: I've asked some administrators who are experts in our copyright policies to take a look at that page - we can figure out what to do with that later, for the purposes of this investigation, please let's just focus on the sockpuppetry accusation. What is the nature of your relationship with those other accounts, and why are you all editing the same pages? Girth Summit (blether) 15:19, 26 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  •  On hold - This seems to be some sort of editathon: Bishdatta, it seems you have a some sort of relation with this group. Could you clarify if this part of some project? Thank you. MarioGom (talk) 16:27, 26 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
  • The dispute is resolved, and the group is related through some outreach event. no Closing without action. MarioGom (talk) 12:00, 28 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
    (edit conflict) @TechGenWikinator03: this is indeed a collaborative project, and collaboration is not discouraged in and of itself. Where activity might become problematic is when multiple editors who are working together in an apparently coordinated way do so in a way which is disruptive, which appears to have been the case here. The template that was added to that page very clearly readsDo not restore or edit the blanked content on this page until the issue is resolved by an administrator, copyright clerk or VRT agent, in big bold text right at the top, and yet you removed it, and then when DaxServer reinstated it, PrancesHa removed it again. Moneytrees has now completed the investigation, and restored the content with the necessary attribution which was missing in your version; in other words, the template was valid. Please do not remove templates like that again - if you're not sure what the problem is, ask for assistance/explanation from someone (the WP:TEAHOUSE is a good place to ask for help). Now, I personally do not see any reason why we should have two articles, one about the bill and one about the act since, as I understand these things, the bill becomes the act once it has passed into law - it's the same subject. That is just my opinion though - it's not something that is relevant to this sockpuppetry investigation, and can be addressed by interested parties on the relevant talk pages (and potentially at WP:AfD. I don't think there's any more to be done here, I'm closing this case I endorse MarioGom's close. Girth Summit (blether) 12:10, 28 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
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Uses material from the Wikipedia article Wikipedia:Sockpuppet investigations/TechGenWikinator03/Archive, released under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.