Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/CheckUser and Oversight

This page is a procedural policy, and documents an extension of the arbitration policy developed by the Arbitration Committee in consultation with the Wikipedia community. Any significant edit to this page should have approval from the Arbitration Committee. If in doubt, consider discussing changes here.

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This page in a nutshell: Access to privacy-related tools on English Wikipedia is supervised by the Arbitration Committee. This page describes the procedures and practices for granting and revoking access to these tools.

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While most current and some former arbitrators hold CheckUser and/or Oversight permissions, the Arbitration Committee recognizes the need for additional and independent coverage and also appoints other suitably qualified candidates to these roles. In accordance with Wikimedia global policies (meta:CheckUser and meta:Oversight), the committee retains jurisdiction over the granting and revoking of access to these advanced permissions.

This page describes how the committee manages the CheckUser and Oversight teams, and describes methods for both appointment and removal. The permissions reflect the high trust placed in the holder, but are not granted in perpetuity; holders are expected to use them regularly for the benefit of the project. On this project, users with access to one or both of these advanced permissions are part of a larger group collectively known as functionaries.