Wikipedia:Oversight

The fastest way to request oversight is to email the oversight team.

If you want to request suppression, don't post the details publicly. Use this form, email oversight-en-wpwikipedia.org, or see Wikipedia:Requests for oversight for other ways to request suppression.

This page documents an English Wikipedia policy. It describes a widely accepted standard that editors should normally follow, though exceptions may apply. Changes made to it should reflect consensus.

Shortcuts WP:OS WP:OVER WP:SUPPRESS WP:SIGHT

This page in a nutshell: Suppression (historically "oversight") is used within strict limits to protect privacy, to remove defamatory material, and sometimes to remove serious copyright violations, from any page or log entry.

Suppression on Wikipedia (also known as oversight for historical reasons) is a form of enhanced deletion that, unlike normal page deletion or revision deletion, expunges information from any form of usual access, even by administrators. It is used within strict limits to protect privacy, remove defamatory material, and sometimes to remove serious copyright violations, from any edit, revision, page, or log entry on the English Wikipedia.

On the English Wikipedia, "oversight" (the power to suppress information) is entrusted to a restricted number of users, who can suppress material if it meets the strict requirements below. Use of these tools is monitored by other oversighters who patrol the log, and by the Arbitration Committee. The fastest way to request oversight is to email the oversight team.

The permission is granted by Wikipedia's Arbitration Committee, after community consultation and vetting of the editor by the committee's members and the functionary team. While there is no formal requirement that oversighters also be administrators, the Arbitration Committee has traditionally restricted applications to users who are currently administrators. Oversighters must also be 18 years of age or older and have signed the Wikimedia Foundation's confidentiality agreement for nonpublic information before being appointed. The use of the Oversight tool on the English Wikipedia is monitored and controlled by the Arbitration Committee, and Oversighters may have their permissions revoked by the Arbitration Committee for misuse or abuse of the Oversight permission.

This policy supplements the global oversight policy and applies only to the English Wikipedia.