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Global blocks

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For other recent discussion and questions, see the Global locks talk page.

Not to be confused with Global locks

Global blocks are technical actions performed to prevent accounts, an IP address, or range of IP addresses from contributing to all Wikimedia wikis, for a fixed period of time or indefinitely. Global blocks on IP addresses or a range of IP addresses disable account creation from the blocked IP by default, and can also prevent editing while logged in to an account.

Global IP blocks

The GlobalBlocking extension can block an IP address or range (maximum of /16 in IPv4, maximum of /19 in IPv6) from editing all Wikimedia projects except Meta, and is only available to Stewards and selected WMF staff in special groups like WMF Trust and Safety. These are logged in the Global block log.

Globally blocked IP addresses that cause disruption on Meta may additionally be blocked on this project.

Guidelines

While exceptions exist, these are the guidelines:

  • Global blocks should only be placed where a combination of page protection, local blocks, and other technical and non-technical measures would be ineffective or inefficient.
  • Global blocks may be placed on IP addresses:
    • Who engage in widespread cross-wiki vandalism, where that cross-wiki vandalism would currently require the intervention of stewards (as opposed to allowing local communities to manage the vandalism).
    • Who engage in cross-wiki spamming, where the user shows clear disregard for external link policies of the respective wikis.
    • Who are otherwise blatantly disrupting multiple projects, and the local communities of those projects are unable to effectively manage the behaviour. This is not intended to cover "trolling" or similar behaviour.
    • Which are open proxies being used abusively on multiple projects such as spamming links or forum spamming, and which are not being extensively used for legitimate purposes.
  • Global blocks should be placed with the lowest expiry possible, while still remaining effective. All global blocks should have an expiry (none should be indefinite).
  • Global blocks should, wherever practicable and sensible, be placed with the anonymous only flag on. Remember that even in this case, account creation from the blocked address(es) is prevented.
  • Global blocks will remove talk page access when the block is encountered.

Global account blocks

The GlobalBlocking extension can block accounts from editing all Wikimedia projects except Meta, and is only available to Stewards and selected WMF staff in special groups like WMF Trust and Safety. These global account blocks are logged in the Global block log.

Globally blocked accounts that cause disruption on Meta may additionally be locally blocked.

Guidelines

Global blocks are globally-set actions that prevent a user from editing and making most logged actions across all Wikimedia wikis, but permit local projects to exempt globally blocked users on their wiki. These are preferred over global locks in cases where:

  • a global block is necessary to prevent abuse, but the severity of abuse is not at a level that necessitates locking them out of their account, and an on-wiki appeal would be acceptable/preferred,
  • the user is constructively editing on a project that is likely to want them to be able to continue editing, and the severity of the violations do not necessitate a global lock; in these cases, stewards may proactively locally exempt the user from the global block on the projects on which they are constructively editing, or
  • an autoblock would prevent further abuse.

Below is a list of common reasons for global blocks of accounts:

  • Cross-wiki promotional editing (but not malicious linkspam),
  • Rogue bots, and
  • Cross-wiki disruptive editing that may be in good faith.

Global autoblocks

Autoblocks can be created on the IP addresses used by accounts blocked by a global account block. These blocks are created automatically when a user tries to edit while globally blocked or when a Steward creates a global block. They are only created if the global account block enables autoblocking.

Exemptions

Accounts which are "global IP block exempt" are exempted from global blocks applying to a range of IP addresses or an IP address. This exemption has no affect on local IP and IP range blocks made locally on individual wikis, or on a global block of the account.

To apply for global IP block exemption, see Steward requests/Global permissions or use the Unblock Ticket Request System.

A local IP block exemption (Special:UserRights), granted by a local sysop, will exempt a user from a global IP block on that wiki.

Local unblocking

All types of global blocks can be locally unblocked on specific wikis by a local sysop of that wiki (Special:GlobalBlockWhitelist).

Requesting and appealing global blocks

Requests or appeals should be made on the Global [un]block and [un]lock requests page or the Unblock Ticket Request System.

See also

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