Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Michael Jackson

Purpose of Wikipedia

1) The purpose of Wikipedia is to create a high-quality, free-content encyclopedia in an atmosphere of camaraderie and mutual respect among contributors. Use of the site for other purposes, such as advocacy or propaganda or furtherance of outside conflicts, is prohibited. Contributors whose actions are detrimental to that goal may be asked to refrain from them, even when these actions are undertaken in good faith.

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Participation

2) The determination of proper consensus is vulnerable to unrepresentative participation from the community. Because of the generally limited number of editors likely to participate in any given discussion, an influx of biased or partisan editors is likely to generate an improper illusion of a consensus where none (or a different one) would exist in a wider population.

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Meatpuppetry

3) While Wikipedia assumes good faith, especially for new users, actively recruiting new accounts or users on Wikipedia, or recruiting people (either on-wiki or off-wiki) to create an account or edit anonymously in order to influence decisions on Wikipedia, is prohibited. A new user who engages in the same behavior as another user in the same context, and who appears to be editing Wikipedia solely for that purpose, may be subject to the remedies applied to the user whose behavior they are joining. Sanctions have been applied to editors of longer standing who have not, in the opinion of Wikipedia's administrative bodies, consistently exercised independent judgment.

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Presumption of coordination

4) When a group of editors consistently and repeatedly participate in the same discussions to support the same point of view—especially when many or most of the members of that group had little or no prior participation in the underlying dispute—it is reasonable to presume that they could be coordinating their actions. Evaluation of consensus in particularly divisive or controversial cases needs to carefully weigh the possibility and avoid ascribing too much weight to the number of participants in a discussion—especially when policy enforcement or sanctions are considered.

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Neutrality and conflicts of interest

5) Wikipedia adopts a neutral point of view, and advocacy for any particular view is prohibited. In particular, Wikipedia's conflict of interest guidelines strongly discourage editors contributing "in order to promote their own interests." Neutrality is non-negotiable and requires that, whatever their personal feelings or interests, all editors must strive to ensure articles accurately reflect all significant viewpoints published by reliable sources and give prominence to such viewpoints in proportion to the weight of the source. Editors may contribute to Wikipedia only if they comply with Wikipedia's key policies.

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Outing

6) Posting another editor's personal information is unacceptable, unless that person has voluntarily posted that information, or links to such information, on Wikipedia. This specifically includes the posting of links to personal profiles on external sites, whether such information is accurate or not.

Passed 12 to 0 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Locus of the dispute

1) This case is about the behavior and coordination of parties concerning Michael Jackson, the sexual abuse allegations against him, and his family.

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Community-designated contentious topic

2) A community discussion at the Administrators' noticeboard placed pages related to Michael Jackson, broadly construed, under indefinite general sanctions, effective 27 December 2019. A November 2025 RfC converted the prior community-imposed discretionary sanctions into a community-designated contentious topic, effective 3 November 2025.

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Apparent coordination

3) TruthGuardians, Israell, Never17, Jimcastor, MraClean, Mr Boar1, Episteme Aletheia, Guitarjunkie22, PinkSlippers, NE0mAn7o!, and TheWikiholic have significant overlap in Michael Jackson-related discussions and articles, supporting the same POV, with some named editors often making their first edit in months to take part (BilledMammal's evidence, Katzrockso's evidence).

Passed 11 to 0 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Apparent coordination has skewed consensus

4) The apparent coordination of parties in this case has skewed consensus in the topic area, clearly exemplified at this request for comment (BilledMammal's evidence, Felinaex's evidence).

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

TruthGuardians

5) TruthGuardians (talk · contribs) has deliberately misled the community about their connection to and conflict of interest regarding the Michael Jackson family (private evidence) and has deliberately misled the community about their off-wiki communication with TheWikiholic and Israell (private evidence, BilledMammal's evidence). They were investigated at SPI in June 2022 and May 2023, and were blocked for meatpuppetry with TheWikiholic after the May 2023 SPI. After the block expired they continued to edit the same discussions as TheWikiholic (George Ho's evidence, Katzrockso's evidence).

They have made approximately 37% of their edits to pages also edited by MraClean (Newslinger's evidence). After inviting MraClean to edit Taj Jackson they removed what appeared to be an edit instruction added by MraClean (Newslinger's evidence). They have made a large number of minor grammar edits following a similar pattern as MraClean and Guitarjunkie22 (BilledMammal's evidence).

They have claimed consensus against using certain sources with no evidence and stonewalled discussions in the topic area (Katzrockso's evidence, DanieleJava's evidence). They have attempted to out DanieleJava (GhostOfDanGurney's evidence) despite being aware of and having invoked the outing policy in the past (private evidence).

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

TheWikiholic

6) TheWikiholic (talk · contribs) has deliberately misled the community about their off-wiki communication with TruthGuardians and Israell (private evidence, BilledMammal's evidence). They were investigated at SPI in July 2017 where they were blocked along with a confirmed sock and a CheckUser-unrelated account blocked on behavioral evidence, and in May 2023, and were blocked for meatpuppetry with TruthGuardians after the May 2023 SPI. After the block expired they continued to edit the same discussions as TruthGuardians (Newslinger's evidence, Katzrockso's evidence).

They have claimed, without evidence, that there was consensus against using a particular source and stonewalled discussions in the topic area (Katzrockso's evidence, Moneytrees' evidence).

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Israell

7) Israell (talk · contribs) has communicated off-wiki with TruthGuardians and TheWikiholic (private evidence) and has engaged in off-wiki canvassing (private evidence, BilledMammal's evidence). They were warned in March 2020 for off-wiki canvassing (George Ho's evidence).

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Episteme Aletheia

8) Episteme Aletheia (talk · contribs) created their account in March 2026 and immediately engaged in the same behavior as the other editors named in finding of fact 3 in the same context, and appears to be editing Wikipedia solely for that purpose (Katzrockso's evidence, BilledMammal's evidence). They appear to have provided evidence to this case under the instruction of, or provided by, another editor (Episteme Aletheia's initial evidence, TheJoebro64's evidence).

Passed 7 to 6 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Guitarjunkie22

9) Guitarjunkie22 (talk · contribs) outed an editor in their evidence (Guitarjunkie22's initial evidence). They have made a large number of minor grammar edits following a similar pattern as TruthGuardians and MraClean (BilledMammal's evidence).

At Talk:List of best-selling albums/Archive 15#RfC on using 100m claimed sales for the Thriller album, they made their first edit in eight months, and at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2026 April 2#Category:Michael Jackson sexual abuse allegations they made their first edit in fourteen months (BilledMammal's evidence, Katzrockso's evidence). Guitarjunkie22 makes policy arguments in discussions concerning the Michael Jackson topic area that do not match written policy (Moneytrees' evidence, Guitarjunkie22's evidence).

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Jimcastor

10) Jimcastor (talk · contribs) has claimed, without evidence, that there was consensus against using a particular source and stonewalled discussions in the topic area (Katzrockso's evidence).

They have engaged in similar editing to PinkSlippers outside of the Michael Jackson topic area, including making the same edits to the same family of articles (BilledMammal's evidence). They fixed an error added by Mr Boar1 on an article they had never edited on Mr Boar1's first day of editing articles (BilledMammal's evidence). Their second edit, after creating a very similar user page to TruthGuardians's, was to an article TruthGuardians had created less than four hours earlier (BilledMammal's evidence).

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Mr Boar1

11) At Talk:MJ the Musical#Request for comment, Mr Boar1 (talk · contribs) returned to activity after seven months (BilledMammal's evidence, Katzrockso's evidence). They created their account on the same day as MraClean and within three weeks both had participated in the same two RFCs (BilledMammal's evidence). Aside from Rihanna, these are the only two non-Jackson related pages they have both edited (editor interaction analyzer).

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

MraClean

12) MraClean (talk · contribs) appears to have made an edit under the instruction of, or provided by, another editor at Taj Jackson after being invited to the page by TruthGuardians, who removed the instruction without an edit summary (Newslinger's evidence).

They have made approximately 46% of their edits to pages also edited by TruthGuardians (Newslinger's evidence). They have made a large number of minor grammar edits following a similar pattern as TruthGuardians and Guitarjunkie22 (BilledMammal's evidence). MraClean created their account on the same day as Mr Boar1 and within three weeks both had participated in the same two RFCs (BilledMammal's evidence). Aside from Rihanna, these are the only two non-Jackson related pages they have both edited (editor interaction analyzer).

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Never17

13) Never17 (talk · contribs) has engaged in battleground editing, forum-like behavior, cast aspersions, and used their own interpretation of sources, and pushed a POV (Moneytrees' evidence, Never17's conduct at arbitration pages).

Passed 12 to 0 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

NE0mAn7o!

14) NE0mAn7o! (talk · contribs)'s fourth and fifth edits were to articles previously edited by PinkSlippers (BilledMammal's evidence). These are the only two non-Jackson related pages they have both edited (editor interaction analyzer).

Passed 8 to 3 with 2 abstentions at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

PinkSlippers

15) At Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Michael Jackson sexual abuse allegations and Talk:MJ the Musical#Request for comment, PinkSlippers (talk · contribs) made their first edits in seven months, then returned to inactivity for ten months (BilledMammal's evidence, Katzrockso's evidence). They have engaged in similar editing to Jimcastor outside of the Michael Jackson topic area, including making the same edits to the same family of articles (BilledMammal's evidence). They have claimed, without evidence, that there was consensus against using a particular source and stonewalled discussions in the topic area (Katzrockso's evidence).

Passed 11 to 0 with 2 abstentions at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

TruthGuardians banned

1) TruthGuardians is indefinitely banned from Wikipedia. This ban may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 13 to 0 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

TruthGuardians topic banned

2) TruthGuardians is indefinitely topic banned from Michael Jackson, broadly construed. This restriction may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 11 to 1 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

TheWikiholic banned

3) TheWikiholic is indefinitely banned from Wikipedia. This ban may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 12 to 0 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

TheWikiholic topic banned

4) TheWikiholic is indefinitely topic banned from Michael Jackson, broadly construed. This restriction may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 11 to 1 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Israell topic banned

6) Israell is indefinitely topic banned from Michael Jackson, broadly construed. This restriction may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 12 to 0 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Episteme Aletheia topic banned

8) Episteme Aletheia is indefinitely topic banned from Michael Jackson, broadly construed. This restriction may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 11 to 1 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Guitarjunkie22 banned

9) Guitarjunkie22 is indefinitely banned from Wikipedia. This ban may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 9 to 3 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Guitarjunkie22 topic banned

10) Guitarjunkie22 is indefinitely topic banned from Michael Jackson, broadly construed. This restriction may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 11 to 2 at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Jimcastor banned

11) Jimcastor is indefinitely banned from Wikipedia. This ban may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 11 to 1 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Jimcastor topic banned

12) Jimcastor is indefinitely topic banned from Michael Jackson, broadly construed. This restriction may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 10 to 0 with 2 abstentions at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Mr Boar1 topic banned

14) Mr Boar1 is indefinitely topic banned from Michael Jackson, broadly construed. This restriction may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 12 to 0 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

MraClean banned

15) MraClean is indefinitely banned from Wikipedia. This ban may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 7 to 5 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

MraClean topic banned

16) MraClean is indefinitely topic banned from Michael Jackson, broadly construed. This restriction may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 11 to 1 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

Never17 topic banned

18) Never17 is indefinitely topic banned from Michael Jackson, broadly construed. This restriction may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 12 to 0 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

NE0mAn7o! warned

20.1) NE0mAn7o! is warned that future misconduct in the Michael Jackson topic area will result in restrictions under the Michael Jackson community contentious topic.

Passed 11 to 0 with 2 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)

PinkSlippers topic banned

22) PinkSlippers is indefinitely topic banned from Michael Jackson, broadly construed. This restriction may be appealed six months after the enactment of this remedy, and every six months thereafter.

Passed 11 to 0 with 1 abstention at 20:50, 22 June 2026 (UTC)