Wifione arbitration case

See the article Wifione.

Editor Wifione (T-C-F-R-B)

Arbitration case request posted 26 December 2014

Case accepted and opened (T-H-L-F-C).

Background

The background to this case is a long-running edit war over the article on the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (T-H-L-F-C). Supporters of the school persistently remove negative references to the school, particularly claims

• that it is not accredited,
• that it has falsely represented accreditation or affiliation with accredited institutions such as Stanford Business School, University of Buckingham, etc.
• that it has falsely claimed a special relationship with blue chip companies such as Deutsche Bank etc.

See this New Delhi High Court order restraining Arindam Chaudhuri from using the words “MBA, BBA, Management Course, Management School, Business School or B-School” in relation to the Courses or programmes being conducted by them.

As early as November 2005, there was an RFC about the editing of Drnoamchomsky (T-C-F-R-B), who was accused of turning the IIPM article into a brochure. Drnoamchomsky changed their name to Iipmstudent9 (T-C-F-R-B), but was blocked in February 2007 for " Legal threats made against users".

Mrinal Pandey (T-C-F-R-B) also made many promotional edits to the article using the following IPs: 61.16.233.194, 61.16.233.196, 219.65.248.68, 219.65.248.193, 203.76.140.130, 203.76.135.250, 203.76.132.74, 125.19.3.2, and notably 58.68.49.70, which locates to the IIPM domain. Pandey was indefinitely blocked in December 2008 for using 43 accounts to edit IIPM related articles. Arbcom unblocked her in August 2009, upon which she changed her user name to Empengent (T-C-F-R-B) and blanked her talk page. When the Wifione account became active there were immediately complaints that she was a reincarnation of Pandey.

Wifione identifies as female here, as does Mrinal Pandey (female name) and Iipmstudent9.

Using BLPs to further a dispute

For years, Wifione added derogatory and defamatory material to the article Ashok Chauhan (T-H-L-F-C), while at the same time adding promotional material to the article Arindam Chaudhuri (T-H-L-F-C).

• wikipedia:Amity_University. Adds or replaces material about arrest warrant against Ashok Chauhan: [1],[2], [3], [4], [5], [6]
• wikipedia:Ashok Chauhan. Starts the article, then adds or replaces material about arrest warrant against Ashok Chauhan: [7], [8], [9], [10], [11].
• wikipedia:Indian Institute of Planning and Management. Removes references to the investigative work of Maheshwar Peri, editor of Careers 360: [12], [13] adds the story about criminal defamation charges against Maheshwar Peri, [14] Removes statement by the Uttarakhand High Court that ‘A truth spoken for public good can never be called defamatory." and replaces with "In 2009, IIPM filed a criminal defamation charge against Careers 360" and " In May 2010, it was reported that the court upheld that the contents of the Careers 360 article were "prima facie defamatory".", [15] removes the court statement again.

Tendentious editing

• wikipedia:Indian Institute of Planning and Management. Downplays or removes references to lack of accreditation: [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25] is egregious, changing "In June 2008, The Wall Street Journal's Mint carried an op-ed by S.Mitra Kalita about misleading advertising by educational institutes in which it mentioned IIPM's claims about foreign faculty" to "In June 2008, S.Mitra Kalita in an op-ed column in livemint.com (a Hindustan Times and Wall Street Journal joint venture) gives a mention to the JAM and IIPM issue", and removing ""In August 2007, India's Corporate Affairs Minister Prem Chand Gupta announced that IIPM is under investigation for running courses without AICTE approval", [26] changes "IIPM has been the subject of controversies regarding accreditation, rankings in third party publications, advertising claims, trade practices, and tax issues" to "IIPM was the subject of a blogging controversy in 2005", [27], removes story about student complaints in Bangalore Express, [28] removes "It has been alleged that IIPM engages in misleading advertising practices."
• wikipedia:Indian Institute of Planning and Management. Positive slant: [29], [30], [31], [32], [33], [34], [35], [36], [37], [38] adding "In 2008, IIPM placed 2,670 students through campus placements. It was reported to be a record. In the same year, there were 165 international placements, reported to be "second only to the best in the country", [39], [40], [41], [42], [43] ("IIPM has been ranked #9 amongst India's top ten private schools by Hindustan Times in 2009"), [44], [45], [46], [47] "IIPM was ranked the 5th best business school in India and the 2011 Best B-school in Asia overall among B-schools from 29 countries at the second Asia’s Best B-School awards", [48] "In March 2009, IIPM received the “candidate for accreditation” status from International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE), an accreditation body for college and university programs.",

• wikipedia:Indian Institute of Planning and Management. Adds 'disputed' tags. [49], [50], [51], [52], [53], [54] (about the Stanford letter), [55], [56],

• wikipedia:Indian Institute of Planning and Management. Disparages regulatory bodies: [57], [58] (removes "On July 31, 2010, the UGC has taken note of some IIPM ads that promise "UGC Recognised MBA Degree" and publicly stated once again that the IIPM "does not have the right of conferring or granting degrees as specified by the University Grants Commission".", [59] removes the UGC claim again, Accuses University Grants Commission of corruption. As noted by Vejvančický, when we compare some of his edits to the article Indian_School_of_Business (T-H-L-F-C) (ISB) with edits to IIPM article, note that here, she changes the lead section of the ISB article to insert information about ISB courses violating All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) regulations. Here, she repeats that "courses are not approved by AICTE", again, in the lead section. However, when she edits the lead section of the IIPM page, she adds a long and completely irrelevant explanation about how corrupt and incompetent the regulatory body (AICTE) is.

• wikipedia:Amity_University. Adds reference to Amity not being recognised. Whether or not this is true, these edits are in stark contrast to the way she removed identical claims from the IIPM article. [60], [61], [62], [63], [64], [65], [66], [67], [68],[69],[70], [71], [72], [73], [74], [75],[76], [77], [78], [79], [80], [81], [82], [83], [84], [85], [86].
• wikipedia:Arindam Chaudhuri. Removes negative references, and promotes positive ones, [87], [88], [89], [90], [91], [92], [93], [94], [95], [96], [97], [98], [99], [100], [101], [102], [103], [104], [105], [106], [107], [108], [109].

Evasion

I share Vejvančický's concerns about biased editing, and biased use of sources. I have a separate concern about the lack of accountability shown by this administrator. She has a long pattern of avoiding questions about a conflict of interest, or of requesting bans when challenged, or, frequently, of trying to "shift the burden through the fallacious argument of guilt by association" [110].

In December 2009 she was asked "what is your association with IIPM"? She replied "Please don't use such statements". When the editor persisted, arguing that conflicts of interest should always be disclosed, she replied " you are an editor with a good background and good editing history. It'll be good if you do not make statements such as "Now I must ask, what is your association with IIPM?" [111]. Later, she asked an editor to "please take out your statement "What is your association with IIPM?" from all the places you have mentioned it? … It is quite disparaging for a fellow editor" [112]

In November 2013, when I politely asked her about her affiliation by email, she tried to get me blocked, claiming the emails were 'harassment'. After an exposé of her activities on Wikipedia on 2 December 2013, the issue was raised on Jimbo’s page. On 14th December, Jimbo raised the issue again. Wifione did not participate in either discussion. "It's striking that there's yet to be any comment whatsoever from User:Wifione" said one administrator.

On January 12, 2014, there was an article in the Times of India which mentioned the scandal, and it was brought up on Jimbo’s page for a third time. Jimbo commented “it would be best if he just doesn't come back.”. At this point, Wifione responded, claiming she had been on a break, and opened an editor review. On 18 January she asked for another day to answer questions, but then left entirely, apparently unable to answer the question "What got you interested in the IIPM-related articles in the first place? Do you have any opinion about the IIPM that you'd be willing to share?"

She made no edits at all between 18 January 2014 and 24 April 2014. On returning, she avoided the review entirely. She was reminded in June that she still hadn’t answered, and again on 22 July. She replied on 29 July, saying she had 'limited time', then archived the talk page. She was reminded again on 30 July. "You have opened the ER as an indignant and righteous reaction to Jimbo Wales' comment, but now you are trying to sweep it under the carpet". Wifione complained that there was an offsite campaign against her, replied to SB Johnny's question about her motivation, saying that, as far as she could recall, she had been interested in the IIPM advertising campaign, then closed the review.

Conflict of interest

As noted above, iipmstudent9 identifies as an IIPM student, but has been accused of being employed by IIPM (link available, not supplied). IP 58.68.49.70 is associated with both Pandey, who re-signs on 18 November 2008, and with Wifione. This edit by the IP is to Wifione's own user page, and there is a whole sequence of edits such as this, by the IP and this, by Wifione, which are hard to explain except on the hypothesis that they are the same person.

Wifione has never given a satisfactory explanation of why she began editing the IIPM article so soon after creating her account, nor of why her editing has been so obviously biased, and as noted above she has avoided any questions about conflict of interest for many years.

See also

• Wifione
• ONKARESHWAR PANDEY