Note: This is being held here as I consider whether it would be useful as an essay in a more common space. (Perhaps not; it's just an attempt to reexplain portions of BLP in a more readable form.) The text was created for a situation where I needed to explain on a talk page why certain things were BLP violations without repeating the actual violating material.
Negative statements about living persons
editWikipedia has a strict policy regarding negative statements regarding people who are still alive. Such statements are required to have very strong, appropriate sourcing. For example (and for the example, let us suppose that we all live in The Simpsons universe, and that the characters there are real), we would not include the statement "Homer stole Bart's Butterfinger" without a source, nor could we include it with any of the following sources as what supports it:
- An entry on Bart's blog saying "Homer stole my Butterfinger"; Bart is not a reliable, independent third-party source.
- An entry on Milhouse's blog saying "Homer stole Bart's Butterfinger"; Milhouse may be a third party source, but is not a reliable news source and is of questionable independence.
- A YouTube video in which Bart asserts "Homer stole my Butterfinger"; the source is still Bart.
- Congressional testimony in which Bart states "Homer stole my Butterfinger"; it is still just Bart, not Congress, standing behind that statement.
- An article in the Springfield Post-News which states "Bart testified that Homer had stolen his Butterfinger". While the Post-News may be a respectable news outlet, they are not reporting what happened, merely what was stated.
What would be acceptable sourcing is if the Post-News said simply "Homer stole Bart's Butterfinger".
Please note that the above restrictions apply:
- even if the statement is not being made in the Wikipedia article about Homer, but in the one about Bart, or the one about Butterfingers, or the one about theft, or even the one on James K. Polk.
- even if the statement does not explicitly name Homer; "Bart's father stole his Butterfinger" still needs such sourcing.
- even if the statement in Wikipedia is merely that "Bart stated that his father stole his Butterfinger", as that statement carries an accusation.
For a fuller explanation of this policy not explicitly involving people with eight fingers, see WP:BLP.