Safwwefe (later known as Brave warrior; born 1997) was a Canadian juvenile who became a mischievous faggot of Wikipedia from before 2007 to 2009. He made some good contributions, but had a tendency of engaging in mischievous and disruptive antics such as repeated vandalism, trolling, harassment, and personal attacks. Initially blocked indefinitely in May 2007 for his faggotry, he continued his screed through several abusive sockpuppets. He returned a month later in another account to continue the similar pattern of faggotry, resulting in another indefinite block. Briefly unblocked in January 2009 as a test of good faith, but later that summer used sockpuppets to issue graphic death threats against U.S. President Barack Obama. Following this, a consensus was reached that user was way too immature for Wikipedia.
June 2009 graphic death threats against Barack Obama
In June 2009, Safwwefe used sockpuppets to issue graphic death threats against President Barack Obama by editing the main article as well as his userpage of his own.[1] In these edits, he claimed he would kill Obama on June 16. An AN/I thread was opened, and the administrators involved in this incident suggested notifying the authorities, including the U.S. Secret Service, which ran down every threat to the President that they hear about, in addition to indefinitely blocking this user responsible, with talk page editing and e-mail revoked. Besides that, they considered sending an abuse report to Bell Canada, whose his edits originated. In response to this, he, as Brave warrior, pleaded to the administrators:
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NOTE: I DO NOT WISH TO BE UNBLOCKED I DESERVE TO BE BLOCKED THIS TEMPLATE IS ONLY HERE BECAUSE I WANTED TO TALK ABOUT SOMETHING IMPORTANT AND LET YOU SEE IT yes, i am Asdfzxcvqwerty i know i made a terrible mistake i made a death threat against obama on wikipedia today and am here to say that i am very sorry i only tested for fun but now realise it was a mistake. I am only actually about 12 years old and really apoligize for my immaturity. under http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators%27_noticeboard/Incidents#I.27m_no_fan_of_Obama.2C_but....... the admins said they contacted FBI and notified some authorities. i would please ask you admins to tell the FBI or any other authority you reported to that i am NOT ACTUALLY INDENDING TO kill obama. i actually like obama as a president and think he is doing a great job in the office and am NOT serious when i made the threat and only made it as a test but didn't realise the consequences because i am young and i am still only 12 years of age. PLEASE tell the authorities you reported that the person under this IP did not indent to commit a murder and tell the authorities that they can stop worrying about the case of this IP now.
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The administrator responded by stating that the FBI would take it from here, but it should be the Secret Service.
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Okay Admins. I am actually the same person as 70.26.6.129 and asdfzxcvqwerty and am here to deeply apologize for my actions. Please don't report me anymore to any authorities and please tell the authorities that there are no issue from 70.26.6.129. I actually like Barack Obama as a president and think he is doing a fantastic job and I was no where even close to being serious when I made the threat. Please tell the authorities that the person in the IP has no serious intentions. Also, I wish to have my IP hard blocked idenfinetely so that I can never disrupt wikipedia ever again. sometimes my IP changes so please do a block in a way that will permanetely disallow me from editing wikipedia (I still want to right to READ page since I USE wikipedia for many assignments mostly geography and science)
To Sum it up I am requesting 2 things: 1. for an admin preferbally the one who reported me to tell the authorities that the IP has no serious intention 2. for my IP or IP range to be hard blocked permanetely so that I can never edit wikipedia ever again. but not blocked from reading pages I made a terrible mistake and regret it strongly. I learned a valuable lesson, which is not to make threats that cross the line and to be behave over the internet. Please consider about the two requests above. Thank You.
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One user answered that it is very too late for not getting reported, and that the threats to kill someone, especially a head of state, was not a matter to make jokes about. Safwwefe said in response:
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Yes I realise that now. Death threats are taken seriously over the internet. But I have 0 serious intentions when I made that horrible threat. So please tell the authorities that i have no intentions. I honestely don't, don't any of you admins believe that i don't? I am only a kid, I don't even have a gun.Please don't make any of those authorities like FBI or other police coming to my house! It will have a negative mental impact on me for years to come.
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While some were relieved that someone appeared to have learned something, but the community's stance was that the authorities should be involved, especially when there is a threat made to use violence, and should be notified. So, they reblocked him with talk page editing and e-mail revoked, and added an entry for him at the list of banned losers. Since then, no administrator will ever lift this block of Safwwefe, Brave warrior and his associated sock accounts and aliases doesn't want to be immediately desysopped and perhaps banned:
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Well, since this user was kind enough to admit his crime, I have reblocked him with email and talkpage editing disabled, and protected his userspace. I'm also adding an entry for him at WP:LOBU, as it's pretty safe to say that no administrator will unblock this user who doesn't want to be immediately desysopped. El fin.
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Then, they reported the user and the IP address to the authorities. Hilariously, Safwwefe was presumably arrested by the RCMP, and possibly by the Secret Service and the FBI, the latter presumably talking to their parents, who found out why Bell Canada nuked their Internet to prevent Safwwefe from accessing Wikipedia and anything else on the Internet for that reason:[2]
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Good call on reporting it, and the IP address. If this *was* some kid, they will have Secret Service speaking to their parents. You'd be frankly surprised how many of these the Secret Services does in fact run down. I chatted once with a SS agent that I met in passing, for 5-10 minutes, and actually asked--do you guys actually run down a lot of the "BS" level complaints, or that appear to be? And he said yes, it's rare for one to not be looked at, since how do you know if its BS? He actually made the point that even he'd (and this was a SS agent in Connecticut, that had only twice ever even seen a President in person) gotten kids "severely grounded". Too funny, and good call reported.
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The Secret Service runs down every threat to the President that they hear about. As the agent pointed out, you don't know which ones are just cranks and people blowing off steam unless you run them all down. Indeed, every one of them sees a personal visit at some point, even if it's clear from the initial investigation that it wasn't anything serious--they want to make sure the person knows they weren't amused. (It also lets them do a brief evaluation of the subject to see if s/he may have a mental health issue that means they need to take the "crank" threat more seriously...)
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This user's Canadian, so more than likely it'll be the RCMP knocking on his door sometime in the next few days. In any event, I wouldn't want to be there when his parents find out why Bell Canada nuked their Internet.
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External links
