 | This page documents an English Wikipediacontent guideline. Editors should generally follow it, thoughexceptions may apply.Substantive edits to this page should reflectconsensus. When in doubt, discuss first onthis guideline's talk page. |
 | This page in a nutshell: WhileWikipedia is not censored, Wikipedia articles should only contain offensive words and images for a good reason. Do not use disclaimers. |
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Wikipedia's encyclopedic mission encompasses the inclusion of material that may offend.Wikipedia is not censored. However, offensive words andoffensive images should not be included unless they are treated in an encyclopedic manner. Material that would be considered vulgar or obscene by typical Wikipedia readers[nb 1] should be used if and only if its omission would cause the article to be less informative, relevant, or accurate, and no equally suitable alternative is available.
In original Wikipedia content, a vulgarity or obscenity should either appear in its full form or not at all; words should never bebowdlerized by replacing letters with dashes, asterisks, or other symbols. However, when quoting relevant material, rendering a quotation asit appears in the source cited overrides this style guideline. Where it is necessary to indicate that an alteration is carried over from a quoted source, " [sic]" or "[thus in the original]" or a similar phrase, within single brackets, may be used.
Discussions about whether to include a vulgar or explicit image or verbal expression are often heated. As in all discussions on Wikipedia, it is vital that all parties practicecivility andassume good faith. Labeling content with such terms as "pornography" or responses to content with such terms as "censorship" tends to inflame the discussion and should be avoided. Objective terminology is more helpful than subjective terminology.
Disclaimers should not be used in articles that contain potentially or patently offensive material. All Wikipedia articles are covered by the five official disclaimer pages.
A cornerstone of Wikipedia policy is thatthe project is not censored. Wikipedia editors should notremove materialsolely because it may be offensive, unpleasant, or unsuitable for some readers. However, this does not mean that Wikipedia should include material simply because it is offensive, nor does it mean that offensive content is exempted from regular inclusion guidelines. Material that could be considered vulgar, obscene, or offensive should not be included unless it is treated in an encyclopedic manner. Offensive material should be used only if its omission would cause the article to be less informative, relevant, or accurate, and no equally suitable alternative is available.
Especially with respect to images, editors frequently need to choose between alternatives with varying degrees of potential offensiveness. When multiple options are equally effective at portraying a concept, the most offensive options should not be used merely to "show off" possibly offensive materials. Lead images must be selected with extra caution and should notshock readers.
Images or video containing offensive material that is extraneous, unnecessary, irrelevant, or gratuitous arenot preferred over non-offensive ones in the name of opposing censorship. Rather, the choice of images should be judged by the normal policies for content inclusion. Per theWikipedia:Image use policy, the only reason for including any image in any article is"to increase readers' understanding of the article's subject matter". Any image that does not achieve this policy goal, or that violates other policies (e.g., by giving anundue or distorted idea of the subject), should not be used. For example, because of the ubiquity of smartphonessecurity cameras, photos or videos showing someone being murdered or otherwise dying may be available, but including those images would usually be considered gratuitous.
Images should respect the conventional expectations of readers for a given topic as much as possible without sacrificing the quality of the article. For example, editors selecting images for articles likeHuman body have thousands of images of naked bodies and body parts available to them, but they normally choose images that portray the human body in an unemotional, non-sexualstandard anatomical position over more sexual images due to greater relevance to the subject. The more sexual image is not given special favor simply because it is more offensive. Similarly, editors of articles such asCar do not include images of automobiles with naked women posing near them, even though such images exist and "Wikipedia is not censored", due to concerns about relevance. Wikipedia is not censored, but Wikipedia also does not favor offensive images over non-offensive images.
