Wikipedia:No disclaimers
 | This page documents an English Wikipedia content guideline. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Warnings should not generally appear in articles. All articles are already covered by the Wikipedia disclaimers. |
For the purpose of this guideline, a disclaimer is some text or template within an article that editors may attempt to insert as a warning to readers. Although such content warnings have frequently been proposed, community consensus is that disclaimers do not belong in encyclopedia articles and should be deleted.
Warnings are often redundant with the standard Wikipedia disclaimers. Were they to be permitted, they could create a false sense of security, creating a misleading impression that all potentially problematic content is flagged, and that articles without disclaimers are inherently "safe". The community consensus to ban such warnings also avoids time-consuming debates over culturally subjective issues such as what constitutes "adult content". By longstanding policy, Wikipedia is not censored for the protection of minors.
Standard Wikipedia disclaimers
[edit]Every Wikipedia page includes, right at the bottom, a link to the Wikipedia:General disclaimer (Wikipedia makes no guarantee of validity), which itself provides further links to five other standard disclaimers that apply to all articles:
- Wikipedia:Content disclaimer: Wikipedia contains content that may be objectionable
- Wikipedia:Legal disclaimer: Wikipedia does not give legal opinions
- Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer: Wikipedia does not give medical advice
- Wikipedia:Risk disclaimer: Use Wikipedia at your own risk
- Wikipedia:Survey disclaimer: Wikipedia has some rights when you participate in one of their surveys
Unacceptable disclaimers
[edit]Here are some examples of unacceptable disclaimers. These are not permitted in articles, whether in template form (as illustrated here) or as text:
 | Spoiler alert This article contains spoilers. |
| Warning This article contains vulgar, profane, or otherwise offensive language. |
| Content warning This article contains media that may potentially trigger seizures for those diagnosed with photosensitive epilepsy. |
| Malware warning Opening this link may expose you to malware. |
 | This article contains content that is suitable only for ages 18 and older. Viewer discretion is advised. |
Acceptable disclaimers
[edit]Certain specific warnings are considered acceptable.
- "Technical" warnings assisting the user with display problems, such as {{contains special characters}}. These refer not to article content but to display issues that some readers might run in to.
- Temporary current event and temporal templates such as {{current}} or {{recent death}}. These alert the reader that the article may be subject to a flux of recent and upcoming significant changes for reasons beyond the control of Wikipedia.
- Temporary cleanup templates, such as {{POV}}, {{original research}} or {{cleanup}}. These point to deficiencies in the article that should be corrected promptly. Maintenance templates should not be used to "warn the reader" that a Wikipedia editor disagrees with the current state of the article.
- Disclaimers required by the United States Department of Justice on "informational materials" distributed by registered foreign agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[1] See legal considerations about advocacy-related content for the Wikimedia Foundation.
See also
[edit]
- Wikipedia:Perennial proposals
- Wikipedia:Spoilers
- Wikipedia:Offensive material
- Wikipedia:Trigger warnings
- Wikipedia:Not a how-to guide
- Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not Fandom (difference 4)
Talk page disclaimer templates
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Straus, Jacob R. (June 30, 2020). Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA): Background and Issues for Congress (Report). Congressional Research Service. pp. 14–15. Retrieved February 9, 2025.