Community Engagement
These rules apply to anyone who is registered on our community. It is generally assumed that once registered, you want to use our platform for the purpose of connecting and engaging with other users in our community. To ensure that everyone's voice is valued, we take great care to create rules that include different views and beliefs, especially from people and communities that might otherwise be overlooked or marginalized. Please ensure to abide by the following rules outlined in subsequent sections.
Violence and incitement to commit violence
We work to prevent potential offline harm that may be related to content on our platform. We do not permit content that pose a genuine risk of physical harm or direct threats to public safety. We also try to consider the language and context in order to distinguish casual statements from content that constitutes a credible threat to public or personal safety. We do not allow the following:
- Statements of intent to commit violence.
- Calls for violence.
- Statements advocating for violence.
- Statements advocating, admitting or promoting rape or any sexual predatory behaviour.
- Statements admitting to committing violence, except when shared in a context of redemption, self-defence or when committed by law enforcement, military or state security personnel.
- Content that asks, advocates, admits to offering or offers services for hire to kill others.
- Admissions, statements of intent or advocacy, calls to action or aspirational or conditional statements to kidnap or abduct a target or that promotes, supports or advocates for kidnapping or abduction.
- Threats that lead to serious injury and admission of past violence toward private individuals, unnamed specified persons, minor public figures, high-risk persons or high-risk.
- Instructions on how to make or use weapons or instructions on how to make or use explosives.
- Any content containing statements of intent, calls for action, conditional or aspirational statements, or advocating for violence due to voting, voter registration or the administration or outcome of an election.
- Statements of intent or advocacy, calls to action or aspirational or conditional statements to bring weapons to locations, including, but not limited to, places of worship, educational facilities, polling places or locations used to count votes or administer an election (or encouraging others to do the same).
We do not allow dangerous individuals and organizations
In an effort to prevent and disrupt real-world harm, we do not allow organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence to have a presence on our platform. Our policies are designed to allow room for discussions, but we require people to clearly indicate their intent. If the intention is unclear and assumed as dangerous, we may remove both the content and the contributor.
Do not coordinate harm or promote crime
We prohibit people from facilitating, organizing, promoting or admitting to certain criminal or harmful activities targeted at people, businesses, property or animals. We allow people to debate and engage in a way that draws attention to harmful or criminal activity that they may witness or experience as long as they do not advocate for or coordinate harm.
Zero tolerance for restricted goods and services
To encourage safety and compliance with common legal restrictions, we prohibit attempts by individuals, manufacturers and retailers to purchase, sell or trade non-medical drugs, pharmaceutical drugs and marijuana. We also prohibit the purchase, sale, gifting, exchange and transfer of firearms, including firearm parts or ammunition, between private individuals on our platform. Some of these items are not regulated everywhere; however, because of the borderless nature of our community, we try to enforce our policies as consistently as possible.
Fraud and deception
In an effort to prevent fraudulent activity that can harm people or businesses, we do not allow content that purposefully deceives, willfully misrepresents, or otherwise defrauds or exploits others for money or property. This includes content that seeks to coordinate or promote these activities using our services.
Mental health, Suicide and self-injury
We care deeply about the safety of the people who use our platform. While we don't allow people to intentionally or unintentionally celebrate or promote suicide or self-injury, we do allow people to discuss these topics because we want our community to be a space where people can share their experiences, raise awareness about these issues and seek support from one another.
It is against our policies to post content depicting a person who engaged in a suicide attempt or death by suicide. If you know anyone who is currently experiencing mental health issues, please contact the local authorities in your location.
Child sexual exploitation, abuse and nudity
We do not allow content that sexually exploits or endangers children. When we become aware of apparent child exploitation, we report it to the appropriate authorities, in compliance with applicable law. We know that sometimes, people share nude images of their own children with good intentions; however, if these images come to our knowledge, we will remove these images because of the potential for abuse by others and to help avoid the possibility of other people re-using or misappropriating the images.
Adult sexual exploitation
In an effort to limit the sexual exploitation of individuals against their will, we do not allow content that depicts, threatens or promotes sexual violence, sexual assault or sexual exploitation. We also remove content that displays, advocates for or coordinates sexual acts with non-consenting parties to avoid facilitating non-consensual sexual acts.
To protect victims and survivors, we remove images that depict incidents of sexual violence and intimate images shared without the consent of the person(s) pictured. We also do not accept sextortion: Coercing money, favors or intimate imagery from people with threats to expose their intimate imagery or intimate information.
Bullying and harassment
We do not tolerate bullying and harassment of any form because it prevents people from feeling safe and respected on our platform.
When such content comes to our knowledge, we may suspend such users committing the offence, as well as, remove content that's meant to degrade or shame, including, for example, claims about someone's personal sexual activity, threatening to make public personal / private information, trolling, stalking, spamming, insulting, harassment, slandering, victimization and shaming. We recognize that bullying and harassment can have more of an emotional impact on minors, which is why our policies provide heightened protection for users between the ages of 13 and 18. Please report such behavior to help protect against it.
Human trafficking and exploitation
In an effort to disrupt and prevent harm, we do not allow content that facilitates or coordinates the exploitation of humans, including human trafficking. We define human trafficking as the business of depriving someone of liberty for profit. It is the exploitation of humans in order to force them to engage in commercial sex, labour or other activities against their will. It relies on deception, force and coercion, and degrades humans by depriving them of their freedom while economically or materially benefiting others.
Privacy violations
Privacy and the protection of personal information are very important to us. We try our best to keep your personal identity and information safe. We do not allow content that shares, offers or solicits personally identifiable information or other private information that could lead to physical or financial harm, including financial, residential and medical information, as well as private information obtained from illegal sources. We also recognize that private information may become publicly available through other sources. When that happens, we may allow the information to be posted.
We provide people with tools to report and flag content that they believe to be in violation of their privacy rights.
Hate speech
We believe that our community is safer when people don't feel attacked on the basis of who they are. That is why we don't allow hate speech on our platform. It creates an environment of intimidation and exclusion, and in some cases may promote offline violence. Hate speech is defined as a direct attack against people on the basis of: race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity and serious disease. Though we believe that marriage or dating should be between a man and woman, we do not impose our belief on any user. However, we ensure that our platform reflects what we believe. Violent or dehumanizing speech, harmful stereotypes, statements of inferiority, expressions of contempt, disgust or dismissal, cursing and calls for exclusion or segregation against the afore mentioned groups will ensure we suspend the aggressor and remove such content.
Adult nudity and sexual activity
We do not encourage the display of nudity or sexual activity because some people in our community may be sensitive to this type of content. Additionally, when it comes to our knowledge, we remove sexual imagery to prevent the sharing of non-consensual or underage content.
Explicit sexual activity and stimulation
We do not allow the posting of explicit sexual intercourse or oral sex, defined as mouth or genitals entering or in contact with another person's genitals or anus, where at least one person's genitals are nude. This includes the explicit stimulation of genitalia or anus, defined as stimulating genitalia or anus or inserting objects, including sex toys, into genitalia or anus, where the contact with the genitalia or anus is directly visible or implied. Other activities, including but not limited to: Erections, presence of by-products of sexual activity, sex toys placed upon or inserted into mouth, stimulation of naked human nipples, squeezing female breasts, bestiality and adult sexual activity in digital art.
Sexual solicitation
We do not allow content that facilitates, encourages or coordinates sexual encounters or commercial sexual services between adults. We do this to avoid facilitating transactions that may involve trafficking, coercion and non-consensual sexual acts. We also restrict sexually explicit language that may lead to sexual solicitation because some audiences within our global community may be sensitive to this type of content, and it may impede the ability for people to connect with their friends and the broader community.
Account authenticity and real identity
We protect our community by allowing only real people to register. Authenticity is the cornerstone of our community. We frown against impersonation and identity misrepresentation. That's why we require people to use the name that they go by in everyday life on our platform. This helps us to create a safe environment where people can trust and hold one another accountable.
In order to maintain a safe environment and empower free expression, we also remove accounts that are harmful to the community, including those that compromise the security of other accounts and our services. We have built a combination of automated and manual systems to block and remove accounts that are used to persistently or egregiously abuse our Community Standards.
Zero tolerance for spammers
We work hard to limit the spread of spam because we do not want to allow content that is designed to deceive, or that attempts to mislead users to increase viewership. This content creates a negative user experience, detracts from people's ability to engage authentically in online communities, and can threaten the security, stability and usability of our services.
Cybersecurity
Any Attempts to gather sensitive personal information or engage in unauthorized access by deceptive or invasive methods are harmful to the authentic, open and safe atmosphere that we want to foster. Therefore, we do not allow attempts to gather sensitive user information or engage in unauthorized access through the abuse of our platform, products, or services. If these unwanted efforts come to our knowledge, we will ban such users from using our platform.
These include but not limited to: encouraging or deceiving users to download or run files or programmes that will compromise a user's online or data security, including through malicious software or websites. Such files and programmes will be deemed malicious software or "malware" if they harm or gain unauthorized access to a computer, device or network; attempting to obtain, acquire or request another user’s login credentials, personal information or other sensitive data – whether explicitly or through deceptive means such as phishing (e.g. fake surveys designed to capture login info or links to fake login pages or impostor websites) or the use of malicious software or websites; publicly sharing your own or others' login information, either on our platform or through a third-party service; creating, sharing or hosting malicious software, including browser extensions and mobile applications, on or off the platform that put our users or products and services at risk; providing online infrastructure, including web hosting services, domain name system servers and ad networks that enables abusive links.
Suspicious behavior
We don't allow people to misrepresent themselves, use fake accounts, artificially boost the popularity of content or engage in behaviors designed to enable other violations under our Community Engagement. This policy is intended to protect the security of user accounts and our services, and create a space where people can trust the people and communities they interact with.
Misinformation and Fake News
We do not allow our platform to be used to deliberately spread misinformation and fake news. People come to our platform with a certain level of expectation, that the people they are interacting with are responsible individuals and we would like to keep it that way.
Intellectual property
We take intellectual property rights seriously and believe that they are important to promoting expression, creativity and innovation in our community. You own all of the content and information that you post on our platform, and you control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. You also agree to giving us certain rights regarding the use and sharing of such content as stated in our Terms And Conditions. However, before sharing content on our platform, please make sure that you have the right to do so. We ask that you respect other people's copyrights, trademarks and other legal rights. We are committed to helping people and organizations promote and protect their intellectual property rights. Please feel free to report any infringement of your Intellectual Property Rights.
