Platform Manipulation and Spam
Objectives
Our goal is to ensure that UNPRESS is a safe environment where people can find reliable news and information while feeling comfortable to create, share and engage in meaningful discussion. In order to meet these objectives, we do not allow spam or any form of platform manipulation.
At a high level, we define platform manipulation as using UNPRESS to engage in mass aggressive, or deceptive activity that misleads others and/or disrupts their experience. There are many forms of platform manipulation and these policies are intended to address a wide range of prohibited behavior, including:
commercially-motivated spam, that typically aims to drive traffic or attention from a conversation on UNPRESS to other accounts, websites, products, services, or initiatives
inauthentic engagements, or ratings manipulations that attempts to increase or decrease the visibility of a story or dialog in order to amplify or suppress the content for personal, professional or political gain
misrepresentation, we do not allow people to misrepresent themselves, their communities, or to use fake accounts to mislead others or to impersonate others
coordinated activity that attempts to artificially influence conversations through the use of multiple accounts, fake accounts, ratings, perspectives, automation and/or scripting
coordinated harmful activity that encourages or promotes behavior which violates the UNPRESS community standards.
What happens if you violate these standards?
We will reduce platform functionality, remove content, or disable accounts commensurate with the degree to which these standards have been violated. Where necessary we will also collaborate with the appropriate law enforcement agencies.
For more information see our page: Enforcement Approach. Below we directly address specific activities.
Anti-spam
When we detect suspicious levels of activity, accounts may be temporarily or permanently suspended.
URL Blocking
We block or provide warnings about URLs we believe to be unsafe, particularly those engaged in spoofing, or phishing attacks.
Content deletion and account suspension
For isolated incidents or a first offense, we may take a number of actions, including requiring deletion of content to temporarily suspending your account(s). Any subsequent offenses will result in permanent suspension
In the case of a violation centering around the use of multiple accounts, you may be asked to choose one account to keep. The remaining accounts will be permanently suspended.
In the case of a violation centering around account identity misrepresentation, you may have the ability to correct your profile identity or to create a new account that correctly represents your identity. Inauthentic accounts will be permanently suspended.
Permanent suspension
For severe violations, accounts will be permanently suspended. Examples of severe violations include:
operating accounts where the majority of behavior is in violation of the UNPRESS community standards
using any of the tactics described on this page to undermine the integrity of the UNPRESS platform, democratic institutions or elections. Criticisms of the former are always welcome.
buying/selling accounts
buying/selling actions intended to manipulate the ratings of content, including stories, comments, perspectives and communities
creating accounts to replace or mimic a suspended account
operating accounts that we are able to reliably attribute to entities known to violate our community standards.
If you believe that your account was locked or suspended in error, you can submit an appeal by using our Inquiry Form.
What is in violation of these standards?
You may not use our services in a manner intended to artificially amplify or suppress information or engage in behavior that manipulates or disrupts people’s experience on UNPRESS or violates our community standards. Under this policy we prohibit a range of behaviors in the following areas:
Multiple accounts and coordination
You may not mass-register UNPRESS accounts or use automation to create UNPRESS accounts.
You can’t artificially amplify or disrupt conversations through the use of multiple accounts or by coordinating with others to violate the UNPRESS community standards. This includes:
overlapping accounts – operating multiple accounts with overlapping use cases, such as identical or similar personas or substantially similar content
mutually interacting accounts – operating multiple accounts that interact with one another in order to inflate or manipulate the prominence of specific stories, perspectives, communities, comments or accounts
coordination – creating multiple accounts to post duplicative content or create fake engagement, including:
posting identical or substantially similar content or hashtags from multiple accounts you operate
engaging (sharing, rating, commenting, posting perspectives) repeatedly with the same content or accounts from multiple accounts that you operate
coordinating with or compensating others to engage in artificial engagement, amplification or suppression, even if the people involved use only one account
coordinating with others to engage in or promote violations of the UNPRESS community standards.
Engagement and metrics
You can’t artificially inflate your own or others’ followers or engagement. This includes:
selling/purchasing content or account metric inflation – selling or purchasing followers or engagements (sharing, rating, commenting, posting perspectives)
apps – using or promoting third-party services or apps that claim to add followers or add engagements to stories, comments, perspectives or communities
reciprocal inflation – trading or coordinating to exchange follows or content engagements
account transfers or sales – selling, purchasing, trading, or offering the sale, purchase, or trade of UNPRESS accounts, usernames, or temporary access to UNPRESS accounts.
Misuse of UNPRESS product features
You can’t misuse UNPRESS product features to disrupt others’ experience. This includes:
Stories, Comments, Perspectives and Direct Messages
sending bulk, aggressive, high-volume unsolicited replies, mentions, or Direct Messages
posting and deleting the same content repeatedly
repeatedly posting identical or nearly identical content, or repeatedly sending identical Direct Messages
repeatedly posting stories, comments, perspectives or sending Direct Messages consisting of links shared without commentary, so that this comprises the bulk of your user account activity
Sharing an existing phrase or content in a duplicative manner, whether individually or in concert with other accounts
Following
“follow churn” – following and then unfollowing large numbers of accounts in an effort to inflate your own follower count
indiscriminate following – following and/or unfollowing a large number of unrelated accounts in a short time period, particularly by automated means
duplicating another account’s followers, particularly using automation.
Engagement
aggressively or automatically engaging with stories, comments, perspectives or communities in order to drive traffic or attention to accounts, websites, products, services, or initiatives.
aggressively adding users to communities.
Hashtags
using a trending or popular hashtag with an intent to subvert or manipulate a conversation or to drive traffic or attention to accounts, websites, products, services, or initiatives; and
Posting content with excessive, unrelated hashtags in a single story, perspective or comment or across multiple pieces of posted content.
URLs
publishing or linking to malicious content intended to damage or disrupt another person’s browser (malware) or computer or to compromise a person’s privacy (phishing); and
posting misleading or deceptive links; e.g., affiliate links and clickjacking links.
Cybersecurity
attempting to compromise user accounts, profiles, communities or other UNPRESS entities
abuse of our products and services
gathering sensitive information through deceptive means
attempting to engage in unauthorized access, including:
Access to accounts, profiles, communities, or other user data other than your own through deceptive means or without explicit permission
Hosting, or deceiving others into hosting, downloading or running files or programs which will compromise their security, either online or offline or data security. This includes malicious software and websites
Attempting to obtain, acquire or request another person’s login credentials, personal information or other user data either explicitly, through social engineering or deceptive means such as phishing or the use of malicious software or websites
Publicly sharing other persons login information, either on UNPRESS or a third party platform
Providing online infrastructure that enables malicious or abusive links where the majority of them violate our community standards
What is not in violation of these standards?
coordinating with others to express ideas, viewpoints, support, or opposition towards a cause, provided such behavior does not result in violations of the UNPRESS community standards
operating multiple accounts with distinct identities, purposes, or use cases. These accounts may interact with one another, provided they don’t violate other policies. Some examples include:
organizations with related but separate chapters or branches, such as a business with multiple locations;
operating a personal account in addition to pseudonymous accounts or accounts associated with your hobbies or initiatives
Who can report violations of this policy?
Anyone can report accounts or content via the in-app reporting functionality.