Violence, Threats, Terrorism, Intimidation and Incitement
Overview
There are two primary aims for this policy. The first and paramount goal is to prevent harm to individuals resulting from content that has been posted to the UNPRESS platform. The second is to ensure that UNPRESS remains a safe environment where people feel comfortable creating, sharing, and engaging.
We understand that people use hyperbole and can become passionate in expression, which leads to statements that may imitate threats or calls for violence but have no real intent. We try to consider the context in distinguishing between casual statements and legitimate risks. Part of this consideration is the visibility of a creator and the situation they are reporting on. Those covering conflict zones or situations of tension are at particular risk of harm. As a result, we must always err on the side of caution. Words have power, and we must all be responsible and accountable for what we say.
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.
When we reduce platform functionality we may do this by temporarily barring you from posting additional content either in the form of comments, perspectives, messages or stories. We may also remove you from and group / community memberships as necessary.
For more information see our page: Enforcement Approach
What is in violation of these standards?
Any activity that could clearly be identified as illegal.
Violent Acts, Threats, Intimidation, and Incitement Violations
Violent threats, defined as statements with an intent to kill, injure, or kidnap a specific person or group of people, are not permitted. We define incitement as statements or actions that glorify or encourage others to produce a credible violent threat, as defined above, are also not permitted.
Intent is exemplified by declarations of the form “I will,” “I’m going to,” or “I plan to.” Conditional statements such as “If you do <something>, I will…” also fall under intent. Incitement is similar, with declarations of the form “You should,” “someone needs to,” “I’m glad this happened,” or “I wish more people did things like this.” Other statements of intent may be pictorial in nature, such as a symbol representing a target displayed with an instrument of violence, such as a firearm.
Prohibitions under the community standards include, but are not limited to:
encouraging self-harm;
threats to kill, injure, maim, or seriously hurt a person or a group of people and/or commit an act that could lead to death or serious injury, even when a target of the violence is not clearly identified;
threats of sexual assault;
asking for or offering services for hire to inflict violence on a specific person or group. For example, assassins, mercenaries or hitmen;
threats to kidnap or abduct or that promotes, supports or advocates for kidnapping or abduction;
content that depicts violence, kidnappings or abductions if it is clear the content is not being shared for journalistic, informational or awareness raising purposes;
directly advocating for violence due to voting, voter registration or the administration or outcome of an election
Coded statements where the method of violence or harm is not clearly articulated, but the threat is veiled or implied. We look at the subtext to determine whether there is a threat of harm in the content.
glorifying, praising, advocating for or celebrating:
violent acts committed by civilians that resulted in the deaths or serious physical injury of others, such as mass shooting and murders
violent events against protected groups, (those based on protected characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age, disability, etc.)
demonstrated intent to dox, threats to dox
Terrorism, Terrorist Threats and Incitement Violations
We define illicit Terrorist acts as those that are dangerous to human life with the intention of:
Intimidating or coercing a civilian population;
Influencing the policy of government by intimidation or coercion; or
Affecting the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping
Terrorist threats and incitements to terrorism are defined as:
Statements of intent to commit terrorist acts, or
Calls for terrorist acts, or
Statements advocating for terrorist acts, or
Aspirational or conditional statements to commit terrorist acts
Statements of intent or advocacy, 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)
Glorification, praise, condoning or celebration of terrorist acts carried out by terrorist organizations or violent extremist groups.
What is not in violation of these standards?
Statements
of hyperbole or speech where it is clear that there is no abusive or violent intent
that express a wish or hope that someone experiences harm, or where threats of vague, indirect or actions are unlikely to cause serious injury are unlikely to be actioned under these standards, however they may be reviewed
Content that
news coverage of events that fall under the descriptions of this section but does not itself promote or advocate for violence, issue threats, incite or intimidate
news coverage of an ongoing war or conflict, including scenes which may be considered disturbing to some and that may show casualties or injuries as a result of military actions.
We do consider graphic scenes that display executions or injury to surrendered or disabled combatants to be in violation - unless the act is meant to provide evidence of and highlight illegal acts, violations of human rights, or war crimes for the purposes of condemning those acts and bringing perpetrators to justice. Note that in these cases, the faces of victims should be blurred out.
supports the official armed forces of democratic countries where the organization is not identified as a terrorist organization as per this policy
is meant to report on or cover events or actions of importance to the public good
is shared as part of recreational self defense, for military training purposes, commercial video games, or news coverage