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Our enforcement philosophy
 

We empower people to understand different sides of an issue and encourage dissenting opinions and viewpoints to be discussed openly. This approach allows many forms of speech to exist on our platform and, in particular, promotes counterspeech: speech that presents facts to correct misstatements or misperceptions, points out hypocrisy or contradictions, warns of offline or online consequences, denounces hateful or dangerous speech, or helps change minds and disarm.

Thus, context matters. When determining whether to take enforcement action, we may consider a number of factors, including (but not limited to) whether:

• the behavior is directed at an individual, group, or protected category of people;

• the report has been filed by the target of the abuse or a bystander;

• the user has a history of violating our policies;

• the severity of the violation;

• the content may be a topic of legitimate public interest.

Is the behavior directed at an individual or group of people?

To strike a balance between allowing different opinions to be expressed on the platform, and protecting our users, we enforce policies when someone reports abusive behavior that targets a specific person or group of people. This targeting can happen in a number of ways (for example, @mentions, tagging a photo, mentioning them by name, and more).

Has the report been filed by the target of the potential abuse or a bystander?

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Objectives

We want people to be exposed to and understand multiple sides of an issue, not only to gain a broader perspective, but to also help people make sense of what they are seeing and hearing. To that end, we encourage different points of view and want people to feel empowered to discuss topics in a healthy and respectful way.

The perspectives feature of our platform exists to help facilitate this, and to promote discussion in which people can contribute facts and viewpoints to:

• expand comprehension

• correct misperceptions and misinterpretations

• gain a clearer understanding of the complexity of a topic

• determine the veracity of the information they are seeing

• make informed decisions and draw conclusions

Enforcement Considerations

This approach means that we must allow many forms of discourse on our platform. This includes dialogue, debate and disarming where people seek to help change minds, correct misstatements, misinterpretations and misperceptions. In the course of this action, people may point out hypocrisy or contradictions, expound on what they believe future consequences of certain courses of action may be, denounce hateful or dangerous speech, actions and ideologies. These discussions can become passionate, so when we are reviewing content for moderation or enforcement of the community standards, context matters. As a result, we may consider, including, but not limited to:

• who is the behavior directed at?

• has the content has been reported and by whom?

• does the user have a history of violations?

• what is the severity of the violation?

• is the content a topic of legitimate public interest?

Who is the behavior directed at?

We enforce the community standards only when abusive behavior targets a specific person or group of people on the unpress platform via @mentions, tagging, mentioning them by name, direct messaging, etc.

Has the content been reported and by whom?

In order to prevent us from removing messages incorrectly, we typically enforce community standards only when the target of a message reports it to us. We may, however, remove messages that are particularly egregious regardless of the context of the message.

Does the user have a history of

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violations?

Unless content egregiously violates our community standards, which may result in removal of the content and the users account, enforcement of the community standards begins with education. If, however, after an attempt to educate a user, a violation is repeated, then we will take more direct actions to remove offending content, limit the functionality of a users account (such as by preventing them from commenting) or suspending their account - either temporarily or permanently.

What is the severity of the violation?

Certain types of behavior may pose serious safety and security risks and/or result in physical, emotional, and financial hardship for the people involved. These egregious violations of the Twitter Rules — such as posting violent threats, non-consensual intimate media, or content that sexually exploits children — result in the immediate and permanent suspension of an account. Other violations could lead to a range of different steps, like requiring someone to remove the offending Tweet(s) and/or temporarily limiting their ability to post new Tweet(s).

Is the behavior newsworthy and in the legitimate public interest?

Twitter moves at the speed of public consciousness and people come to the service to stay informed about what matters. Exposure to different viewpoints can help people learn from one another, become more tolerant, and make decisions about the type of society we want to live in.

To help ensure people have an opportunity to see every side of an issue, there may be the rare occasion when we allow controversial content or behavior which may otherwise violate our Rules to remain on our service because we believe there is a legitimate public interest in its availability. Each situation is evaluated on a case by case basis and ultimately decided upon by a cross-functional team.

Some of the factors that help inform our decision-making about content are the impact it may have on the public, the source of the content, and the availability of alternative coverage of an event.

Public impact of the content: A topic of legitimate public interest is different from a topic in which the public may be curious. We will consider what the impact is to citizens When a violation may result in serious safety concerns, privacy or security risks our enforcement actions will be faster and more drastic. Serious concerns include risks of violence, violent threats, harm, unsolicited intimate media, or exploitation of any kind. These may result in immediate and permanent removal of your account. In egregious instances, we will collaborate with law enforcement authorities if asked to do so or we believe that a serious threat exists.

Less serious concerns may result in reducing user functionality, like the ability to post, comment, etc. for a period of time.

Is the content a topic of legitimate public interest?

Unpress is a news and information platform, as a result, much of the content is in the public interest. In order to fulfill the objectives stated above, we may make allowances for some controversial content that might otherwise violate our community standards. Evaluations are done on a case by case basis in consideration of the following factors:

Public impact: We consider what the impact is to to the public if they do not know about this content. If the Tweet does have a story, perspective or comment has the potential to impact the lives of large numbers of people, the running of a countrygreatly impact many people, and/or it speaks to deals with an important or contentious societal issue, then we may allow the the content to remain on the service. Likewise, if the impact on the public is minimal we will most likely remove content in violation of our policies.

Source of the content: Some people, groups, organizations and the content they post on Twitter may be considered a topic of legitimate public interest by virtue of their being in the public consciousness. This does not mean that their Tweets will always remain on the service. Rather, we will consider if there is a legitimate public interest for a particular Tweet to remain up so it can be openly discussed.Availability of coverage: Everyday people play a crucial role in providing firsthand accounts of what’s happening in the world, counterpoints to establishment views, and, in some cases, exposing the abuse of power by someone in a position of authority. As a situation unfolds, removing access to certain information could inadvertently hide context and/or prevent people from seeing every side of the issue. Thus, before actioning a potentially violating Tweet, we will take into account the role it plays in showing the larger story and whether that content can be found elsewhere. If the content is produced by a creator that represents a widely known organization, or is distinguished and reputable, and the content has the potential for significant public impact, the content may be allowed to remain. A distinguished, reputable creator is one who has most, or all, of the following characteristics:

• Has an account in good standing for a period of more than 12 months

• Has an account that is verified

• Has a high content (stories) and interaction (comments) rating

• Is credentialed, either through a university or via training on the unpress platform

• Has no previous violations of the community standards

• The content, strives to be fair and objective

Availability of coverage: Unpress creators provide critical, first hand accounts of current events. Access to stories that represent the realities of people’s lives are why this platform exists. It may be detrimental to the public interest to remove content that is authentic and cannot be found elsewhere.

Enforcement Actions

Our enforcement actions range from education to permanent account suspension. We prefer to start with the former where possible, by working with users to point out content that requires correction and having them modify the content themselves.

Where that is not appropriate, we may, take one or more of the following courses of action:

• Removing content

• Reducing user functionality, typically by limiting the ability to post stories, write comments and post perspectives

• Temporary account bans

• Permanent account bans and removals