Terms and Definitions
Advocating for
defined as any of the following:
An action that financially benefits an entity in any way
E.g., “Donate to the Nazi party!”
An action that provides material support to an entity or event
E.g., “Send care packages to this address to show our support for Ghislaine Maxwell”
A call to action
E.g., “Contact the Wagner Group at this number to help the war effort! - (XXX) XXX-XXXX”
Recruiting or or on behalf of
E.g., “If you want to fight for the special operation, DM me”
Providing information or resources, including official communications, either directly, through a third party or on behalf of
E.g., Directly quoting a designated entity without caption that condemns, neutrally discusses or is part of a news story
Praise
defined as any of the following:
Language that speaks positively
E.g., “Those Al-Qaeda terrorists are very honorable!”
Providing a sense of achievement
E.g., “Osama bin Laden is a martyr.”
Justifying or legitimizing hateful, violent, or criminal conduct
E.g., “Hitler did nothing wrong.”
Aligning oneself ideologically with an entity or event
E.g., “I stand with Elmer Rhodes.”
Threaten
defined as any of the following:
Language that states an intention to take hostile action against someone, for any reason
E.g. “I’m going to beat you up.”
Where hostile action includes, but is not limited to:
sexual assault
physical violence - including killing, injuring, maiming or seriously hurting another person
kidnapping or human trafficking
coded statements where a method of hostile action is not clearly stated, but the threat is implied
Representation
defined as any of the following:
Stating that you are a member of, or are
E.g., “I am an enforcer for El Chapo.”
Creating a Community, Chapter, Profile, or other UNPRESS entity that claims to be owned by a prohibited entity or individual, is run on their behalf, or represents a prohibited event
E.g., A community named “American Nazi Party.”
E.g., A profile dedicated to luring people into a dangerous organization
Brigading
When an orchestrated group of people flood target a story, a specific person or a persons comment in order to influence or damage its reputation. This can be through leaving disparaging comments, or attempting to influence the ratings and scoring of stories, perspectives, comments or user profiles.
Bullying
The act of intimidating, abusing, harassing, or coercing persons from a position of relative power, strength or privilege. Bullying is often directed at those who may be unable, unwilling or unlikely to defend themselves.
Doxing or Outing
Exposes private personal information about a person or group of persons without their consent. Private personal information includes, but is not limited to:
Home address(es)
Workplace details
Personal phone numbers
Social security numbers
Financial information such as bank accounts or credit cards
Non-public information regarding sexuality, gender, or gender identity
Private health care history or information
Private correspondence
Criminal history
Personal photos
Embarrassing private personal details
Swatting
Swatting is a criminal harassment tactic of deceiving an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing an emergency services dispatcher) into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address. This is triggered by false reporting of a serious law enforcement emergency, such as, but not limited to, a:
a bomb threat
murder
hostage situation
false report of a mental health emergency, such as reporting that a person is allegedly suicidal or homicidal and may or may not be armed
Human Trafficking
Our definition of Human Trafficking is based on the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) definition, with small modifications. See below.
Human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act. It is essentially the deprivation of liberty for profit by forcing victims to engage in activities against their will. This is a global problem that can affect any community and victims can be any age, race, gender, or nationality. Traffickers have many strategies to lure victims into trafficking situations. These might include: violence, manipulation, false promises of well-paying jobs, romantic relationships, and extortion.
Language barriers, fear of their traffickers, and/or fear of law enforcement frequently keep victims from seeking help, making human trafficking a hidden crime. Traffickers look for people who are easy targets for a variety of reasons, including: Psychological or emotional vulnerability, Economic hardship, Lack of a social safety net, Natural disasters, Political instability, War.
Dangerous Organizations and Individuals
Dangerous Organizations and Individuals are not allowed to have a presence on UNPRESS, or have a presence maintained by others on their behalf. As these communities are actively engaged in spreading hate and violence. Praise, Advocacy for, and Substantive support of these entities is not allowed.
Terrorist organizations, Terrorists and Violent Non-State Actors
defined as a non-state actor that:
engages in, advocates for, represents, or lends substantial support to purposive and planned acts of violence
causes or attempts to cause death, injury or serious harm to civilians, or any other person not taking direct part in the hostilities of armed conflict, and/or significant damage to property or civil infrastructure linked to death, serious injury or serious harm to civilians
coerces, intimidates and/or influences a civilian population, government, or international organization, or has the stated intention to do so, to achieve a political, religious, financial, or ideological aim.
are designated by the United States government as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) or Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs)
or, that causes or attempts to
cause death to persons taking direct part in hostilities in an armed conflict, and/or
deprive communities of access to vital infrastructure and natural resources, and/or bring significant damage to property, linked to death, serious injury or serious harm to civilians
Criminal Organizations
defined as an association of three or more people that:
has engaged in or threatens to engage in criminal activity such as homicide, drug trafficking, or kidnapping, for any reason.
are designated by the United States government as specially designated narcotics trafficking kingpins (SDNTKs)
Hate Organizations
defined as an association of three or more people that:
has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics such as race, religious affiliation, national origin, disability, ethnicity, gender, sex, sexual orientation or serious disease.
An organization does not need to have engaged in criminal conduct or have followed their speech with actual unlawful action to be labeled a hate organization.
Hateful Ideologies
There are certain ideologies and beliefs that are inherently tied to violence and attempts to organize people around calls for violence directed towards others based on their protected characteristics. In these cases, we designate the ideology itself and remove content that supports this ideology from our platform. Note that currently our definition of this category is fairly narrow. We are careful to balance the needs with free speech with the protection of our users.
These ideologies include:
Nazism or any form or Racial Supremacy
Ideologies that drive terrorist groups, such as the ideology of the Islamic State, which we consider different and distinct from a particular established world religion.
We remove explicit Praise, Advocation, Substantive Support, and Representation of these ideologies, and may remove individuals and organizations that ascribe to one or more of these hateful ideologies.
Mass Shootings, Multiple-Victim Violence and Multiple Murders
An event falls within this designation if any of the following are true
there are three or more casualties, defined as death or severe injury, within the same general area over a short period by a single individual
there are multiple casualties over a period of hours or days in different locations by a single impulsive assailant
three or more casualties involving stranger-to-stranger violence in different locations with a significant time lapse between them, committed by the same assailant
Any Individual who has committed such an attack is considered to be a perpetrator or an attempted perpetrator of multiple-victim violence. We consider any individual who has committed two or more murders over multiple incidents or locations a multiple murderer.
Militarized Social Movements (MSMs)
include:
Militia Communities, non-state actors that use weapons as a part of their training, communication, or presence; and are structured or operate as unofficial military or security forces and:
Coordinate in preparation for violence or civil war; or
Coordinate militarized tactical efforts in a present or future armed civil conflict or civil war.
Communities supporting violent acts amid protests, defined as non-State actors that repeatedly coordinate, promote, admit to or engage in:
Acts of street violence against civilians or law enforcement; or
Arson, Looting, or other destruction of property; or
Threaten to violently disrupt an election process; or
Promote bringing weapons to a location when the stated intent is to intimidate people amid a protest.