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Website League Community Code

Last updated: January 25, 2025.

Table of Contents
Part I. General Rights and Duties of Users

Part II. Abuse and Harassment

Part III. Privacy and Legal Compliance

Part IV. Node and League Integrity

Part V. Other Prohibited Material

Part VI. AI-Generated Material

Part VII. Adult Material

Part VIII. Tags and Content Warnings

Part IX. Other Behaviours to Avoid

Part I. General Rights and Duties of Users {#part-i.-general-rights-and-duties-of-users}

1. Duties and Rights of Users and Prospective Users

   1. Anyone using the Community Code shall interpret it per the Interpretive Code.

   2. No one shall become a User if they are younger than the effective age of majority.

   3. Users shall, as far as they reasonably can:

      1. follow the Community Code in their interactions with other Users;

      2. resolve conflicts amongst each other without escalating them such that Node Staff need to intervene; and

      3. use technical measures available to them, such as muting and blocking, to end or halt disputes which cannot be resolved but which do not inherently violate the Community Code and which do not threaten the well-being of the League and its Users.

   4. Users should report to the relevant Node Staff any conduct which violates the Community Code.

   5. Users should use their Node’s “report” function to make reports. However, Users may use other channels to make such reports if they determine that such channels would be more appropriate.

   6. Users may appeal any moderation decisions taken or implemented against them.

2. Duties and Rights of Node Staff

   1. Node Staff shall adhere to the Community Code in a manner which does not take inappropriate advantage of their status as Node Staff.

   2. Node Staff shall uphold the Community Code on their Node.

   3. Node Staff on each Node shall cooperate to arrive at whichever additions to the Community Code are appropriate for their Node.

   4. Node Staff may make additions to the Community Code applicable only to their Node, which:

      1. may include additional rules beyond the Community Code so long as these do not directly or substantively conflict with the Community Code;

      2. shall not remove any portion of the Community Code; and

      3. shall not alter any portion of the Community Code so as to implement looser requirements or standards.

   5. Node Staff shall cooperate with other Node Staff both within and outside their Node in capacities including:

      1. collaborating on handling incidents and conflicts;

      2. giving and receiving feedback on the execution of one’s or others’ duties as Node Staff; and

      3. supporting one another in upholding the Community Code.

   6. Node Staff shall ensure all custom emoji, icons, and other imagery offered by their Node adheres to the Community Code.

   7. Node Staff shall respect members’ privacy. This includes:

      1. not viewing other Users’ direct messages unless such messages are reported for potential moderation action;

      2. complying with all applicable privacy laws and regulations; and

      3. not using access to private information, such as a User’s liked or bookmarked posts, to gain any unfair advantage.

   8. Node Staff, in enforcing new or Node-specific Rules which are likely to be unintuitive to some Users, shall exercise a degree of leniency appropriate to Users’ current understanding of those Rules.

   9. Node Staff shall encourage Users to resolve disputes socially or use User-side moderation tools to mitigate or prevent conflict wherever such is reasonable and will not endanger any Users.

   10. Node Staff may take whatever action on their Node they determine to be necessary to uphold the Community Code or maintain the well-being of the League, including:

       1. warnings;

       2. temporary suspensions; and

       3. permanent bans.

   11. Node Staff may use automated tools to assist in detecting potential violations of the Community Code on their Node; however, Node Staff shall not allow automated systems of any kind to make moderation decisions.

   12. Node Staff should evaluate all meritorious appeals of moderation decisions diligently. Regardless, Node Staff may dismiss appeals summarily if they believe such to be appropriate.

   13. Node Staff may apply whatever discretion they determine to be necessary to enforce the Community Code, including using moderation responses to actions which are not literal violations of the Community Code.

   14. Node Staff shall prioritise their own obligations, health, and well-being above the health of their Node when one must prevail over the other.

   15. Node Staff shall discourage, and may take measures to prevent, the development of practices in the community which aim to circumvent the technical restrictions set out in Rule 3-8.

3. Duties and Rights of Node Operators

   1. Node Operators shall not take inappropriate advantage of their status as Node Operators.

   2. Node Operators should facilitate the work of Node Staff by providing access to moderation tools including:

      1. report dashboards;

      2. User bans and suspensions; or

      3. analytics that may aid moderation.

   3. Node Operators shall make all reasonable efforts to keep their Node accessible and operational for registered users.

   4. If a Node Operator is unable to keep their Node accessible and operational for registered users, the Node Operator shall clearly communicate such to the Node’s Users.

   5. Node Operators shall keep their Node operating in compliance with the Community Code.

   6. Node Operators shall clearly state on a portion of their Node’s website which is accessible to non-Users the following information:

      1. the jurisdictions which:

         1. the Node Staff reside in;

         2. the Node is hosted in; and

         3. the Node is otherwise subject to the laws of;

      2. that direct messages, private mentions, and similar “private messaging” features can be viewed by Node Staff, where a Node accepts sign-ups; and

      3. the effective age of majority for the Node.

   7. Node Operators shall comply with all software licences applicable to the software running on their Node.

   8. Where such is possible in a Node’s existing server software, Node Operators shall ensure that their Node does not make available:

      1. follower or following counts;

      2. like, favourite, boost, or repost counts;

      3. follower or following lists for Users available to Users other than oneself;

      4. any sort of direct indication that one User has blocked another User; or

      5. “global” or “federated” feeds.

 

Part II. Abuse and Harassment {#part-ii.-abuse-and-harassment}

4. Bigoted and Oppressive Conduct

   1. Users shall not post hateful or violent rhetoric directed toward any group of people based on race, ethnic or national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.

   2. Users shall not act in a manner which has the effect of enacting, entrenching, or advancing bigotry or violence based on race, ethnic or national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender or queer identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.

5. Other Harmful and Violent Conduct

   1. Users shall not abuse, harass, or threaten others. This includes:

      1. attempting to contact any User who has taken action to stop the User from contacting them, either on or off site;

      2. intentionally referring to another person with incorrect pronouns or a former name/deadname;

      3. habitually defaming most or all of one’s critics, including via abuse of political, social justice, or therapy terminology; and

      4. attempting to start campaigns which might pressure Node Staff into making moderation decisions which are incompatible with the Community Code or the goals of the League.

Part III. Privacy and Legal Compliance {#part-iii.-privacy-and-legal-compliance}

6. Privacy

   1. Users shall not disclose the private information of anyone without their consent, including:

      1. physical addresses;

      2. contact information not made public by the person it refers to, including telephone numbers or e-mail addresses; or

      3. government identification numbers (such as Social Insurance Numbers or Social Security Numbers).

   2. Users shall not post intimate photos or videos of anyone without that person’s consent, including:

      1. adult material edited to appear to feature a different person;

      2. revenge porn; and

      3. deepfakes and other such programmatically generated adult material featuring the likenesses of non-consenting persons.

   3. Users shall not harmfully impersonate others in a manner that is intended to, or does, mislead, confuse, or deceive others.

   4. Users shall not publish or link to material which they know is likely to damage or disrupt another person’s network devices or infrastructure (including computers and phones) or compromise their privacy, including malware.

Part IV. Node and League Integrity {#part-iv.-node-and-league-integrity}

7. Users’ Role in Protecting the League

   1. Users shall not sell access to the League or any Nodes in unintended ways, including registering accounts with names the User believes might become valuable in the future for the purposes of selling them later.

   2. Users shall not attempt to interfere with the technical operation of any Node or the Website League itself.

   3. Users shall not evade bans (whether on one node or League-wide) or otherwise create multiple accounts with any intent to circumvent the moderation actions of Node Staff.

   4. Users who suspect that any Node or the League has any technical issues which could impede the safe operation of the Node or the League should contact the relevant Node Staff or others who are in a position to remedy the technical issues.

   5. Users shall not post material which implicates themselves in conduct which, if encountered by law enforcement or regulatory authorities in any relevant jurisdiction, might result in the User being subjected to sanctions against their liberty or other legal rights.

   6. Users shall not post material the presence of which on a given Node might result in any relevant Node Staff being investigated by said authorities or being compelled to participate in any legal proceedings.

   7. Users shall not post material which is illegal in any relevant jurisdiction or use the Website League to conduct or facilitate activities illegal in any relevant jurisdiction.

   8. Users shall not post any material which could induce liability for the posting User or any Node or its Node Staff on grounds including defamation, copyright infringement, or dissemination of trade secrets.

8. Node Staff’s Role in Protecting the League

   1. Unless prohibited from doing so by law in any relevant jurisdiction, Node Staff shall remove from their Node any material:

      1. which is prohibited by law in the jurisdiction where the Node Staff resides or the jurisdiction where the node is hosted; or

      2. which is otherwise impermissible on the Node in a manner that could bring about technical or legal sanctions which threaten:

         1. the Node’s ability to operate;

         2. any relevant Node Staff’s ability to serve as staff on the Node; or

         3. any relevant Node Operator’s ability to operate the node.

   2. Node Staff may prevent their Node from caching or otherwise storing material posted on other Nodes which falls within the terms of Rule 8-1 with respect to either the originating or receiving Node.

   3. Node Staff may take moderation or reporting actions with respect to material of the sort described in Rules 7-5 through 7-8 including:

      1. deletion;

      2. more severe moderation actions, where they are required by law or are likely necessary to protect the Node or its Node Staff; and

      3. where required by laws which are applicable to a Node or any of its Node Staff such that enforcement of said laws could potentially endanger said Node or any of its Node Staff, providing information to parties legally entitled to said information under those laws.

 

Part V. Other Prohibited Material {#part-v.-other-prohibited-material}

9. Disinformation, Misinformation, and Malinformation

   1. Users shall not post material that actively glorifies or promotes:

      1. self-harm in a general sense;

      2. lifestyle choices that are associated with self-harming behaviour, including “pro-anorexia” or “suicide-positive” material; or

      3. human trafficking.

   2. Users shall not post misleading material that would be likely to cause physical harm, which includes:

      1. harmful misinformation about world events, including:

         1. pandemic denial;

         2. genocide denial; and

         3. conspiracy theorism;

      2. other material which appears to provide medical advice which is in fact harmful;

      3. material which is likely to mislead people into unintentional property damage or injury; or

      4. material which is likely to mislead people into endangering themselves in the face of natural disasters or other natural phenomena.

   3. Users shall not post material that interferes with the integrity of public office elections, at levels including:

      1. supranationally;

      2. nationally or federally;

      3. regionally, provincially, or at the state level; and

      4. locally;

which includes material designed to intentionally suppress, intimidate, or confuse voters.

10. Spamming, Fraud, and Grift

    1. Users shall not engage in spamming, which includes:

       1. repeatedly following Users or sharing or liking their posts to an extent that it can reasonably be inferred that there is intent to pester them with notifications;

       2. posting large numbers of unwanted mentions or comments on other Users’ posts;

       3. posting low value material which contains off-site links in an attempt to improve their search engine result ranking;

       4. posting sponsored material without disclosing that you are receiving promotional consideration; or

       5. using an account or page largely to post solicitations to join:

          1. referral marketing programs;

          2. make-money-from-home schemes;

          3. multi-level marketing;

          4. Ponzi schemes; or

          5. other businesses or organisations which primarily derive revenue from new members joining as opposed to the sale of real services or products.

    2. Users shall not promote any products, services, investments, or business opportunities related to blockchain technologies unless they unambiguously do not fall into any of the categories listed at Rule 10-1(5).

11. Material Requiring Exceptional Enforcement Measures

    1. For the purposes of this Part, "child sexual abuse material" means:

       1. realistic depictions of minors of a sexually explicit nature, whether actual photographs/videos or visual art difficult to distinguish from actual photographs/videos; and

       2. non-explicit realistic depictions of minors which appear to be sexual in intent, including creepshots and underage “fashion modeling”.

    2. Users shall not post child sexual abuse material on any Node, regardless of whichever local laws are applicable to that Node or the User posting.

    3. Node Staff shall:

       1. immediately and permanently ban any User who attempts to upload child sexual abuse material to any Node any given Node Staff member is on the staff of;

       2. immediately and permanently ban any User who they become aware has attempted to post child sexual abuse material on a different Node; and

       3. immediately report any attempts to post child sexual abuse material on a Node which they are on the staff of to the relevant law enforcement authorities.

    4. Node Operators shall permanently break federation with any Nodes which fail to respond to any attempted posting of child sexual abuse material per Rule 11-3 within a reasonable period of time.

 

Part VI. AI-Generated Material {#part-vi.-ai-generated-material}

12. Obligations of Users Posting AI-Generated Material

    1. Users shall not post material produced by “off the shelf” generative models (”AI-generated” material) to the Website League without labelling it:

       1. as "AI-generated", if the entirety of the post is AI-generated; or

       2. with a disclaimer before any portion of the post which is AI-generated, if only a portion of the post is AI-generated.

    2. Users should tag partially AI-generated posts as being “AI-generated”.

    3. Users shall not:

       1. post AI-generated material intended to mislead someone or spread misinformation of a nature that is likely to be believed;

       2. create a page solely to post material generated by large model generative AI products; or

       3. solicit donations or payment for material generated by large model generative AI products.

 

Part VII. Adult Material {#part-vii.-adult-material}

13. General Rules on Adult Material

    1. For the purposes of this Part, “adult material” means:

       1. pornography or nudity, either photographic or drawn;

       2. other material which depicts or describes sexual acts in explicit detail; or

       3. material which is prohibited from being distributed to persons who are under the effective age of majority of a User or Node.

    2. Users shall ensure that any adult material they post is posted using technical measures allowing other Users to have it be hidden by default.

    3. Users shall not post adult material on their profile picture or header image.

14. Material to which Additional Requirements Apply

    1. Users shall not post sexually explicit non-photorealistic visual art of characters who are, or are apparently, minors.

    2. Users shall not post art which Node Staff determine could be reasonably interpreted to be of a suggestive nature involving minors without a descriptive, clear content warning.

    3. Node Staff may take moderation measures including deletion with respect to any material that falls within the scope of Rule 14-2, whether it has adequate content warnings or not, if they determine that such is necessary.

    4. Users shall not post written material discussing sexual experiences involving minors, including when the minor in question is or was the User posting, which constitutes any of the following:

       1. written fiction involving real people who are minors or depicted as minors;

       2. material encouraging, glorifying, or advocating sex between adults and minors;

       3. material whose dominant characteristic is the description, for a sexual purpose, of sexual activity with anyone younger than the effective age of majority in the circumstances; or

       4. any written material discussing sexual experiences involving minors if posted without a descriptive, clear content warning.

 

Part VIII. Tags and Content Warnings {#part-viii.-tags-and-content-warnings}

15. Obligations of Users Respecting Tags and Content Warnings

    1. For the purposes of this Part, “sensitive material” includes:

       1. depictions of graphic violence or self-harm;

       2. depictions of sexual violence of all kinds;

       3. depictions of explicit racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or other bigotry in a documentary capacity;

       4. depictions of abuse, particularly of children or animals;

       5. depictions of drug use and abuse, descriptions of self-harm, suicide, incitement to suicide, or threats of suicide in a documentary capacity; or

       6. gross-out or shock material.

    2. Users should apply descriptive, clear tags to any posts containing sensitive material.

    3. Users shall apply descriptive, clear content warnings to any posts containing:

       1. depictions of non-consensual sexual conduct;

       2. material which is likely to induce photosensitive epileptic episodes, including material containing large areas of flashing lights; and

       3. material requiring content warnings under Rules 14-2 and 14-4.

16. Rights and Obligations of Node Staff Respecting Content Warnings

    1. Node Staff may take measures to remedy posts containing sensitive material with inadequate content warnings including:

       1. adding appropriate content warnings to the post; or

       2. modifying the existing content warnings on the post.

    2. Where a Node’s software does not permit addition or modification of content warnings by Node Staff, Node Staff may summarily delete posts containing sensitive material made with inadequate tags or content warnings if they determine that the circumstances are too urgent for them to wait for the posting User to edit the post themself.

    3. Node Staff shall take measures to prevent posts containing the material described in Rule 15-3 from being displayed to Users without adequate content warnings, including hiding the relevant post.

    4. Node Staff may take moderation actions such as deleting the relevant post(s) or banning the relevant User in the event of repeated or particularly severe breaches of Rule 15-3.

 

Part IX. Other Behaviours to Avoid {#part-ix.-other-behaviours-to-avoid}

17. Reposting and Attribution

    1. Users shall not post or repost other people’s material without attribution. Furthermore:

       1. If the material a User wants to share is already on the Website League, the User should use the built-in share feature to boost it instead of reposting it.

       2. If the material a User wants to share is not on the Website League, the User should link back to the source where possible.

    2. Users shall only post the contents of private conversations where it is compatible with the Community Code. For clarity:

       1. Users may call out bigoted, abusive, and otherwise highly harmful behaviour without anonymity.

       2. Users may share the contents of private conversations they consider to be funny or unusual if and only if the other participants in the conversation are kept anonymous.

       3. Users may share private conversations or remarks non-anonymously with the approval of the sources of the remarks.

    3. If the creator of any given material reasonably requests the removal of any of their material posted on the Website League, Node Staff may perform such removal if the reposting User does not.

    4. Node Staff may ban accounts on the basis that their primary form of posting is unsourced reposting.

    5. Node Staff may take whatever moderation actions they determine to be necessary and proportionate to stop patterns of infractions of Rules 17-1 and 17-2.

18. Discretion with which to Address Patterns of Detrimental Conduct

    1. Node Staff may limit, suspend, or ban any User for reasons outside the Community Code or any given Node’s rules when a User’s conduct is determined to be detrimental to the well-being of the League or any given Node. Examples include:

       1. bad-faith provocation of conflict;

       2. egregiously argumentative behaviour; or

       3. routinely being detrimental to others’ enjoyment of the League.

    2. In applying Rule 18-1, Node Staff should usually avoid discouraging arguing, snide remarks, and overt displays of anger against other Users. However, Node Staff may take administrative and moderation action against Users with an excessively frequent or intense pattern of such conduct.

    3. Users should make use of user-side safety tools such as muting or blocking as a first-line response. However, Users should report any patterns of conduct as described in Rule 18-1 which appear to them to be excessively intense, protracted, or otherwise severe.

    4. Node Staff shall not interpret Rule 18-1 as permitting excessive policing the tone of users or ignoring the context in which remarks are made.

    5. Node Staff shall apply Rule 18-1 with a conscious, active awareness of the way in which their moderation actions might have discriminatory or bigoted effects regardless of intent, and shall actively consider the immediate, historical, and societal context surrounding any conduct which they perceive as potentially warranting action per said Rule.