Please share your thoughts and feedback on the following draft terms of service for the piefed.social instance.
To maintain a safe, respectful, and fact-based community, the following types of content are prohibited on PieFed:
1. Harassment, Hate Speech, and Discrimination
- Do not post content that is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise dehumanizing.
- This includes slurs, dog whistles, or content that promotes stereotypes or attacks individuals or protected groups based on identity or background.
2. Spam and Malicious Behavior
- No spamming, flooding, advertising, or self-promotion without permission.
- No scams, phishing attempts, or distribution of malware.
- No brigading, vote manipulation, or coordinated harassment.
3. Authoritarian and Fascist Propaganda
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Content promoting fascist, ultranationalist, or authoritarian ideologies is not allowed, including things such as:
- Genocide denial or minimization, such as denying or justifying atrocities in Gaza, Xinjiang, Ukraine, or elsewhere.
- Use of fascist symbols & memes (e.g., Pepe the Frog), or 4chan/8chan screenshots.
- Support for regimes or ideologies that suppress basic human rights.
4. Misinformation and Pseudoscience
- No climate change denial or promotion of scientifically debunked conspiracy theories.
5. Violence and Threats
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No threats of violence, incitement, or glorification of harm including terrorism, mass shootings, or political violence.
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Joking about or fantasizing violence against individuals or protected groups is not tolerated.
7. Sexual Content and Exploitation
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No sexually explicit content, porn, or fetish content
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Strictly prohibited:
- Non-consensual sexual content
- Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or any allusion to it
- Sexualization of minors, even fictional
8. Impersonation and Misrepresentation
- Do not impersonate other people (including accounts on other instances), public figures, or organizations. Satire is fine if obviously so.
- Do not create deceptive accounts or mislead others about your identity, affiliations, or intent.
9. Illegal Content
- Don’t post anything that could cause legal trouble for PieFed, piefed.social or the people involved.
10. Defederation
Generally this will be a last resort when problems from an instance are systemic or caused by the admins of the instance.
General Guidelines
- Keep discussion civil and on-topic.
- Respect privacy: do not post personal information (doxxing), even if publicly available elsewhere.
- Admins reserve the right to remove communities & content or ban users at their discretion to protect the integrity of the community.
- Repeatedly questioning moderation decisions in public threads may lead to removal. Instead email [email protected] for feedback or appeals.
- Do not attempt to circumvent bans, content filters, or community guidelines.
All seems reasonable to me.
The only point I might quibble with is “Support for regimes or ideologies that suppress basic human rights.”, as pretty much all regimes and many ideologies suppress basic human rights to some extent. It is good that the suppression of basic human rights itself is called out and condemned and not supported but it would be reasonable to support the good things that regimes do in countries like China, USA, Russia and many, maybe all others, support the good aspects of capitalism, socialism, religions, etc. Perhaps you had in mind more extreme regimes and ideologies. Drawing lines is always challenging. No clearer alternative comes to mind immediately. I would be most supportive of prohibiting support for regimes and ideologies where the suppression of basic human rights is a predominant or at least very significant aspect of what they do or promote. But I can’t think how to express that clearly in a few words. It wouldn’t put my off as-is as, ultimately, moderation is at the discretion of the admins anyway.
Maybe we need some examples.
Obvious non-negotiable cases:
Trumpism Putin - war criminal Netanyahu - likewise Hamas - terrorists North Korea AfD (Germany) Pinochet (Chile) Proud Boys
On the edge but pretty much ok (community mods could choose differently): CCP Cuba USSR (excl Stalinism) Thai monarchy?
Examples is probably the most practical way to clarify. A few to start and add them as issues arise.