At Newsmast, there have to be rules, so that everyone feels safe and respected. We want to encourage a diversity of voices, which means allowing everyone to feel welcome without enduring hate speech or harassment of any kind.
We plan to evolve these guidelines as time goes on in line with the development of Newsmast. Those who repeatedly fail to abide by them will be removed from the platform. Accounts posting certain types of offensive or illegal content will be removed immediately.
LET’S KEEP IT REAL
Be you: Users are not allowed to assume someone else’s identity or that of other groups or organisations to mislead people.
Spam: Using the platform to spam people or artificially distribute information is not allowed.
Bot accounts: Bot accounts and other automated feeds must be marked as such, or be deleted. We impose a follow limit of 5,000 profiles and discourage excessive posting.
Fake news: Do not share false or misleading information, including sharing medical claims that can’t be backed up or manipulating content with intent to mislead.
Unlawful gain: We remove content designed to achieve unlawful financial or personal gain.
Comedy: Respectful comedy and parody are welcome but please clearly mark your account as such.
Age restrictions: Newsmast account holders must be at least 18 years old.
BE WELCOMING
Abuse and harassment: Do not harass people or encourage harassment or abuse of any kind, including threats and degrading statements. This includes targeted misgendering and deadnaming, as set out by IFTAS and GLAAD.
No hate speech: We don’t allow hate speech or the encouragement of violence for any reason. This includes the promotion of so-called ‘conversion therapy’.
The United Nations defines this as: “Any kind of communication in speech, writing or behavior that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender or other identity factor.”
OFFENSIVE AND ILLEGAL ACTIVITY
Private details: Do not make people’s private information (such as their address and phone number) public unless they agree to it.
Intellectual Property: Post only content created by you or content you are legally allowed to use. Do not infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party. Is your content being infringed? Please contact us.
The following content is strictly not allowed. Posting this content will result in your account being deleted:
Graphic content: No gory or violent material is allowed.
Child sexual exploitation: This material is not allowed.
Encouraging self-harm: Goading people into suicide or self-harm is strictly forbidden.
Terrorism: Do not promote terrorism or violent extremism.
Adult content: Adult content, including pornography, is not allowed, nor is non-consensual or underage sexual content.
Controlled goods and services: Do not use Newsmast for illegal activities involving illicit goods or services.
Illegal activity: Promoting any kind of criminal activity is not allowed, including human exploitation, sex trafficking and the drugs trade.
FRAUD AND MISINFORMATION
Third-party advertising: Do not post or display content that includes third-party advertising without our consent. You may promote your own products and services only. We limit promotional posts to two a day and do not allow promotional content in comments.
Trolling: Do not post or comment solely to offend or annoy. We will delete such material and repeat offenders will be removed.
Fraud: Do not attempt to generate traffic or revenue from fake lotteries, sweepstakes, giveaways, phishing links, or spamming. Do not use third-party apps to artificially distort your views, likes and comments.
Misinformation: Do not share false information that could result in the injury or the destruction of property, or endanger public health.
Defamation: Do not make false statements about others that unjustly harm their reputation.
DIRECT MESSAGES
The community guidelines above also relate to direct messages.
REPORTING VIOLATIONS
Here’s how you can report posts or comments that violate these guidelines.
1 Go to the comment or post.
2 Click on the three dots at the bottom right of the post.
3 In the pop-up menu, select Report.
4 Give us the details of why you are reporting the post.
5 Click Confirm and report.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
At Newsmast, we aim to abolish harassment, abuse and misinformation. When you report someone who’s violated our policies, we can do several things.
Removing a post or comment: After we’ve done this, we’ll notify the account owner and inform them of the violation. They’re entitled to dispute the removal if they believe we got it wrong.
Direct messages: If a direct message breaches our policies, we can temporarily or permanently suspend an account. Note that we are unable to monitor contents of DMs unless you report a message to us.
Account suspension: Anyone who repeatedly violates our policies can be temporarily or permanently suspended. Being permanently suspended will forbid account owners from creating new accounts. The account holder can appeal this if they think we got it wrong.
GET INVOLVED
We can’t do all the policing ourselves. We rely on the Newsmast community to help keep everyone safe. If you find content that’s in breach of these guidelines, please report it using the above method, or by emailing us at support@newsmast.org. Rest assured, our team will examine your complaint promptly.