Violence and Incitement Policy

Modified on Wed, 1 May at 10:34 AM

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Spirit of the Policy

We believe that people share and connect with each other more freely when they do not feel targeted or threatened by other individuals or feel that they are at risk of harm. As such, we have high expectations for our users in their content and engagement with other users in regards to violence and threats of violence, which is defined below in the policy. We remove explicit attempts to threaten other individuals on the platform, as well as statements that advocate or speak positively for violence towards an individual or a group of individuals.

Principles and Rational

Rational

We aim to prevent potential real-world harm that may be related to content on Medal. While we understand that people commonly express disdain or disagreement by threatening or calling for violence in non-serious ways, we remove language that incites or facilitates serious violence. We remove content, disable accounts, and work with law enforcement when we believe there is a genuine risk of physical harm or direct threats to public safety. In some other cases, we may consider the language and context in order to distinguish casual statements from content that constitutes a credible threat to public or personal safety. In determining whether a threat is credible, we may also consider additional information.

Principles

The goal of our Community Standards is to encourage expression and create a safe environment. We base our policies on input from our community and from experts in fields such as technology and public safety. Our policies are also rooted in the following principles:

Safety

Safety: Safety is an essential factor in community building. At Medal, we are dedicated to removing content that encourages or causes real-world harm, including (but not limited to) physical, emotional, or financial injury as well as privacy violation that could harm a targeted individual(s).

Voice:

We embrace the different backgrounds and diverse views of our community. We want to provide a platform and opportunity for users to not only share their gaming experience, but build lasting bonds with one another. We err on the side of allowing content, even when some find it objectionable, unless removing that content cant prevent real-world harm to the user. We vow to discuss and consider allowing content that otherwise violates our stands if we deem it to be newsworthy, or important to the public interest based on global and national trends.

Equity:

We recognize the diverse backgrounds of our community from around the world. It's important for us, at Medal, to keep our policies broad in order to apply them consistently and fairly based on an ever-adapting global culture. Because our community standards must transcend cultural, regional, and linguistic barriers, we recognize the need for a broad but consistent standard. Because of the broadness of our policies, in some cases, and when provided with additional context, we will have to make decisions based on the spirit, as opposed to the letter, of the policy.

Policy

This type of content violates our policy and is therefore not allowed on our platform.

Tier 1: High-severity violence - threats of violence that could lead to death
1. Content about any target(s), including a public figure, and any of the following:
  1. Statements of intent to commit high-severity violence; OR
  2. Calls for action of high-severity violence, or is describing having carried out violent crimes or sexual offenses; OR
  3. Statements advocating for high-severity violence; OR
  4. Aspirational or conditional statements to commit high-severity violence.
2. Content that asks or offers services for hire to kill others, OR advocates for the use of a hitman, mercenary or assassin against a target.
3. Content that includes admissions, statements of intent, calls for action, statements advocating, aspirational or conditional statements to kidnap a target
4. Threats of violence in visuals: Digitally produced imagery, or altered imagery depicting visual threats or actions of high-severity violence that include any living human target, or likeness of a living human target with:
  1. A visual of an armament, device or method that could lead to death.
  2. Dismembered body parts.
Tier 2: Mid-severity violence - threats of violence that lead to serious injury
1. Content about private individuals, minor public figures, high-risk persons, or high-risk groups AND any of the following:
  1. Statements of intent to commit violence; OR
  2. Statements advocating violence; OR
  3. Calls for action of high-severity violence, or is describing having carried out violent crimes or sexual offenses; OR
  4. Aspirational or conditional statements to commit violence of mid-severity.
2. Content about other target(s) apart from private individuals AND any credible:
  1. Statement of intent to commit violence; OR
  2. Calls for action of violence; OR
  3. Statements advocating violence; OR
  4. Aspirational or conditional statements to commit violence of mid-severity.
3. Tier 3: Content about private individuals or minors that includes statements of intent, calls for action, advocating, aspirational or conditional statements to commit low-severity violence.
4. Other Violence
  1. Any content created for the express purpose of outing the identity of a private individual as a member of a designated and recognizable outing-risk group (such as a halfway house member.)
  2. Instructions on how to make or use a weapon if there’s evidence of a goal to seriously injure or kill people, through:
    1. Language explicitly stating that goal, or
    2. Language explicitly stating that goal, or
  3. Providing instructions on how to make or use explosives.
  4. Any content containing statements of intent, calls for action or advocating for high or mid-severity violence due to voting, voter registration, or the outcome of an election.
  5. Calls to action, statements of intent, or advocating to bring armaments to an at-risk location.

Allow

This type of content does not violate out community standards and is therefore allowed on our platform.

We ignore instances of violence in which the user is condemning or raising awareness to content or a situation that is or has happened.