Hate Speech Policy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Spirit of the Policy
• Principles and Rational
• Policy
• Allow

Spirit of the Policy

Our Hate Speech policy is designed to create a safe environment, free of intimidation and exclusion on the basis of race, gender, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, or serious diseases and disabilities.

We define hate speech as an attack on people based on the individual or group's characteristics stated above. We call this group of characteristics "protected characteristics" or "PC". We define "attack" as violent or dehumanizing speech, statements of inferiority, and calls for exclusion and segregation, and separated into different tiers as described within the implementation standards.

We recognize that sometimes people share content containing someone else's hate speech for the purpose of raising awareness or educating others. When this is the case, we allow the content to be posted, but we expect the user to clearly indicate the intent of the post, which helps us and other users better understand why they shared this type of content. Where the intention is unclear, we may remove the content.

Principles and Rational

Rational

We recognize Medal as a social media platform where people may use many different channels such as our application or Discord to discuss or draw attention to hate speech. In an attempt to create a safe place for our users, we remove content that violates our community standards around hate. However, we do not want to silence the voices of those raising attention to instances of hate speech or to the civil discussion of hate speech.

Principles

The goal of our Community Standards is to encourage expression and create a safe environment for our users. 

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 violations 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 can 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

The following content is violating and therefore removed from our platform.

1. Content targeting a person or group of people on the basis of their protected characteristic(s) as having carried out violent crimes or sexual offenses with. (Includes subsets of a PC.) Violent speech or support for death/disease/harm in a written or visual form that is not relevant to video game clips.
   1. Dehumanizing speech or imagery in the form of comparisons, generalizations, or behavioral statement to or about:
      1. Insects (including but not limited to cockroaches, locusts)
      2. Animals in general or specific types of animals that are culturally perceived to be intellectually or physically inferior. (i.e; pig, rat when the context is not clear they are cultural words for snitch, etc.)
      3. Filth, bacteria, disease, or feces. (i.e; dirt, grime, viruses, cancer, STDs, shit, or crap.)
      4. Subhumanity (i.e; devils, savages, primitives, monsters)
      5. Sexual predators (i.e; rapists, child molesters, pedophiles, zoophiles)
      6. Violent criminals (i.e; terrorists, murderers)
      7. Other criminals (i,e; thieves, crooks)
         
         
   2. Mocking the concept, events, or victims of hate crimes.
      
      
   3. Designated dehumanizing comparisons or generalizations to or about;
      1. Black people and ape or ape-like creatures or farm equipment.
      2. Jewish people and rats
      3. Muslim people and pigs
      4. Muslim people and sexual relations with goats or pigs
      5. Mexican people and worm-like creatures
      6. Women as household equipment or objects.
2. Content that targets a person or a group of people on the basis of their protected characteristic(s) with; (including subsets)
   1. Generalizations that state inferiority (written or visually) in the following ways:
      1. Physical
      2. Hygiene (i.e; filthy, dirty, smelly, etc.)
      3. Physical appearance (i.e; ugly, hideous, etc.)
         
         
   2. Mental
      1. Intellectual capacity (i.e; dumb, idiots etc.)
      2. Education (i.e; uneducated, illiterate, etc.)
      3. Mental health (i.e; mentally ill, crazy, retarded, insane)
         
         
   3. Moral
      1. Culturally perceived negative character traits (i.e; liar, coward, ignorant, etc.)
      2. Derogatory terms related to sexual activity (i.e; whore, slut, perverts, etc.)
         
         
   4. General
      1. Expressions about being less than adequate. (i.e; worthless, useless, etc.)
      2. The expression about being better/worse than another protected characteristic. (i.e; I believe that males are superior to females.)
         
         
   5. Expression of contempt or their visual equivalent
      1. Self-admission to intolerance on the basis of a protected characteristic. (i.e; I am homophobic)
      2. An expression that a protected characteristic should not exist.
      3. Expression of hate (i.e; despise, hate, etc.)
      4. Expressions of dismissal (i.e; don't like, don't care for, can't respect, etc.)
      5. Cursing at a protected characteristic such as;
      6. Referring to the target as genitalia or anus
      7. Profane terms or phrases with the intent to insult a protected characteristic (i,.e; fuck, bitch, motherfucker(s), etc.)
      8. Terms of phrases calling for engagement in sexual activity, contact with genitalia or anus, or contact with feces or urine. (i.e; eat shit, kiss my ass, suck my dick.)
         
         
3. Content targeting a person or group of people on the basis of their protected characteristics through any of the following methods;
   1. Calls for segregation.
   2. Exclusion, defined as;
   3. Explicit- which includes but is not limited to "expel" or "not allowed."
   4. Political exclusion ****- defined as the denial of the right to political participation.
   5. Economic exclusion - defined as the denial of access to economic entitlements and participation in labor and job markets.
   6. Social exclusion- defined as the denial of opportunity to gain access to spaces, public or online, and social services.
   7. Displaying of imagery of flags associated with the oppression of a PC, such as;
   8. The Confederate flag
      
      
4. Slurs
   1. Content that describes or negatively targets people with slurs, where slurs are defined as words that are commonly used as insulting labels for the listed protected characteristics of groups or individuals.

Allow

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

1. This type of content does not violate our policy and is therefore allowed on our platform.
   1. Attacking
      1. Institutions (e.g NAACP)
      2. Ideas, practices, and beliefs. (e.g Christianity)
         
         
   2. Referencing hate speech
      1. to mock or condemn the slur or hate speech.
      2. to discuss the use of slurs, or hate speech, including reports of instances when they have been used or debates whether they're acceptable to use.
   3. Statements of superiority as long as they don't mention other protected characteristics and also do not represent hateful ideology under our Dangerous Individual and Organization policy.
   4. Gendered statements of contempt and cursing where there is the explicit context that the statement was made in reference to a romantic break up, separation, or divorce.