[Imc] draft website "appropriate use policy"
Paul Riismandel
p-riism at uiuc.edu
Sat Sep 29 22:44:58 UTC 2001
As promised -- comments, additions welcome. Please note that the "Libel"
section is blank because I would prefer we be driven by a legal definition
rather than my hackneyed approach at writing something coherent on the subject.
Here it is:
Urbana IMC Website Use Policy
Draft ver 2, P. Riismandel, 9/29/01
I. Explanation
II. Guidelines for Hiding Posts
III. Guidelines for Editing or Deleting Posts
IV. Procedures for Hiding, Editing or Deleting Posts
I. Explanation
The Urbana-Champaign IMC website newswire is an open publishing system, and
its use for both posting and reading messages is available to anyone on the
Internet. The newswire is primarily intended for the posting and
discussion of news, opinions, ideas and experiences that relate to current
events and news, particularly that of interest to people in the greater
Urbana-Champaign area. The Newswire is especially intended to be available
and useful to peoples, ideas and news that are overlooked or systematically
excluded from the dominant media. These are necessarily broad categories
of postings that include a wide diversity of approaches, however there are
types of posts and posting behaviors that are not included.
The newswire is a virtual commons that the IMC intends to be open fairly
and equally to all who would want to use it. As a commons, there are basic
ground rules that allow the commons to be fairly available and useful to as
many people as possible. The principle guiding these rules is that the IMC
discourages postings that compromise the availability and usefulness of the
newswire as a commons and the IMC reserves the right to hide or remove such
postings.
When considering posts containing speech that may be unacceptable and
detrimental to the newswire's status as a commons, the IMC Steering Group
should keep in mind principles of free speech which advocate for using
more speech to counter unacceptable speech. This principle must be
balanced against the real harm that speech can do both to individuals and
to the usefulness of the newswire itself, with an attempt to gauge if more
speech can actually counter any real harm done.
In all considerations it must be recognized that the IMC newswire is only
one amongst many hundreds or thousands open posting forums available on the
Internet, and therefore the IMC cannot fully silence any voice on the
Internet. Commensurately, it must also be recognized that the IMC
newswire's strength is its openness, and the significant hiding of posts
will weaken its use and goals.
The IMC Active software that runs the newswire has a feature allowing posts
to be hidden from view on the newswire without being deleted from the
system. These hidden posts can still be viewed through the "story
administration" page that may be easily linked to. The IMC Active software
does not provide a provision for deleting posts, however it does provide
for the editing and deleting of text within a post, and such changes are
permanent.
In most cases where posts are deemed as unacceptable they should be hidden
from view on the newswire, with an explanation for the hiding attached to
the post. Posts should only be edited or deleted in the few cases outlined
below in which their appearance anywhere on the site threatens the
financial or legal status of the IMC.
II. Guidelines for Hiding Posts:
The following are types of situations and posts which may be hidden by the
IMC Steering Group, along with guidelines for determining what should be
hidden.
Duplicate Posts if a single post is duplicated during a relatively short
time period, all duplicate posts may be hidden. In determining duplicate
posts it should be understood that it may be appropriate to repost
information in order to bring information to the attention of website
visitors after a reasonable amount of time has elapsed since it was first
posted.
Threats and Intimidationthe IMC newswire is not intended to be a forum for
primarily publicizing hate nor for making direct threats against
individuals, groups or classes of people. The IMC recognizes that such
speech can be harmful in and of itself and may create at atmosphere in
which physical action becomes more likely. In any post under consideration
the threatening speech should be weighed against other ideas or expression
in the post. If the majority of the post nonetheless is intended to
contribute to discourse or debate, then the issue of hiding it should be
considered very carefully.
Flooding or Spamming of Posts this is when a single individual posts
multiple times in a short period in a manner that indicates that the
poster's purpose is to flood the newswire or push other posts off the front
page of the IMC website, which typically only contains ten to twenty of the
most recent posts. This type of posting behavior can only truly be
identified after several occurrences, and depends heavily on the amount of
volume of posts. It can be difficult to stop because posters can change
screen names at a whim. Therefore the utmost care must be taken to make
sure that only posts that are made by a known "spammer" are hidden.
Off-Topic Posts this is perhaps the most difficult category of
inappropriate posts to judge, since the IMC Newswire intends to be a forum
that is open to a broad range of topics and ideas. Nonetheless there are
posts that are baldly and clearly inappropriate, whose purpose seems
clearly to be other than informing, educating or adding to a public
discourse. In the worst cases their appearance on the IMC Newswire may
indeed discourage other visitors from using the site. Isolated posts are
typically not problematic, and so the problem of off-topic posts is usually
related to flooding or spamming. Therefore the frequency of off-topic
posts of a particular type should be considered when deciding whether to
hide them.
Commercial Solicitation the Newswire is not intended to be used for
commercial purposes, therefore commercial solicitations and advertisements
for commercial products should be hidden.
II. Guidelines for Editing and Deleting Posts
The following types of posts may be edited or have text deleted by the IMC
Steering Group.
Illegal Speech very few kinds of speech are considered illegal in the US,
however those that are must be dealt with seriously. One example of such
speech is a threat against the US president. The appearance of such speech
on the IMC website can bring unwanted and unnecessary scrutiny and
harassment from police and the government. Any conceivable benefit or
contribution such speech might make is far outweighed by the threat it
presents to the health and existence of the IMC.
Libel --
Direct Threats -- These constitute direct threats on specific people or
small, easily identifiable groups of people. The purpose behind editing or
deleting such posts is to not feed into the violence threatened.
III. Procedure for Hiding, Editing or Deleting Posts:
The Steering Group shall rely upon the IMC website editor or editorial
group to monitor the Newswire and alert the IMC volunteers when
inappropriate posts appear. Additionally, any IMC volunteer, member or
website visitor may call attention to a post believed to be inappropriate
by e-mailing the general IMC mailing list or info at urbana.indymedia.org
Hiding Posts:
When the Steering Group is made aware of posts that should be hidden, it
should make a reasonable attempt must be made to contact the author of the
post in question and to explain the IMC's appropriate use policy, asking
for cooperation and compliance. In the event that a post in made
anonymously, or no valid e-mail address is posted, then no effort can
reasonably take place to contact the author.
If after attempting contact with an author posting inappropriately the
Steering Group is unable to reach a resolution with that poster, the
Steering Group may hide any of that author's posts as they deem necessary,
according to this policy. The Steering Group may instruct the website
editor or editorial group to hide future posts from such an author.
Whenever a post is hidden a comment from the Steering Group explaining whey
the post was hidden should be added to the hidden post.
Editing and Deleting Posts:
Only posts which pose an immediate threat to the welfare of the IMC and the
IMC website may be edited or deleted. Because of this, the editor or
editorial group may, at their discretion, hide or edit a post if they
believe it inappropriate according to the guidelines of posts that may be
edited or deleted. Whenever such a post is hidden or edited, the editors
must immediately inform the IMC General e-mail list of the action and the
rationale for the action.
The Steering Group will address the post in question at their next regular
meeting following editorial action. At this meeting the Steering Group can
affirm, modify or reverse any editorial action. Only the Steering Group
may decide to delete a post the website editor or editorial group may not
take this action with Steering Group approval.
If a post is edited, a comment must be added to the post explaining why it
was edited. If a post is deleted then there should be no record of it in
the IMC website and website database.
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