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Posted by xeno

https://www.transformativeworks.org/tos-spotlight-harassment/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265600

The Policy & Abuse committee (PAC) is responsible for enforcing the AO3 Terms of Service (TOS). To help users better understand the TOS, we’re posting a weekly spotlight series about the TOS and our policies. We’ll also be reading comments and answering questions on this and our other spotlight posts.

Today’s post from the Policy & Abuse committee is about harassment. As stated in Section II.H of our Terms of Service, “Harassment is any behavior that produces a generally hostile environment for its target. Examples include bullying, threats, and personal attacks by or towards individuals or groups of people.”

Harassment is not tolerated on AO3 in any form—regardless of whether it occurs in works, tags, comments, usernames, pseuds, profiles, icons, or any other type of content.

What qualifies as harassment?

Threats and insults

When directed towards other users, threats and insults constitute harassment, and we will act on them if reported to us. This includes when phrases such as “X/Y shippers are creeps” are present in work tags or summaries.

Severe harassment

Some harassment is severe enough that it creates a hostile environment not just for the target, but for anyone who witnesses it. Engaging in severe harassment will result in harsher penalties.

The following are all considered to be severe harassment when directed towards other AO3 users:

• Death threats/wishes
• Threats of violence/bodily harm
• Slurs directed at other users
• Self-harm/suicide baiting (suggesting that someone should hurt or kill themselves)
• Doxxing or threats of doxxing (connecting a user’s non-public, personally identifying information to their online handle)

Anyone can report these, whether or not they’re the primary victim. PAC will remove all instances of severe harassment that are reported to us.

Call-out posts

A call-out is when someone posts a work (or a chapter or author’s note) that criticizes someone for their behavior in an attempt to draw public attention to that person.

We consider call-out posts to be harassment. If you see a call-out post, whether or not it is targeted at you, you can report it to us. Call-out posts are not allowed, regardless of what the target of the call-out has done.

If you encounter someone who has violated the AO3 Terms of Service, please don’t post a call-out and violate the TOS yourself. Instead, we recommend that you submit an Abuse report and use AO3’s blocking and muting features to avoid that person.

Interacting after being blocked

A blocked user is expected to cease all interaction with the person who blocked them. We consider attempting to “get around” a block to be harassment. If you’ve blocked someone and think they’re evading your block, you can report them to us.

What does not qualify as harassment?

Offensive content

What’s considered offensive and unacceptable varies from person to person. AO3 hosts a wide range of content that many users find to be offensive, and in our last post, we discussed some of the ways you can avoid such content.

You may not leave comments attacking the creator of a work you find offensive.

You can mute the user so you don’t see any of their works, bookmarks, or comments. If you want to make sure they can’t communicate with you, you should also block them.

Criticism

We don’t consider criticism of a work, constructive or otherwise, to be harassment in and of itself. Offensive opinions and comments that aren’t direct personal attacks are also not harassment (for example, expressing negative views about celebrities or the content of a work).

If somebody says your work is bad, that’s an opinion about your work, not a personal attack against you. However, repeatedly leaving negative comments in a short period of time, pressuring you to delete your work, or encouraging others to engage in similar behavior could be considered harassment depending on the circumstances.

Arguments

People are allowed to argue or disagree with your opinions. Argument is not harassment, and PAC will not intervene simply because users are arguing with or being rude to each other. If someone in the argument is using personal attacks, you can report them to us, but in general, PAC does not mediate disputes between users. If you want to end an argument, you should tell that person you will not respond further; if necessary, you can also block them.

If you are a bystander witnessing an argument rather than one of the participants, then we are unlikely to uphold your complaint unless someone is engaging in severe harassment. When it comes to rude or moderately antagonistic comment exchanges, we rarely act on third-party reports.

Do Not Interact (DNI) requests

Requesting that someone does not interact with you is not harassment in itself, but it may be considered harassment if paired with an insult or threat (for example, “DNI you weirdos who ship this” or “no incest lovers allowed I will stomp you all to death with my hooves”).

If you want someone to stop interacting with you, you should block them. If you never want to encounter them again, you can also mute them.

What should I do if I’m getting harassing comments on my works?

PAC tries to prioritize urgent reports such as harassment, but there will always be a delay while we investigate and take action. We recommend that you immediately block any registered user who harasses you. We also recommend that you enable one or more of the Privacy options on your work(s) while you wait for our response.

To edit the Privacy options on your work, select the “Edit” button, then navigate to the “Privacy” section. If you want to edit the Privacy options on multiple works at once, you can do so easily using our “Edit Multiple Works” tool.

Changing your Privacy options does not have to be permanent; you can update them at any time. If you’re being harassed, we recommend changing your Privacy options at least for a short period of time.

The options available to you in the Privacy section are as follows:

Only show your work to registered users

You can use this feature to lock your work so only registered users can see it. If you are the victim of a mass-harassment campaign, this will prevent “drive-by” comments from guest users. Works that have been restricted to AO3 users will have a blue lock symbol displayed next to the title and are not accessible to guest users.

Enable comment moderation

Comment moderation prevents any new comments (from both registered users and guests) from being publicly displayed on your work until you approve them. If you don’t approve a particular comment, then it will not be made public. PAC volunteers are able to see unreviewed/unapproved comments, so you can report a harassing comment without marking it as approved.

If you’re being harassed by a guest user but don’t want to disable anonymous comments entirely, you can use comment moderation to prevent harassing guest comments from appearing on your work.

If the harassment was posted by a registered user, comment moderation can help too. It not only prevents their comments from being shown to others, but also makes it easier for us to investigate, as long as you leave their comments unapproved and don’t delete them yourself.

Who can comment on this work

There are three comment settings:

1. Registered users and guests can comment: Anyone can comment, including guests. (Note: If your work is restricted to registered users, guest users won’t be able to access it and therefore cannot comment even if this option is enabled.)
2. Only registered users can comment: This is the default option. Only logged-in users can comment on your work, while guests and logged-out users cannot.
3. No one can comment: This will disable all new comments on your work, regardless of whether the user is logged in or a guest.

Changing these settings will not affect any existing comments.

Archive locking, comment moderation, and comment restriction can all be used in conjunction with each other. For example, you can enable comment moderation and set your work to only allow registered users to comment at the same time. This means you won’t receive any guest comments at all, and comments from registered users will have to be manually approved.

What should I do if I encounter harassing content on AO3?

You can report harassment through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form, which is linked at the bottom of every page on AO3. If you wish to avoid future contact from a registered user, we recommend blocking and muting them.

If the harassing content has been deleted, we generally won’t be able to investigate unless you’re able to provide screenshots or other copies of the harassing content. While it’s not possible to upload images to our reporting form, you can include links to images hosted on third-party sites in your report description. You can also specify in your report that you saved copies of the harassment, which we may ask you to provide in our initial response to your report.

How do I report harassing comments?

Comments can be reported through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form like all other content on AO3. You can get the direct link to a specific comment by selecting the “Thread” button on the comment and copying the URL of that page, or by clicking on the link in your email or AO3 inbox.

If you’re reporting moderated comments, you don’t have to approve the comments or link every single comment in your report—just give us the link to your work’s unreviewed comments page, and specify which comment(s) you’re reporting (if you have a lot of unapproved comments).

Please don’t submit multiple reports about the same user. When reporting multiple works or comments by the same user, please submit only one report with links to everything you’re reporting, so that all information about that user is in the same place. If the harassment is ongoing, you can turn on comment moderation—if you mention that you’ve done so and link your work’s unreviewed comments page in your report, we’ll check that page for any new harassing comments submitted, without you needing to file an additional report.

For example, a report of a harassing comment might look like this:

Link to the page you are reporting: https://archiveofourown.org/comments/000000000

Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Harassment

Description of the content you are reporting:
USERNAME went on a slur-filled rant in this comment on my work.

If you are reporting additional comments, please include all relevant links and other information in your report description:

Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Harassment (repeated nasty comments and block evasion)

Description of the content you are reporting:
USERNAME went on a slur-filled rant in this comment on my work.

After I froze the thread, they commented with more slurs and insults here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1234/comments/123456789

I blocked them and turned on comment moderation but then they commented again as a guest: https://archiveofourown.org/ works/1234/comments/234567890

I have screenshots and copies of the email notifications if you need them.

A report of a harassing work might look like this:

Link to the page you are reporting: https://archiveofourown.org/works/00000000

Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Harassment in tags and notes

Description of the content you are reporting:
USERNAME has a harassing tag: “go away x/y freaks or i’ll call the cops”

And in the end notes they have more harassment: “incest lovers do not comment or I will slice your toes off”

If you are reporting additional works or comments that are part of the same incident, please include all relevant links and other information in your report description:

Description of the content you are reporting:
USERNAME has a harassing tag: “go away x/y freaks or i’ll call the cops”

And in the end notes they have more harassment: “incest lovers do not comment or I will slice your toes off”

One of their other works (https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456789) also has harassment and I think is not a fanwork? It’s a long rant about why x/y shippers are idiots.

The comments of this work are full of harassment, mostly by guests, but the creator calls a bunch of people pedophiles in these threads:
https://archiveofourown.org/comments/123456789
https://archiveofourown.org/comments/234567890

In the second thread linked above, there’s also a “kys” (kill yourself) comment by USERNAME2, which the creator responds to with “u first”.

You can add more details if you like, but these examples provide the basic information we need:

• Who posted the harassing content: Tell us their username(s) or if the comment(s) or work(s) are anonymous or orphaned.
• Where we can find the harassing content: Enter one URL in the “Link to the page you are reporting” field, and (if applicable) include links to any other violating works or comment threads in the description of your report.
• What violates the TOS: Explain why you think harassment has occurred, for example by including a quote and/or providing context for a comment exchange. A brief description of the situation is fine; you don’t need to be very detailed or quote an entire TOS or FAQ section.

You’ll receive an automatic email confirming that we received your report, and our volunteers will investigate when they get a chance. Please be patient and do not submit another report about the same incident. While PAC investigates every report we receive, it can take several months for us to process a report.

What if I have more questions about harassment?

PAC follows a strict confidentiality policy. Therefore, while you are welcome to ask general questions in the comments of this post, we will not give information on specific cases, publicly rule on a work, or update you on the status of a report you have already submitted. Comments on this post that discuss specific works or users will be removed.

If you are being harassed, think you’ve found harassing content, or if you want to know whether a particular work or comment qualifies as harassment, please report the work(s) or comment(s) to us as described above. For more information, you can read our TOS FAQ on harassment.

If you are still uncertain, you can comment below or submit a question through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/tos-spotlight-harassment/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265600

Posted by xeno

https://www.transformativeworks.org/tos-spotlight-offensive-content/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265414

The Policy & Abuse committee (PAC) is responsible for enforcing the AO3 Terms of Service (TOS). To help users better understand the TOS, we’re posting a weekly spotlight series about the TOS and our policies. We’ll also be reading comments and answering questions on this and our other spotlight posts.

Over 15% of all complaints that PAC receives each year are about content that users consider offensive but does not violate the AO3 Terms of Service. This includes, but is not limited to:

• Fictional depictions of societally taboo topics, immoral behaviors, or crimes (such as bestiality, child sexual abuse, incest, and rape)
• Fiction that contains or promotes offensive and/or oppressive viewpoints
• RPF (real person fiction) that contains explicit content or portrays people in a negative light
• Explicit fanworks for canons whose creators have said they dislike explicit content

Offensive fanworks are not against the AO3 Terms of Service, and PAC will not remove fanworks simply for being offensive.

AO3 is a home for all fanworks

AO3 operates under the principle of maximum inclusiveness of fanwork content. We will not make moral judgements about a work: if it’s a legal fanwork that does not violate any of our policies, we will not remove it from AO3.

Don’t report works for being objectionable or offensive. If you wish to avoid certain content when browsing AO3, you can use the tools discussed below.

Why does AO3 allow fanworks about content that is illegal where I live?

There is a difference between fictional content about acts that would be illegal if performed in real life, and content that is itself illegal to post or access in a particular jurisdiction.

AO3’s Terms of Service are designed to comply with United States law (specifically, the laws of Manhattan, New York). It is legal in the U.S. to create and share fictional content about murder, theft, assault, or other such crimes. It is also generally legal in the U.S. to create and share fictional content about topics such as bestiality, child sexual abuse, incest, and rape. AO3 allows users to post and access fiction about all of these topics.

In accordance with U.S. law, AO3 prohibits sexually explicit photographs, videos, and other photorealistic images of children (also known as Child Sexual Abuse Material, or CSAM). This includes embedded images, links, and any attempts to solicit, distribute, or otherwise obtain or provide access to such material – whether in a work, comment, or anywhere else on AO3.

However, stories and non-photorealistic artwork (such as drawings or cartoons) that depict sexual activity involving characters under the age of eighteen are allowed, provided that the works are properly rated and warned. Even if the work features real people, fiction about real people is still fiction, and therefore it is allowed on AO3.

Depending on where you live, the laws that apply to you may be more restrictive than the ones described above. All users are responsible for following the laws that apply to them. If certain content that is allowed on AO3 is illegal for you to access, then you should ensure you carefully observe all relevant ratings and warnings, and use the tools discussed below to avoid accessing any work that indicates it may contain such content.

What about other explicit or suggestive photorealistic images?

Photographic or photorealistic images of humans may not be used to illustrate works featuring underage sexual content (regardless of whether the images themselves are explicit in nature). This includes (but is not limited to) photographs of children, porn gifs, photo manipulations, computer-generated or “AI” images, and other linked or embedded images that could potentially be mistaken for photographs of real humans.

If the work appears to feature underage sexual content (as indicated by the “Underage Sex” Archive warning or other contextual markers present in the work’s tags, notes, or text), then PAC may require all photographic or photorealistic images of humans, regardless of their perceived age, to be removed from the work.

If your work does not feature underage sexual content, or if the images are not photorealistic, then please read our Terms of Service FAQ: Can I embed explicit images in my fanworks?

Real Person Fiction (RPF)

RPF is fiction based on real people. AO3 does not consider RPF works (in and of themselves) to be harassment of the individuals represented in the works. RPF works are allowed on AO3, even if they contain explicit content, negatively portray their subjects, or are about individuals who are minors and/or not well-known.

However, harassment and doxxing are both prohibited under our Terms of Service. This means that we do not allow works that advocate for actual harm to be done to a real person, nor do we allow works that disclose non-public information about a real person.

Fiction is generally permitted to include public information such as age, profession, city of residence, media or “stage” names, and publicly known legal names. However, if someone uses a pseudonym that they have not linked to their legal name, you’re not allowed to post content that links the two.

What if the creator of a canon states that they dislike explicit fanworks or don’t want people to create fanworks based on them or their work?

Creators are free to dislike fanworks, explicit or otherwise. However, AO3 holds the position that transformative fanworks are legal under United States law, and do not require the original creator’s permission to be posted. If a fanwork does not otherwise violate our Terms of Service, then that fanwork is allowed on AO3.

I don’t want to see certain kinds of works. How can I avoid them?

We want all our users to enjoy using AO3, but each user is responsible for their own browsing experience. If you encounter a work that upsets you, please leave the work, and use the following tools to manage your browsing experience and avoid seeing it again.

Tag exclusion filters

AO3 has an extensive tagging system. Tags can be used to filter out works when you are browsing a tag or using the work search function.

As discussed in our post about ratings and warnings, all works containing adult content must be rated “Mature”, “Explicit”, or “Not Rated”. If you don’t want to encounter adult content, you can use filters to exclude all works with these ratings. If you encounter a work rated “General” or “Teen” that has explicit content, you can report it to PAC.

In addition, all fanworks that contain underage sexual activity, rape/non-consensual sex, graphic violence, or major character death must be labeled with the respective Archive warning or the “Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings” label. Much like ratings, you can use filters to exclude any or all Archive warnings (including “Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings”). If you encounter a work that is missing an Archive warning, you can report it to PAC.

Creators frequently apply relationship and additional tags to indicate other kinds of warnings or content. All of these tags can also be used to exclude works. When a tag is excluded, any tags that are linked to it as synonyms or subtags will also be excluded. For example, if you exclude the “Child Abuse” tag, works that are tagged with “Canonical Child Abuse“, “Abused Children“, etc., will also be excluded, even though they don’t use the exact tag “child abuse”.

How to use tag exclusion filters

To exclude a tag using the filters sidebar:

1. You can get to any canonical tag’s works page by clicking on a tag, either directly on a work or by using Tag Search.
2. Open the filters sidebar. On a large screen, it’ll automatically be visible on the right-hand side of the screen. On a small screen, select the “Filters” button to make it appear.
3. Navigate to the “Exclude” section.
4. You can expand each tag type to see the most common tags used on works in your search results. If the tag you want to exclude is listed, select the X next to it.
5. If you’re trying to exclude a Fandom, Character, Relationship, or Additional tag that is not one of the most common tags, type the tag into the “Other tags to exclude” box.
6. Select the “Sort and Filter” button at the bottom of the sidebar. This will apply the chosen search filters to the list of works you can see, removing any works with the tags you’ve excluded.

Exclude by keyword search

In addition to using tags to exclude content, you can exclude a keyword or phrase by inserting a minus sign in front of it in the “Search within results” box. Doing so will mean that any works which contain your keyword or phrase in their metadata will not show up in your results. Metadata includes the title, creator, tags, summary, and beginning and end notes, but it does not include content in the body of the work or individual chapter notes.

In addition to excluding specific keywords, you can also use this method to avoid works created by a particular user: just type -creators:USERNAME into the search box. You can filter out multiple creators at a time by typing this same command multiple times, separated by commas or spaces (for example, -creators:USERNAME1,-creators:USERNAME2).

If you’re browsing a work tag, then you can exclude keywords using the filters bar. Type your keyword exclusion into the “Search within results” box, then select “Sort and Filter”.

If you’re using Work Search, use the “Author/Artist” field to filter out works by a particular user. You can also filter them out from “Any Field”: if you do that, you’ll catch not just any works they’ve created, but also any works created by someone else where their username is mentioned in the tags, summary, notes, or other metadata.

Permanently avoid seeing specific users or works

If there is a user that you never want to see again, you can mute them. Muting a user means that you will no longer see works or bookmarks they’ve created, other users’ bookmarks of their works, or comments they’ve left on AO3. To mute a user, simply select the Mute button on their profile page.

Muting a user will result in a banner at the top of every work search results page. If you want to hide this banner, you can add a site skin that includes p.muted.notice {display: none;}. Site skins customize the way AO3 looks to you while you’re logged in.

You can also use site skins to hide specific works that you don’t want to see. Once set up, your site skin will be active whenever you’re logged into your account on any device.

To use a site skin to hide a particular work:

1. Find the work ID. The work ID is the number in the URL immediately after /works/
2. While logged into your account, go to archiveofourown.org/skins
3. Select “Create Site Skin” (or edit your skin if you’re already using one)
4. In the CSS box, type .work-000 {display: none !important;}, replacing “000” with the ID of the work you want to mute
5. To mute multiple works, use a comma-separated list: .work-000, .work-111, .work-222 {display: none !important;}
6. Save or update your skin. If it’s new (or if you weren’t already using it), you’ll also need to select the button labelled “Use”

If you need help creating or using skins, filters, work searches, or any other AO3 feature, please contact Support.

Can I permanently block a tag or have a persistent filter?

Unfortunately, it’s not currently possible to save a set of tags or search exclusions directly on AO3, although you may be able to find third-party tools or site skin instructions to help you do this. AO3 doesn’t have those kinds of built-in persistent filters: every time you open a new search page or works list, the filters will be reset. However, if you run a search using filters, you can bookmark the results page in your browser. The bookmarked page will keep the same search and filter settings when you return to it later.

What if I have more questions about offensive content?

PAC follows a strict confidentiality policy. Therefore, while you are welcome to ask general questions in the comments of this post, we will not give information on specific cases, publicly rule on a work, or update you on the status of a report you have already submitted. Comments on this post that discuss specific works or users will be removed.

For more information, you can read our TOS FAQ on offensive content vs illegal content.

If you are still uncertain, you can comment below or submit a question through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/tos-spotlight-offensive-content/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=265414