Please Clarify Current Policy Re: Covid-19

[milarepa]

Hello, 

Could staff please clarify for me what is misinformation in your regard? Per your new guidelines. I have created a forum, that has at it's core the idea for people to be citizen journalists and investigate current affairs. While this is not about debunking mainstream information, it is about investigating what humanity is being told. 

As the forum founder, and having had Covid-19 last week, I understand first hand how damaging it can be to health. We would not tolerate anyone suggesting people do not stick to governments guidelines. Nor would we suggest people do not follow medical guidelines. Covid-19 is serious, and affecting us all, so we would not try to debunk that. The forum will not be anti government. It will be pro-investigating. 

We are looking for a platform where we can investigate and discuss whatever we want. In a air of NOT combative tin-foil hat's against the powers that be. It's not about that. It is about an individual being allowed to ask questions, and investigate. 

We realise this will take some moderating to ensure free speech and not misinformation, but I would suggest that it depends on how any alternate viewpoint is expressed? And of course, what is regarded as misinformation here, . 

I don't want to put in the work of creating and maintaining a forum only for their to be issues. Though to be honest, I've ran successful forums before, and am proactive. It staff here had an issue with anything it's a simply matter of me taking it down. Though, it would be useful to have some clarity. 

Warmest wishes and thank you for your time. 

Milarepa. 

Edit: The forum is in maintenance atm, and there is no content anyhow. But I can provide url is asked. 

[Patrick [ASE]]

I am not giving the official staff response, but before others try to advise.
You are best to get information from websites with .gov in the url, that way you will always get the official line on what to do, most countries have their main government website.

For instance, in the UK we have the main government website, and the national health service (nhs.gov)

Apart from that, use a verified news website, like the BBC, but also refer to the .gov sites.

[milarepa]

Thank you for the reply Patrick. Does this mean we are not allowed to share and discuss other information, other than what is on places like BBC and .gov?

I can appreciate this is tentative ground. I definitely wouldn't be interested in working on a platform that provided wrong information.

If I can just clarify, the forum would not wish to even discuss disregarding official advice. The advice exists, and should be adhered to. Rather, it would be focused on looking at whether there are other things going alongside. To be really open with you, the idea for the forum has came about because 'discussion' is being hampered all over the place now. It is felt that discussion is surely a good thing for humanity. I'm thinking, maybe this is too tricky ground for proboards new policy? And I respect any view you guys have for sure. There is no other forum provider with your level of service, haha.

[Patrick [ASE]]

I will leave this for admin staff to answer. maybe as it's more about proboards policy, i'm moving this to support

[VS Admin]

Our official policy is outlined here:

support.proboards.com/thread/661355/covid-19-global-health-emergency

If information is being posted that we believe will result in negative consequences for the public at large, we reserve the right to take any action we deem necessary to stop that from continuing to occur. Each incident that is reported to us will be reviewed and handled on a case by case basis.

To give one example, if someone posts about how it's totally fine to go outside and congregate in the midst of this pandemic, I guarantee you that posting will be removed. Further, we will take any action we deem necessary to stop the continuing spread of dangerous comments from that person on our platform. This might begin with a warning, but definitely could rise to the level of us removing them from our service if we feel it is necessary. Remember, this is literally about saving people's lives.

I want to be clear that we are very much for freedom of speech, to the extent possible. We do have certain restrictions, being that we are a family-friendly service (no hate content, adult content, etc, as outlined in our Community Guidelines).

With the current situation, I personally believe that it is our duty to act to protect the public from COVID-19 in any way that we can. Misinformation anyone posts on our platform could have deadly consequences, and therefore we are taking a hard line against them.

To give you some more personal context of how this affects me. My mother in law recently had emergency surgery and started living with us during her recovery. Due to her weakened state, in addition to her age, she is someone who who would be high risk for death if she contracted COVID-19. I refuse to let my company's platform be used in a way that could endanger her or anyone else.

Patrick

[milarepa]

Hi Patrick,

Thank you very much for clarifying this. We are very much on the same page. I mean, I enjoy trying to make my own mind up about things, critical thinking, though I am very much adhering to and supporting Governments/Medical experts instructions. Lay-people are not experts, of course. The forum would be influenced by my own example.

I'm going to make the foundation principle in the forum that neither the forum and especially Proboards itself, will tolerate any posting or information that encourages people to not adhere to government/medical instructions. I'm just talking out loud here, but society is important, and people lives are valuable. Everyone is important. It's very easy to stick to what we are told, and still seek to empower society with citizen journalism.

Thank you so much for your time. And I hope you and your family stay safe. As well as everyone else here.

Namaste

Milarepa.

[bigballofyarn]

Apr 3, 2020 9:20:41 GMT -8 VS Admin said:

To give one example, if someone posts about how it's totally fine to go outside and congregate in the midst of this pandemic, I guarantee you that posting will be removed. Further, we will take any action we deem necessary to stop the continuing spread of dangerous comments from that person on our platform. This might begin with a warning, but definitely could rise to the level of us removing them from our service if we feel it is necessary. Remember, this is literally about saving people's lives.

If a member were to express a personal opinion stating that he/she was taking walks outside and getting drive-thru food since those were some of the only things left to do in their area, would that be considered bad?  He/she is not giving medical advice or encouraging others to do the same.  He/she is just expressing what is still legally allowed in their area, but not telling others that it is safe to do the same in their areas.  I'm asking not to be annoying, but because additional clarity may be needed for those who are actively discussing closures and statistics in their areas.  I would think that there are differences between offering bad advice from unreliable sources, and having opinionated discussions regarding feelings of different types of lockdowns in different geographical areas.

I fully intend to keep things in compliance with ProBoards' rules and guidelines. I just want to be certain that I 100% understand them.

[VS Admin]

If they were encouraging others to do so, that would be viewed negatively. However, I don't think the statement of them saying they took a walk would rise to the level of us taking action.

[ogrevorbis]

I'm curious what your position would be on a conspiracy type of forum. I certainly would not tolerate any speech inciting violence towards any group. However, since conspiracy theorists are not always a fan of the government, there may be a lot of criticism or anti-government speech surrounding COVID or other issues. Would this be tolerated?

[VS Admin]

Apr 7, 2020 9:28:05 GMT -8 ogrevorbis said:

I'm curious what your position would be on a conspiracy type of forum. I certainly would not tolerate any speech inciting violence towards any group. However, since conspiracy theorists are not always a fan of the government, there may be a lot of criticism or anti-government speech surrounding COVID or other issues. Would this be tolerated?

It depends on what is posted. Everything is a case by case basis.

[Richard Johann]

Apr 3, 2020 9:20:41 GMT -8 VS Admin said:

Our official policy is outlined here:

support.proboards.com/thread/661355/covid-19-global-health-emergency

If information is being posted that we believe will result in negative consequences for the public at large, we reserve the right to take any action we deem necessary to stop that from continuing to occur. Each incident that is reported to us will be reviewed and handled on a case by case basis.

To give one example, if someone posts about how it's totally fine to go outside and congregate in the midst of this pandemic, I guarantee you that posting will be removed. Further, we will take any action we deem necessary to stop the continuing spread of dangerous comments from that person on our platform. This might begin with a warning, but definitely could rise to the level of us removing them from our service if we feel it is necessary. Remember, this is literally about saving people's lives.

I want to be clear that we are very much for freedom of speech, to the extent possible. We do have certain restrictions, being that we are a family-friendly service (no hate content, adult content, etc, as outlined in our Community Guidelines).

With the current situation, I personally believe that it is our duty to act to protect the public from COVID-19 in any way that we can. Misinformation anyone posts on our platform could have deadly consequences, and therefore we are taking a hard line against them.

To give you some more personal context of how this affects me. My mother in law recently had emergency surgery and started living with us during her recovery. Due to her weakened state, in addition to her age, she is someone who who would be high risk for death if she contracted COVID-19. I refuse to let my company's platform be used in a way that could endanger her or anyone else.

Patrick

Dear VS Admin ,

    Is your Abuse Team aware of your policy? Several days ago, I reported a thread encouraging people to "resume to normalcy, and if people die, they die. What's more important is people need to eat. People can't miss a messing car payment and have negative in their bank account to save a few lives."

    It's still there, ready to be scraped up by all the major search engines. A post I reported after that one (same forum) was removed, which means your Abuse Team chose to allow the post I quoted above, which means they green-lighted similar encouragements on your platform.

Regards,
Richard Johann

[VS Admin]

Richard, our abuse team handles these issues. They are not handled on the support forum. Every report is reviewed and appropriate action is taken.