Be respectful of the people and communities on FROM AROUND. People are different. That’s what’s beautiful about the internet and creativity: communities of varying types can assemble and flourish.
We want FROM AROUND to be an intimate and safe space for a diverse range of creators and their communities.
HOW THESE GUIDELINES ARE ENFORCED
- Please realize that FROM AROUND is a diverse community and, while you may not necessarily agree with someone’s point of view, it may not be a violation of our Community Guidelines.
- That said, when you see a page on FROM AROUND that you feel violates our community guidelines, please take the time to report them via our reporting tool. You can read more about how to report a creator or a post here. A member of the Trust & Safety team will review the report and if our Community Guidelines have been violated, the case manager will contact the creator to let them know that they are outside these guidelines.
THIS IS A COMMITMENT TO CREATORS.
We know this is your livelihood. We invest heavily in making these decisions as fair and transparent as possible. We always want creators to feel like they have an open line of communication. So how does this translate to moderation?
- Our first reflex is always to try to educate creators to help them understand how a rule has been broken and how to remedy the issue. In cases where the violation is particularly bad or intentional, we may take further action such as suspending or removing their account. In the most extreme cases we may ban a creator from using From Around and report them to local authorities.
- Because you are raising funds or earning on FROM AROUND, we may be held accountable for what you do with those funds, so we may also look at what you do with your membership off our platform.
- As a result, when we talk about “On FROM AROUND,” it means the creations you are funding on and through FROM AROUND. When reviewing a page, we look at how creations are shared, where the page is linked to and where the traffic comes from. No matter what happens, we always give creators the opportunity to appeal a decision by contacting us and sending any relevant information they believe was not considered. We may not change our minds, but we will always listen.
BE SAFE, BE RESPECTFUL, MAKE STUFF
- These Community Guidelines exist to shape and guide FROM AROUND and the growing number of creators and communities using it. This is not about building an arbitrary framework of “right” or “wrong.” It’s about making FROM AROUND a place where diverse creators and their communities feel excited, supported, and happy to exist, while still allowing for different—and sometimes even conflicting—points of view.
- These guidelines summarize a thorough, thoughtful, and living internal policy that we spent time thinking about and defining with guidance from community and safety experts. We’re proud of these guidelines because we believe they will help creators build a safe and supportive environment in which they can continue to create, share and build intimate and lasting relationships with their subscribers & customers.
AUTHENTICITY
- To summarize: FROM AROUND is for creators who put something original out into the world. As a creator, you may NOT post creations that infringe on others’ intellectual property rights.
- You can’t create fake pages or collect money for things you’re not actually doing. For example, you cannot create a FROM AROUND page for someone else.
- You cannot pretend to be or impersonate someone else by using the name, brand or works of another to deceive customers. We will review satire and comedy in a different way as we believe these subgenres are original creations.
- You also can’t use FROM AROUND as a prank or to fund non-activity. For example, a creator cannot earn for *not doing* something, such as, “I will stop tweeting videos of playing the guitar badly if I reach ₹ 5000 per month.
CREATORS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY INFRINGEMENTS OF ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND ARE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES AS DETERMINED BY THE APPLICABLE COURT OF LAW.
18+ CREATIONS AND MATURE THEMES
To summarize: As we strive to create a community that is inclusive and diverse, we want to consider the different ages and sensitivities within our FROM AROUND base. We are not trying to create or reinforce arbitrary frameworks of “right” or “wrong,” but rather want to give people the choice of whether or not to view adult creations.
To help subscribers make these decisions, we distinguish adult content (content containing mature themes) from all-audience content by applying an 18+ flag to the former. We define “mature themes” as any audio, visual, or audio-visual creations depicting explicit sexual situations, including nudity in sexual contexts (more on nudity below). We ask creators to flag themselves as 18+ if their creations may be considered inappropriate for people under 18 years of age. We realize the exact age threshold may vary depending on where you are, but most places require a certain level of maturity to view these creations and engage in these activities. Below is a brief, non-exhaustive breakdown for guidance.
Examples of content we view as containing mature themes:
- Works depicting real people in the nude in sexual contexts
- Animations or illustrations depicting nudity in sexual contexts, and animations or illustrations featuring sexual interactions
- Audio content that features simulated sexual interactions
Examples of content we won’t view as mature:
- Works featuring nudity that is not designed to be sexually gratifying, such as photos of sculptures or paintings
- Works featuring nudity or sexual situations that are designed for educational purposes
- A stand-up comedy set featuring profanity or “adult” language
- Adult cakes / bakes
We ask that all creators keep the public spaces on their FROM AROUND pages (meaning profile pictures, profile descriptions, everyone content, etc.) appropriate for all audiences. Content depicting mature themes must be reserved for subscriber-only posts.
NUDITY
As mentioned above, you cannot post nude creations on FROM AROUND of both real and fictional subjects. Just be sure to mark posts with mature themes as “Subscriber Only” and ensure your page is flagged as 18+ if your content will feature such themes.
As a reminder, you should never post or share nude creations of any individual under the age of 18, including yourself (18+). As a strong commitment to child safety, we will work with law enforcement whenever we come across child exploitation material. You can read more about our pornography policy in the next section.
Lastly, we understand that you may make a mix of 18+ creations and other types of creations, and that is okay with us too. We will always review your work within its context. However, if you have concerns, please let us know and we will provide you with guidance on how to maintain a dual presence.
- Pornography And Sexual Services: We don’t allow pornographic material or sexual services on FROM AROUND, which we define as “real people engaging in sexual acts such as masturbation or sexual intercourse on camera.” Please view our content creation guidelines for more details on the content that is accepted and banned on our platform.
- Offensive And Graphic Creations
- We understand that artists sometimes have to push boundaries to create thought-provoking art, so we don’t review offensive and graphic creations with strict black and white guidelines. We instead review creations in the context of the whole creator page.
- However, we have zero tolerance when it comes to the glorification of sexual violence which includes bestiality, rape, and child exploitation (i.e., sexualized depiction of minors). This is true for illustrated, animated, or any other type of creations. FROM AROUND reserves the right to review and remove accounts that may violate this guideline.
- We also do not allow other fringe sexual fetish creations, such as incest, necrophilia, or fetish creations that are hard to distinguish from non-consensual sex.
- We understand that some topics on this list such as incest or rape are a little bit more complicated because these situations are, unfortunately, part of real life. As a result, when reviewing these types of creations, the Trust and Safety team will take into consideration context including personal, historical or educational narrative. For example, survivor stories or fiction that educates are allowed on FROM AROUND.
DOXING
We take a strong stance against doxing, which is sharing an individual’s private information or aggregating their public information for the purpose of intimidating them through harassment.
- We take this strong stance against doxing because it is used to silence or intimidate people with different viewpoints on the internet. It can cause extensive emotional trauma, and can put the victim’s physical safety at risk.
- The most classic form of doxing is when an individual’s private personal information is shared. This could be information such as a phone number or home address. The definition of private personal information can vary and may mean that it is simply very difficult to find.
- We also consider it to be doxing when an individual’s non-private information is aggregated. For example, we would consider it doxing if someone’s profile picture was combined with their real name, all of their known social media accounts, and the city they lived in.
- No matter the specific information shared, we also evaluate the context around why it was shared. If it looks like this information is being shared for the purpose of making it easier for a large group to harass that individual, we are likely to consider it doxing.
- When doxing takes place, we lose the ability to have conversations. Doxing isn’t speech countering speech; it is speech shutting down others’ ability to speak. It removes our ability to discuss ideas, grow as individuals and have a safe space for disagreement.
PEOPLE WHO CAN’T USE FROM AROUND: FROM AROUND empowers people financially, we restrict both the types of media and projects that can earn on FROM AROUND, and also which people can and cannot receive earnings through FROM AROUND. After creating a FROM AROUND page, any creator caught in the act or convicted of making credible violent threats, committing violent crimes, malicious doxing, coordinating nonviolent harm (such as fraud, money laundering and gambling), or encouraging others to do any of these activities may be banned from using FROM AROUND.
- Politicians: You cannot use FROM AROUND to fund your run for office or to fund the political campaigns of others.
- Criminal or Harmful Past: Individuals who have fulfilled the terms of their sentence for past offenses may share their works on FROM AROUND. Any creator observed committing, or convicted of, making credible violent threats or acts, child abuse, malicious doxing, coordinating nonviolent harm (such as fraud, money laundering, and gambling), or encouraging others to do any of these activities, may be banned from using FROM AROUND.
- Dangerous Organizations: People with a direct affiliation to violent or dangerous groups (such as terrorist or cyber terrorist organizations, organized criminal groups, and violent hate groups), may be restricted from receiving funds through FROM AROUND.
Creators may discuss these groups in their content for educational, reporting, or debunking purposes. However, actively supporting these groups or their leaders through FROM AROUND may result in account removal.
HARMFUL AND ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES: We don’t allow funds to be collected for anything that facilitates harmful or illegal activities. You cannot fund creations that advocate, threaten, or show you causing harm to yourself, other people or animals. In the same way, you cannot promote illegal activities such as property crime, distribution of illegal weapons, or drug manufacturing.
- Self-harm: We don’t allow any page that promotes or glorifies self-harm, such as pages that encourage self-injury, suicide, or an eating disorder. Examples include pages that glorify self-scarification or a pro-anorexia campaign. If we believe there’s a credible risk the creator will harm themselves, we will work with law enforcement when needed. However, we allow creations that promote awareness such as self-harm survival stories, especially if they have educational value.
If you or someone close to you might be in danger of hurting themselves, please contact local authorities.
- Illegal activity:
We don’t allow pages that collect money for an illegal purpose, or that encourage others to break the law. Creators may not promote illegal weapons, drug manufacturing techniques or distribution, or property crime. With that said, we review each case individually. For example, although we don’t allow creations that help organize or encourage vandalism, we do allow street art.
- Dangerous activities: We ask those creators who are posting dangerous stunts to include a clear disclaimer. We also require that these types of posts be marked as “Subscriber Only” if they are too graphic or dangerous for a general audience.
- Child safety: FROM AROUND has zero tolerance for behaviour’s that exploit minors such as grooming. Users actively facilitating exploitation or attempting to exploit minors in this way will be removed from FROM AROUND. We will report all users engaging in such activity to legal authorities upon removal.
- Disinformation: FROM AROUND will not help fund creations that engage in medical misinformation related to Covid-19, and disinformation related to propagating ANY conspiracy theories.
SPAM
While it can be hard to grow a subscriber base, no one likes being spammed. Be creative and original, don’t post repetitive comments or send unwanted private messages to other members of the community.
These are some of the actions we consider to be spamming, which is prohibited on FROM AROUND:
- Don’t create pledging schemes; don’t contact other creators to have a pledge-for-a-pledge kind of trade deal.
- Don’t use FROM AROUND to release or link to malware or phishing schemes.
- Don’t make misleading posts to grow your patronage.
- Don’t post comments on other creators’ pages promoting your own page.
- Don’t send a large number of unsolicited private messages asking for support.
- Don’t use incorrect tagging in order to drive more search results.
- Don’t post multiple paid posts per day if you are a per-post creator.
When reviewing reports about spam, we will distinguish between commercial spam and friendly abuse such as legitimate creators spamming other creators’ pages. If we determine the spam is friendly abuse, the account will be flagged; repeat offenses will lead to full removal of the creator or patron page. Commercial spamming by an account that is not a legitimate creator will be removed from FROM AROUND.
In other words, be creative and original because nobody likes Spam.
FROM AROUND ACCOUNTS
- The philosophy behind these guidelines also applies to subscribers. While we believe that creators are best at managing their communities there are some instances when the Trust and Safety team will review reports for subscribers’ behaviour.
- Creators report a subscriber’s post directly following these instructions. If you would like us to review the behaviour of one of your subscriber’s we will keep the review confidential. The Trust and Safety team reviews reports around hate speech, harassment and solicitation very carefully and we will take action against a subscribers account if we find that they are in clear violation of these guidelines.
- Please remember that we will not share any details related to what kind of action we might have taken against a subscriber’s account. Most importantly, if you feel unsafe because a subscriber is stalking or harassing you, you should always try to seek the help of your local law enforcement and contact the closest cyber-crime unit as they will have the most tools and means to help. FROM AROUND will work closely with law enforcement when there is an investigation and if a law enforcement agency sends us a notice.
WHAT CANNOT BE SOLD ON FROM AROUND
This policy is part of FROM AROUND’s User Terms of Use. For more information, contact FROM AROUND at contact@fromaroundmag.com