People use ConnectYu to connect with friends and family, sell their products or services, get jobs, promote their businesses, share their experiences, and build communities.

We recognize how important it is for ConnectYu to be a place where people feel empowered to communicate, and we take seriously our role in keeping abuse off our service. That’s why we’ve developed a set of Community Guide Lines that outline what is and is not allowed on ConnectYu. Our policies are based on feedback from our community and the advice of experts in fields such as technology, public safety, and human rights. To ensure that everyone’s voice is valued, we take great care to craft policies that are inclusive of different views and beliefs, in particular, those of people and communities that might otherwise be overlooked or marginalized.

REITERATING OUR COMMITMENT TO VOICE

Building community and helping people make important connections that will take them from the life they have to the life they deserve depends on people’s ability to share diverse views, experiences, ideas, and information. We want people to be able to talk openly about the issues that matter to them, even if some may disagree or find them objectionable.

Our commitment to expression is paramount, but we recognize the internet creates new and increased opportunities for abuse. For these reasons, when we limit expression, we do it in service of one or more of the following values:

Authenticity:

We want to make sure the content people are seeing on ConnectYu is authentic. We believe that authenticity creates a better environment for sharing, and that’s why we don’t want people using ConnectYu to misrepresent who they are or what they’re doing.

Safety:

We are committed to making ConnectYu a safe place. An expression that threatens people has the potential to intimidate, exclude, or silence others and isn’t allowed on ConnectYu.

Privacy:

We are committed to protecting personal privacy and information. Privacy gives people the freedom to be themselves and to choose how and when to share on ConnectYu and to connect more easily.

Dignity:

We believe that all people are equal in dignity and rights. We expect that people will respect the dignity of others and not harass or degrade others. Our Community Standards apply to everyone, all around the world, and to all types of content. They’re designed to be comprehensive – for example, content that might not be considered hateful may still be removed for violating a different policy. We recognize that words mean different things or affect people differently depending on their local community, language, or background. We work hard to account for these nuances while also applying our policies consistently and fairly to people and their expression. In the case of certain policies, we require more information and/or context to enforce them in line with our Community Standards.

People can report potentially violating content, including Pages, Groups, Profiles, individual content, and comments. We also give people control over their own experience by allowing them to block, unfollow or hide people and posts.

The consequences for violating our Community Guide Lines vary depending on the severity of the violation and the person's history on the platform. For instance, we may warn someone for a first violation, but if they continue to violate our policies, we may restrict their ability to post on ConnectYu or disable their profile. We also may notify law enforcement when we believe there is a genuine risk of physical harm or a direct threat to public safety.

Our Community Guide Lines are a guide for what is and isn’t allowed on ConnectYu. It is in this spirit that we ask members of the ConnectYu community to follow these guidelines.

Violence and Criminal Behavior

1. Violence and Incitement

We aim to prevent potential offline harm that may be related to content on ConnectYu. While we understand that people commonly express disagreement by threatening or calling for violence in non-serious ways, we remove language that incites or facilitates serious violence. We remove content, disable accounts, and work with law enforcement when we believe there is a genuine risk of physical harm or direct threats to public safety. We also try to consider the language and context in order to distinguish casual statements from content that constitutes a credible threat to public or personal safety. In determining whether a threat is credible, we may also consider additional information like a person's public visibility and the risks to their physical safety.

2. Dangerous Individuals and Organizations

In an effort to prevent and disrupt real-world harm, we do not allow any organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence to have a presence on ConnectYu. This includes organizations or individuals involved in the following: Terrorist activity Organized hate Mass murder (including attempts) or multiple murder Human trafficking Organized violence or criminal activity We also remove content that expresses support or praise for groups, leaders, or individuals involved in these activities.

3. Coordinating Harm and Publicizing Crime

In an effort to prevent and disrupt offline harm and copycat behavior, we prohibit people from facilitating, organizing, promoting, or admitting to certain criminal or harmful activities targeted at people, businesses, property or animals. We allow people to debate and advocate for the legality of criminal and harmful activities, as well as draw attention to harmful or criminal activity that they may witness or experience as long as they do not advocate for or coordinate harm.

4. Regulated Goods

To encourage safety and compliance with common legal restrictions, we prohibit attempts by individuals, manufacturers, and retailers to purchase, sell, or trade non-medical drugs, pharmaceutical drugs, and marijuana. We also prohibit the purchase, sale, gifting, exchange, and transfer of firearms, including firearm parts or ammunition, between private individuals on ConnectYu. Some of these items are not regulated everywhere; however, because of the borderless nature of our community, we try to enforce our policies as consistently as possible. Firearm stores and online retailers may promote items available for sale off of our services as long as those retailers comply with all applicable laws and regulations.

5. Fraud and Deception

In an effort to prevent and disrupt harmful or fraudulent activity, we remove content aimed at deliberately deceiving people to gain an unfair advantage or deprive another of money, property, or legal rights. However, we allow people to raise awareness and educate others as well as condemn these activities using our platform.

Safety

6. Suicide and Self-Injury

In an effort to promote a safe environment on ConnectYu, we remove content that encourages suicide or self-injury, including certain graphic imagery and real-time depictions that experts tell us might lead others to engage in similar behavior. Self-injury is defined as the intentional and direct injuring of the body, including self-mutilation and eating disorders. We want ConnectYu to be a space where people can share their experiences, raise awareness about these issues, and seek support from one another, which is why we allow people to discuss suicide and self-injury.

In contrast, we remove any content that identifies and negatively targets victims or survivors of self-injury or suicide seriously, humorously, or rhetorically.

7. Child Nudity and Sexual Exploitation of Children

We do not allow content that sexually exploits or endangers children. When we become aware of apparent child exploitation, we report it to the Law enforcement Order, in compliance with applicable law. We know that sometimes people share nude images of their own children with good intentions; however, we generally remove these images because of the potential for abuse by others and to help avoid the possibility of other people reusing or misappropriating the images.

8. Sexual Exploitation of Adults

We recognize the importance of ConnectYu as a place to discuss and draw attention to sexual violence and exploitation. We believe this is an important part of building a common understanding and community. In an effort to create space for this conversation while promoting a safe environment, we remove content that depicts, threatens, or promotes sexual violence, sexual assault, or sexual exploitation, while also allowing space for victims to share their experiences. We remove content that displays, advocates for or coordinates sexual acts with non-consenting parties or commercial sexual services, such as prostitution and escort services. We do this to avoid facilitating transactions that may involve trafficking, coercion, and non-consensual sexual acts.

To protect victims and survivors, we also remove images that depict incidents of sexual violence and intimate images shared without permission from the people pictured.

9. Bullying and Harassment

Bullying and harassment happen in many places and come in many different forms, from making threats to releasing personally identifiable information to sending threatening messages, and making unwanted malicious contact. We do not tolerate this kind of behavior because it prevents people from feeling safe and respected on ConnectYu.

We distinguish between public figures and private individuals because we want to allow discussion, which often includes critical commentary of people who are featured in the news or who have a large public audience. For public figures, we remove attacks that are severe as well as certain attacks where the public figure is directly tagged in the post or comment. For private individuals, our protection goes further: we remove content that's meant to degrade or shame, including, for example, claims about someone's sexual activity. We recognize that bullying and harassment can have more of an emotional impact on minors, which is why our policies provide heightened protection for users between the ages of 13 and 18.

Context and intent matter, and we allow people to share and re-share posts if it is clear that something was shared in order to condemn or draw attention to bullying and harassment. In certain instances, we require self-reporting because it helps us understand that the person targeted feels bullied or harassed. In addition to reporting such behavior and content, we encourage people to use tools available on ConnectYu to help protect against it.

10. Privacy Violations and Image Privacy Rights

Privacy and the protection of personal information are fundamentally important values for ConnectYu. We work hard to keep your account secure and safeguard your personal information in order to protect you from potential physical or financial harm. You should not post personal or confidential information about others without first getting their consent. We also provide people ways to report imagery that they believe to be in violation of their privacy rights.

Objectionable Content

11. Hate Speech

We do not allow hate speech on ConnectYu because it creates an environment of intimidation and exclusion and in some cases may promote real-world violence.

We define hate speech as a direct attack on people based on what we call protected characteristics — race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, and serious disease or disability. We protect against attacks on the basis of age when age is paired with another protected characteristic and also provide certain protections for immigration status. We define attack as violent or dehumanizing speech, statements of inferiority, or calls for exclusion or segregation. We separate attacks into three tiers of severity, as described below.

Sometimes people share content containing someone else’s hate speech for the purpose of raising awareness or educating others. In some cases, words or terms that might otherwise violate our standards are used self-referentially or in an empowering way. People sometimes express contempt in the context of a romantic break-up. Other times, they use gender-exclusive language to control membership in a health or positive support group, such as a breastfeeding group for women only. In all of these cases, we allow the content but expect people to clearly indicate their intent, which helps us better understand why they shared it. Where the intention is unclear, we may remove the content.

We allow humor and social commentary related to these topics. In addition, we believe that people are more responsible when they share this kind of commentary using their authentic identity.

12. Violent and Graphic Content

We remove content that glorifies violence or celebrates the suffering or humiliation of others because it may create an environment that discourages participation. We allow graphic content (with some limitations) to help people raise awareness about issues. We know that people value the ability to discuss important issues like human rights abuses or acts of terrorism. We also know that people have different sensitivities with regard to graphic and violent content. For that reason, we add a warning label to especially graphic or violent content so that it is not available to people under the age of eighteen and so that people are aware of the graphic or violent nature before they click to see it.

13. Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity

We restrict the display of nudity or sexual activity because some people in our community may be sensitive to this type of content. Additionally, we default to removing sexual imagery to prevent the sharing of non-consensual or underage content. Restrictions on the display of sexual activity also apply to digitally created content unless it is posted for educational, humorous, or satirical purposes.

Integrity and Authenticity

14. Misrepresentation

Authenticity is the cornerstone of our community. We believe that people are more accountable for their statements and actions when they use their authentic identities. That's why we require people to connect on ConnectYu using the name they go by in everyday life. Our authenticity policies are intended to create a safe environment where people can trust and hold one another accountable.

15. Spam

We work hard to limit the spread of spam because we do not want to allow content that is designed to deceive, or that attempts to mislead users to increase viewership. This content creates a negative user experience and detracts from people's ability to engage authentically in online communities. We also aim to prevent people from abusing our platform, products, or features to artificially increase viewership or distribute content en masse for commercial gain.

16. Cybersecurity

We recognize that the safety of our users extends to the security of their personal information. Attempts to gather sensitive personal information by deceptive or invasive methods are harmful to the authentic, open, and safe atmosphere that we want to foster. Therefore, we do not allow attempts to gather sensitive user information through the abuse of our platform and products.

17. Inauthentic Behavior

In line with our commitment to authenticity, we don't allow people to misrepresent themselves on ConnectYu, use fake accounts, artificially boost the popularity of the content, or engage in behaviors designed to enable other violations under our Community Standards. This policy is intended to create a space where people can trust the people and communities they interact with.

18. False News

Reducing the spread of false news on ConnectYu is a responsibility that we take seriously. We also recognize that this is a challenging and sensitive issue. We want to help people stay informed without stifling productive public discourse.

19. Manipulated Media

Media, including images, audio, or video, can be edited in a variety of ways. In many cases, these changes are benign, like a filter effect on a photo. In other cases, the manipulation isn’t apparent and could mislead, particularly in the case of video content. We aim to remove this category of manipulated media when the criteria laid out below have been met.

In addition, we will continue to invest in partnerships (including with journalists, academics and independent fact-checkers) to help us reduce the distribution of false news and misinformation, as well as to better inform people about the content they encounter online.

Respecting Intellectual Property

20. Intellectual Property

ConnectYu takes intellectual property rights seriously and believes they are important to promoting expression, creativity, and innovation in our community. You own all of the content and information you post on ConnectYu, and you control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. However, before sharing content on ConnectYu, please be sure you have the right to do so. We ask that you respect other people’s copyrights, trademarks, and other legal rights. We are committed to helping people and organizations promote and protect their intellectual property rights. ConnectYu Terms of Service do not allow people to post content that violates someone else’s intellectual property rights, including copyright and trademark.

Content-Related Requests

21. User Requests

We comply with:

User requests for removal of their own account Requests for removal of a deceased user’s account from a verified immediate family member or executor Requests for removal of an incapacitated user’s account from an authorized representative

22. Additional Protection of Minors

We comply with:

Requests for removal of an underage account Legal guardian requests for removal of attacks on unintentionally famous minors Government requests for removal of child abuse imagery depicting, for example, beating by an adult or strangling or suffocating by an adult.

Last Updated: September 09, 2023