Serial Reporter

Ensuring users have a safe and welcoming space to build communities is at the core of our product. 

We equip users with self-moderation tools to manage their own experience. One of these tools is the report button, which enables everybody on our platform to bring harmful content, accounts and interactions in violation of our Community Guidelines to the attention of our Trust & Safety team. The resulting reports of users, rooms, messages, videos or bots  are investigated by our team, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

For users, the reporting tool is a primary means of protecting their community and seeking accountability against bad actors. For us, it plays a critical role in our larger content moderation process: to identify abusive content we use a combination of proactive detection that relies both on automated technologies as well as manual investigations, and reactive detection through the adjudication of user reports by our T&S team. This reactive detection helps us spot and address abuse. 

To avoid delays in the handling of genuine reports and to ensure that we can  respond promptly to urgent violations of our policies, we have strict guidelines around the abuse of our reporting features. 

Any user who is found to abuse the report button with a harmful intent to silence voices runs the risk of losing their privilege to use it.

What violates this policy? 

We do not allow the adversarial use of our reporting feature. Examples include consistently reporting content and accounts with the goal to suppress speech, bully, harass, or intimidate others. 

• Reporting users without utilizing our self-moderation tools to take alternative protective measures such as blocking or room banning 
• Repeatedly reporting content or accounts that objectively don’t violate our Community Guidelines in an attempt to get other users suspended or pieces of content removed 
• Using the report button to target other users unfairly
• Reporting content due to personal disagreements 
• Submitting excessive or frivolous reports with the intent to overwhelm our moderation team

Guidelines for responsible reporting

When used correctly, the reporting tool ensures that we can swiftly investigate and take necessary action against harmful behavior. To ensure that it remains a useful and effective feature, please follow these guidelines.  

1. Report genuine issues: Use the report button only when you encounter content or behavior that clearly violates our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service.
2. Avoid false reporting: Do not use the report button to settle personal disputes or to target other users. 
3. Limit reports to specific issues: Provide detailed and specific information about the issue you are reporting to help our moderators understand and address it effectively. 
4. Respect the process: Trust & Safety moderators review reports carefully and take appropriate actions based on our policies. Avoid submitting multiple reports for the same issue. 

How can I report violations of this policy?

If you encounter someone who is a serial reporter, we encourage you to bring their account to our attention, and to share as much context as possible so that our team can conduct an investigation and take appropriate action.