Updated: 03/27/2023

Introduction to Safety on Videy

Community is the heart of Videy. From individual communities, built by creators and their viewers, to the Videy Community at large, the magic of Videy comes from enjoying the things we love together. But before you can do what you do best, a very important prerequisite must be met: safety.

Safety is the foundation beneath creators, subscribers, and everyone in plataform. We want to foster a community that supports and sustains creators’ ability to express themselves, and provides a welcoming and entertaining environment for viewers, free of illegal, harmful, and negative interactions. As a result, we take a layered combined approach — one that combines the efforts of both Videy and members of the community, working together globally to promote safety in real time. It starts with our Community Guidelines, which seek to balance user expression with community safety, and set expectations for the behavior that everyone on Videy is expected to demonstrate. When we talk about harm, we mean actions that lead to physical, emotional, social or financial damage or loss to our users or to society.

These guidelines set the guardrails for what behavior is and is not allowed on our service, and apply to all content on our service, including video, chat, whispers, and accounts. When we find someone has violated our Community Guidelines we take actions that can include removal of content, a warning, and/or suspension of their account. We consider our Community Guidelines to be a living document, and we work with creators, subscribers, and external safety and policy experts to review and update them regularly.

In addition to these guidelines, creators and subscribers can also use customizable Videy safety tools to tailor their website standards to meet their needs. Viewers, creators and subscribers play a crucial role by reporting content or behavior that breaks our Community Guidelines. Reports are reviewed by our global Safety Operations team who work 24/7/365 to ensure a swift response. In this way, we all work together to promote a safe and welcoming live environment.

Safety - Self-Destructive Behavior

Harming yourself, or discussing self-harm recklessly, can be dangerous for not only yourself but for viewers and those around you. We understand that creators and subscribers should be able to discuss sensitive topics related to self-harm or mental health, and we want Videy to remain a safe space to do so. Anyone should be able to talk about their struggles, if they so choose. However, Videy does not allow content that glorifies, promotes, or encourages self-harm. We also prohibit activity that may endanger your life, lead to your physical harm, or encourage others to engage in physically harmful behavior. We do not make exceptions for self-destructive behavior performed as a stunt or gag made in jest, or meant to entertain, when the behavior could reasonably be expected to cause physical injury.

For example, you may not show or promote [content warning]:

Glorification and/or promotion of self-harm

Promotion of eating disorders and sharing of pro-eating disorder content, such as saying you’re “pro-ana”, or sharing your diet plan of not eating for three days and then binge eating on day four

Sharing graphic details of suicide notes or suicide attempts

Use of hard drugs and substances not fit for human consumption (e.g., tide pods, bleach)

Misuse of legal substances (e.g., prescription drugs, whippets)

Cutting or other forms of self-injury

Dangerous consumption of alcohol or other substances that lead to being incapacitated

Dangerous or distracted driving, including using a phone while driving and drunk driving

If you feel like you’re struggling, or you know someone who you believe might hurt themselves or others, or if someone is at immediate risk of suicide, please contact a professional with the resources and expertise for urgent support, such as a mental health hotline or local law enforcement.

Violence and Threats

Acts and threats of violence are counterproductive to promoting a safe, inclusive, and friendly community. Violence on Videy is taken seriously and is considered a zero-tolerance violation, and all accounts associated with such activities on Videy will be indefinitely suspended.

For example, you may not show or promote [content warning]:

Attempts or threats to physically harm or kill others

Attempts or threats to hack, dox, DDOS, or SWAT others

Use of weapons to physically threaten, intimidate, harm, or kill others

Encouraging others to participate in acts that may harm others

In situations where a user has lost control of their broadcast due to severe injury, medical emergency, police action, or being targeted with serious violence, we will temporarily remove the channel and associated content.

In exceptional circumstances, we may preemptively suspend accounts when we believe an individual’s use of Videy poses a high likelihood of inciting violence. In weighing the risk of harm, we consider an individual’s influence, the level of recklessness in their past behaviors (on Videy or elsewhere), whether or not there continues to be a risk of harm, and the scale of ongoing threats.

Terrorism and Violent Extremism

Terrorism and violent extremism promote unlawful violence and spread messages of intolerance. Videy does not allow content that depicts, glorifies, encourages, or supports terrorism, or violent extremist actors or acts. This includes threatening to or encouraging others to commit acts that would result in serious physical harm or significant property destruction.

For example, you may not [content warning]:

Display or link terrorist or extremist propaganda, including graphic pictures or footage of terrorist or extremist violence, even for the purposes of denouncing such content

Adult Sexual Violence and Exploitation

Acts of sexual violence and exploitation are serious offenses. Content or activities that promote or threaten sexual violence or exploitation may be reported to law enforcement. Sexual violence and exploitation are not tolerated on Videy and will result in immediate suspension of your account.

For example, you may not show, promote, or engage in [content warning]:

Non-consensual sex acts

Coercing a guest into committing a sex act by threatening them

Touching another person in an intimate manner without their consent

Youth Safety

Videy prohibits any content or activity that endangers youth. This includes content that features or promotes child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and the sexual exploitation, sexual misconduct or grooming of youth (which is defined by this policy as minors under 18). We report all illegal content or activity to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which works with global law enforcement agencies around the world, and the consequence for engaging in such activity or with such content is immediate and indefinite suspension.

For example, you may not show, promote, or engage in [content warning]:

Sexually explicit content or sexualized images of youth

Sharing links to third-party sites that contain content prohibited by this policy

Content that promotes, encourages, provides instruction to, or admits participation in the sexual exploitation or sexualization of youth

Content that constitutes or facilitates inappropriate interactions with youth, including grooming, purposefully exposing youth to sexually explicit language or sexual material, and engaging in sexual conversations in messages with youth

Content that attempts to exploit youth by coercing money, favors or intimate imagery with threats to expose intimate imagery or information

Content depicting nudity of youth

Identifying alleged victims of CSAM by name or image

Off-Service Conduct

For creators and subscribers to build vibrant and dynamic communities, everyone must feel secure and protected. We believe that some off-service offenses committed by Videy users can create a substantial safety risk to the Videy community. As a result, Videy enforces against certain severe offenses that occur off Videy when committed by members of the Videy community, up to an indefinite suspension on the first offense for some behaviors.

For example, we do not allow individuals or organizations who engage off-service in [content warning]:

Deadly violence and violent extremism

Terrorist activities or recruiting

Explicit and/or credible threats of mass violence (i.e. threats against a group of people, event, or location where people would gather).

Leadership, membership, or sponsorship of a known hate group

Carrying out or deliberately acting as an accomplice to non-consensual sexual activities and/or sexual assault

Sexual exploitation of youth, such as grooming and/or solicitation/distribution of CSAM

Actions that would directly and explicitly compromise the physical safety of the Videy community

Explicit and/or credible threats against Videy, including Videy staff

Harmful misinformation actors, or persistent misinformation superspreaders

Users can contact Videy’s team at [email protected] to report cases of any abhorrent and impactful off-service abuses listed above. These reports go directly to our global team responsible for investigating allegations of severe off-service offenses, and are handled with complete confidentiality.

Evidence for Off-Service reports

Because we have less context for behaviors that occur off Videy, we require that evidence of these activities is verifiable before we will take action. This includes content directly uploaded by the violating user or direct reports from victims themselves sent to our team with appropriate evidence. Screenshots and other content from groups not directly involved that may be edited, doctored, or falsified are generally not considered to be sufficient unless they are supported by other verifiable evidence that is accurate and not misrepresented or confirmed by our third party investigator as authentic. Additionally, we will consider law enforcement action(s) as an input when assessing the credibility of accusations and evidence.

Off-Service FAQ

- Does the victim or accused have to be a Videy community member?
No. We believe those who have engaged in the severe offenses listed above are more likely to violate our Community Guidelines on Videy, or to create overt safety risks for our communities. Therefore, we will apply these standards even if the target of these behaviors is not a Videy user, or if the party engaging in abuse was not a Videy user at the time they committed a severe offense. People who engage in these forms of severe abuse off-service are also prohibited from subsequently registering Videy accounts and attempting to do so will lead to the account’s termination.

- How does Videy verify off-service behavior?
Videy leverages third-party legal experts to assist in investigating severe offenses that occur outside of the Videy services when needed.

- What are the limitations of acting on off-service behavior?
Videy has established this policy primarily to protect the safety of our users. Because of this, persons who have carried out severe offenses and create a safety risk will be prohibited from using our services.

- Why is Videy moderating off-Videy conduct?
We recognize that toxicity and abuse can spread to Videy from outside our service. Our desire to moderate verifiable off-Videy behavior stems from our belief that ignoring conduct when we are able to verify that the behavior is true and attribute it to a Videy account compromises one of our most important goals: that every Videy user who participates in good faith can bring their authentic self to the Videy community without fear of harm or harassment.

- How does off-Videy conduct influence on-service decisions?
To mitigate this harm and in addition to our Hateful Conduct & Harassment Policy, we will take reported off-service context into account when evaluating violations of any of our policies that occur on Videy. If we are able to verify reports of off-service statements or behaviors that relate to an incident on Videy, we will use this evidence to support and inform our enforcement decisions. If the off-service behavior does not involve an incident on Videy, we may not investigate unless it is one of the severe offenses listed above.

Unauthorized Sharing of Private Information

Sharing someone else’s sensitive data without their permission can be both a distressing and potentially dangerous experience. Therefore, Videy doesn’t allow users to reveal personal information of others on our service.

For example, you may not:

Share personally identifiable information (PII), such as looking up a streamer’s leaked address and sharing it in chat

Share restricted or protected social profiles or any information from those profiles

Share content that violates another’s reasonable expectation of privacy, for example streaming from a private space, without permission

Broadcast an unwanted intrusion of private video conference calls

Civility and Respect - Hateful Conduct

Videy aims to be a place where everyone can come together in shared, community experiences. This vision is threatened when people experience harmful rhetoric and abuse on Videy. Videy does not permit behavior that is motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance, including behavior that promotes or encourages discrimination, denigration, harassment, or violence based on the following protected characteristics: race, ethnicity, color, caste, national origin, immigration status, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, serious medical condition, and veteran status. We also provide certain protections for age, which are expressly noted in the examples.

We define 'protected groups' as a subset of the population with a shared protected characteristic. Every Videy user falls into multiple of these protected groups. Videy affords every user globally equal protections under this policy.

For example, regardless of your intent, you may not [content warning]:

Promote, glorify, threaten, or advocate violence, physical harm, or death against individual(s) or groups on the basis of a protected characteristic, including age.

Incite or promote violence against a protected group, e.g., “kill all the [protected group]”

Promote or express a desire for a protected group to be infected and/or die from a serious disease

Tell a user to kill themselves used in combination with a hateful slur, e.g., “kys [slur]”

Modify video game content to promote violence against a group based on a protected characteristic

Glorify specific hate crimes or mass violent acts and/or the perpetrators of such acts

Suggest that a victim of a hate crime deserved to be harmed

Use hateful slurs, either untargeted or directed towards another individual. We allow certain words or terms, which might otherwise violate our policy, to be used in an empowering way or as terms of endearment when such intent is clear. We also make exceptions for slurs in music—and singing along to music—as long as the song itself is not hateful and the slurs are not combined with other discriminating or denigrating content.

Enter a chat and spamming a slur

Target an individual with a slur based on a protected characteristic in chat

Include a slur in profile content

Call another player a slur while streaming

Post, upload, or otherwise share hateful images or symbols, including symbols of established hate groups and Nazi-related imagery.

Stream with a Confederate flag in the background. Given its historic association with slavery and white supremacist groups in the US, displaying this symbol— in non-educational contexts — runs counter to Videy’s commitment to being a service that is inclusive and welcoming to all users.

Wear a T-shirt with the Arrow Cross

Post a swastika or SS bolts in chat

Create speech, imagery, or emote combinations that dehumanize or perpetuate negative stereotypes and/or memes.

Black/brown/yellow/redface

Content that perpetuates a recognized negative stereotype about a protected group as greedy or unintelligent

Content perpetuating negative associations between an animal and a protected group, or comparing a protected group to animals that are perceived as inferior or unclean

Content comparing a protected group to insects, pests, parasites, filth, or diseases/viruses

Content suggesting that protected group members are sub-human, inhuman, or impure

Content insinuating that individuals with certain protected characteristics are criminals or terrorists

Referring to a protected group as property or things

Intentionally referring to someone using a pronoun or form of address that

does not correctly reflect the gender with which they identify, such as repeating incorrect pronouns after being asked to stop

Create content that expresses inferiority based on a protected characteristic, for example, statements related to physical, mental, and moral deficiencies.

Support for or promotion of outdated, discriminatory genetic or anthropological theories, including eugenics

Claims of divine sanction for hostility toward a protected group

Negative statements related to mental health, e.g., “[protected characteristic] is a form of insanity”

Negative statements related to hygiene, e.g., “[protected group] are all smelly”

Expressions questioning a group’s worth, e.g., “[protected group] are useless”

Statements suggesting inferiority of a protected group, e.g., “[protected group] are just worse at gaming”

Statements questioning the moral integrity of a protected group, including statements suggesting that a protected group are all cheaters

Content that implies that another contemporary culture is primitive

Call for subjugation, segregation or exclusion, including political, economic, and social exclusion/segregation, based on a protected characteristic, including age. We do, however, allow discussions on certain topics such as immigration policy, voting rights for non-citizens, and professional sports participation as long as the content is not directly denigrating based on a protected characteristic.

Support for denying right to political participation, e.g., “[protected group] should not be allowed to vote”

Support for limiting participation in the workplace, e.g., “we shouldn’t hire [protected group]”

Calls for exclusion from public services, e.g., “we shouldn’t spend tax dollars educating [protected group]”

Calls for exclusion from online services based on protected characteristic, including suggestions that a protected group does not belong on Videy

Calls for controlling or dominating a group of people, including glorifying a period because a protected group was subjugated during that time, e.g., “slavery was the glory days of America”

Encourage or support the political or economic dominance of any race, ethnicity, or religious group, including support for white supremacist/nationalist ideologies. This does not include support for self-determination movements.

Support for the hegemony of any group based on protected characteristic

Calls to increase fertility rates or restrict immigration to preserve the economic/political/social power of any group

Expressions of contempt, hatred, or disgust based on a protected characteristic.

Statements that a protected group should not exist

Statements dismissing an entire group, e.g., “I don’t like [protected group]”

Statements that a protected characteristic is repulsive or disgusting, or causes sickness, e.g., “[protected group] just make me want to vomit”

Mock the event/victims or deny the occurrence of well-documented hate crimes, or deny the existence of documented acts of mass murder/genocide against a protected group.

Drawing a cartoon mocking the victim of a hate crime

Denial of the existence of a genocide, including the Holocaust

Suggesting a documented act of mass murder motivated by a protected characteristic was a hoax

Make unfounded claims assigning blame to a protected group, or that otherwise intends to incite fear about a protected group as it relates to health and safety.

Conspiracy theories that individuals or groups are evil, corrupt or malicious based on a protected characteristic

Claims that a protected group created or is intentionally spreading a disease

Statements suggesting that a protected characteristic makes an individual more likely to be a criminal and/or terrorist

Encourage the use of or generally endorsing sexual orientation conversion therapy.

Support, promote, or be a member of a hate group, including sharing hate group propaganda materials.

Create accounts dedicated to hate, such as through abusive usernames.

Harassment

Harassment deters the growth of vibrant and diverse communities, prevents people from feeling safe on Videy, and creates a gateway for more severe forms of harm and abuse. People experience harassment in different ways, including personal attacks, promotion of physical harm, and malicious brigading. Engaging in harassment will result in enforcement action taken against the relevant accounts.

Please keep in mind, we expect creators to take the necessary steps to mitigate harassing content that appears on their stream.

For example, you may not engage in [content warning]:

Wishing harm or death on others

Telling another person to severely harm or kill themselves

Saying that another person deserves to contract a terminal or severe illness

Glorifying, endorsing, or expressing approval of a person’s past or current traumatic events

Telling a victim of a violent crime or their kin that they deserved to be harmed (if based on a protected characteristic, this is evaluated under Hateful Conduct)

Encouraging a suicidal person to kill themselves

Making implied physical threats to others (Note that explicit threats of violence are handled under our Violence and Threats policy)

Targeting others with repeated or severe personal attacks

Repeatedly sending personal insults to a broadcaster after being timed-out in the channel

Browsing other broadcasters’ channels on stream and directing insults towards them related to their intelligence or appearance

Sharing negative doctored or artistic content to abuse or degrade another person

Creating “deepfake” videos to insult or abuse another person

Drawing images of another person for the purposes of mocking or attacking that person

Inciting viewers to target another person with abuse, regardless of whether the targets are on or off-Videy

Organizing or participating in hostile raiding

Directly opening a user’s channel on stream and directing personal attacks towards them

Making malicious contact towards legitimate businesses or private persons

Calling customer support lines repeatedly and hanging up, or calling restaurants and placing fake orders

Deliberate, non-consensual in-game stream sniping, including using another person’s stream to gain a competitive advantage in a multiplayer game and disrupt their broadcast

Stalking or ignoring another person’s established personal physical boundaries

Broadcasting another person who has denied consent

Broadcasting in a location where recording is prohibited

Creating accounts dedicated to harassment, such as through abusive usernames

Creators should always consider the consequences of their statements and actions of their audiences; sometimes unwanted focus or attention can encourage others to escalate their behavior into abuse. For example, broadcasting other Videy streams while insulting those users often encourages others to also direct abuse to the target. Participating in this activity can, therefore, lead to suspension of your account.

Although harassment is never allowed on Videy, we want users to express themselves naturally with their friends and communities without fear that these interactions could be misidentified as harassment. In order to fully understand the context of incidents that appear unclear when viewed in isolation, we may require that individuals who feel targeted by abuse indicate that these actions were not consensual banter before we will intervene. Filing a user report or taking moderation action on the individual’s channel count as such indications.

Sexual Harassment

Sexual harassment is never acceptable, regardless of whether these comments are directed towards others on or off our services. Sexual harassment makes users feel uncomfortable, unsafe, and deters them from participating. We do not allow unwelcome sexual advances and solicitations, sexual objectification, or degrading attacks relating to a person’s perceived sexual practices, regardless of their gender.

For example, on Videy you may not engage in [content warning]:

Sharing or threatening to share private sexually suggestive or explicit content without permission of the person depicted

Offering revenge porn of another person

Sharing leaked nude images of another person without their consent

When applicable, we will take indications (i.e., timeouts, channel bans, user reports, etc.) from the individual(s) targeted by this behavior into account to help us understand when advances and other statements are unwanted, even if they are not clearly derogatory.

Creators are leaders of the communities they create or foster around them. Creators should always consider the consequences of their statements and actions of their audiences; sometimes unwanted focus or attention can encourage others to escalate their behavior into abuse. For example, broadcasting other Videy streams while insulting these users often encourages others to also direct abuse to the target. Participating in this activity can, therefore, lead to suspension of your account.

We expect creators to take the necessary steps to mitigate harassing content that appears on their stream.

Civility and Respect FAQ

- What is the line between hateful conduct and harassment?
Harassment becomes hateful conduct when the behavior is targeted at an individual(s) on the basis of protected characteristic(s). As Videy does not tolerate any abuse that is motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance, the penalty for such behavior is more severe. Instances of Hateful Conduct will always lead to enforcement action, even if the report is submitted by a 3rd-party that wasn’t targeted by this behavior.

- Am I required to communicate to another user that I feel harassed by their behavior in order for my report to be considered valid?
No, you may decide that some forms of harassment are severe enough to warrant reporting without first communicating to the other user that they are unwanted. You may choose to communicate that this conduct is unwanted, but we strongly recommend that you do so only if you feel that it is safe and appropriate. If the unwanted behavior persists, we recommend you report the user and consider other options to manage the situation such as blocking the user’s account(s) or banning them from website.

- How can I indicate that a behavior is unwanted?
We take context into account when determining whether a violation of our policies has occurred, and this extends to determining whether a behavior against another user is unwanted. You can indicate to others that a behavior is unwanted in several ways, including issuing a channel moderation action against the individual, or otherwise clearly denouncing the behavior. In addition to reports submitted directly by the target of a behavior, Videy will also take these indications into account when evaluating reports of harassment and sexual harassment.

- Can I be suspended for hateful or harassing content that viewers put on my website?
You are responsible for ensuring that content that appears on your website abides by our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. If harassing or hateful content does appear on your website, we expect that you take the necessary steps to mitigate this behavior and keep it from happening again. We encourage you to report users who attempt to put hateful or harassing content on your channel, as this will lead to a suspension of their Videy account(s).

- Are all hateful violations treated equally?
We will take action on all instances of hateful conduct and harassment, with an increasing severity of enforcement when the behavior is targeted, personal, graphic, or repeated/prolonged, incites further abuse, or involves threats of violence or coercion. The most egregious violations may result in an indefinite suspension on the first offense.

- How should I handle cases of potential criminal misconduct?
We encourage users to submit reports against harassment or hateful conduct directed towards themselves. If you feel that this abuse rises to a legal claim or to a crime, however, we encourage you to also seek help from an attorney or your local law enforcement. If someone else’s behavior has made you fear for your own safety or that of your immediate family, we encourage you to report this to your local law enforcement immediately. When contacted by law enforcement through the appropriate legal process, Videy will provide the relevant information, as laid out in our Terms of service.

Illegal Activity - Breaking the Law

For the safety of our community, we require users to respect all applicable local, national, and international laws while using our services. Any content or activity featuring, encouraging, offering, or soliciting illegal activity is prohibited and may be reported to law enforcement.

For example, you may not [content warning]:

Engage in any form of human trafficking, including sex trafficking, sales of children, forced marriages, or domestic servitude

Buy or sell illegal drugs, firearms, or counterfeit goods on Videy

Commit or aid in the destruction, defacement, or theft of public or another person’s property without permission on Videy

Intellectual Property Rights

In order to protect the intellectual property rights of others and comply with intellectual property laws, we do not allow users to share content on their Videy channel that they do not own or otherwise have rights to share.

For example, without permission from the rights holders or unless otherwise permitted by law, you may not share:

Performing other people’s copyrighted content, including playing another artist’s copyrighted songs

Other Videy creators’ content or content from other sites

Pirated games or content from unauthorized private servers

Movies, television shows, or sports matches

Music you do not own or do not have the rights to share, including music streamed in the background of a user’s broadcast

Goods or services protected by trademark

Closed Alphas/Betas and Pre-Release Games. We ask that you respect all publisher/developer-enforced release dates, embargoes, and NDAs by waiting to broadcast these games until everyone else gets to. Unless given prior approval, your channel may be subject to DMCA takedown by a rights holder.

Any unauthorized content users share on Videy violates our Terms of Service and is subject to removal. Multiple violations of our policies may lead to a permanent suspension of a user’s account. Rights holders may request that Videy remove unauthorized content and/or issue penalties through the following processes:

Sensitive Content - Extreme Violence, Gore, and Other Obscene Conduct

Although we allow a variety of content to be shown on Videy, content that features extreme violence or gore may be disturbing and distressing, especially if there is death, mutilation, or blood. Content that exclusively focuses on extreme or gratuitous gore and violence is prohibited.

Account Usernames and Display Names

In order to ensure that our community is safe and inclusive, inappropriate account names that violate our Community Guidelines are prohibited. We also recognize that an account’s username has more impact across our services than many other forms of content because they are persistent, cross-functional, and, in most cases, much more visible. Because of this, we have additional, higher standards for usernames based on reducing harm across our services.

For example, usernames and display names created on Videy may not include:

Breaking the law, including terrorism and child exploitation

Violence and threats

Hateful conduct

Harassment and sexual harassment

Unauthorized sharing of private information

Impersonation

Glorification of natural or violent tragedies

Self-destructive behavior

References to terrorism or terrorist organizations

References to child grooming or exploitation

Threats, promotions, or calls to real-life violence against others (with exceptions for references to video game or non-hateful historical violence)

Calling for another group of people to be harmed or killed

Creating a username that threatens violence against another person

Hateful Conduct, including slurs and derogatory terminology related to protected characteristics

Creating a username that includes a hateful slur

Glorifying, promoting, or advocating for discrimination, denigration, segregation, exclusion, hatred, or disgust based on protected characteristics (see our Hateful Conduct policy for more information)

Creating a username that references a hate group

Mocking, denying, or glorifying the occurrence of well-documented hate crimes or acts of genocide

Harassment and Sexual Harassment directed towards another person

Creating a username that includes insults targeted towards another person’s sexual practices

Creating a username that includes a personal attack or targeted profanity against another person

Directing an insulting username towards another person

Mocking creators , community members, or their friends and family that have passed away

Threats or promotion of suicide and self-harm

Glorifying methods of self-harm, including suicide and eating disorders

Encouraging another person to self-harm or commit suicide

Registering a username that threatens suicidal action

Personal information of another person leaked without consent

IP addresses, email addresses

Mailing addresses, home addresses, private work or school addresses

Personal or private phone numbers

Sensitive identification or financial information, such as bank account numbers or government ID numbers

Impersonation of another person, company, or organization

Attempting to misrepresent yourself as a staff member or employee of Videy

Creating an account with a nearly identical name to another Videy user and attempting to pass yourself off as them

Attempting to pose as a representative of a company or organization without authorization

Glorification of natural or violent tragedies

Glorifying references to specific natural disasters that are responsible for death, such as Hurricane Katrina

Glorifying people directly responsible for the murder or death of others, such as serial killers

Celebrating deaths of individuals due to violence, including suicides and lethal government or police actions (see Hateful Conduct for more on our guidelines regarding glorifying violence on the basis of a protected class)

In instances where we believe users may be acting in good-faith, we will mandate a username or display name reset instead of indefinitely suspending the accounts. For example, your username may be reset if it includes:

References to hard drugs, recreational drugs, and drug abuse (with the exceptions of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana)

Explicitly referencing recreational drugs or psychoactive substances, such as peyote

Explicitly referencing hard drugs, including cocaine or heroin

Overtly glorifying the abuse of prescription or harmful drugs, including practices such as inhalant abuse

References to sexually transmitted infections and other types of sexual-related trauma

Using terms related sexual orientation or disability in an insulting context or as a negative descriptor (reminder that using terms related to protected groups in an openly hateful or derogatory way will result in an indefinite suspension, see Hateful Conduct above)

Creating a name that uses terms related to Autism or intellectual disability in a negative or insulting context

Creating a name that uses terms related to sexual orientation, such as ‘gay,’ in a negative or insulting context

Username resets are leveraged in these cases under the assumption that these violations are likely mistaken or unintentional. However, repeatedly renaming an account in violation of our username policy will result in further enforcement actions against your account, up to an indefinite suspension.

Username FAQ

- What is a username reset and how does it differ from an account suspension?
Username and display name resets force you to change your name but do not result in your account being suspended. If your username is reset through an enforcement action, you will receive an email notification asking you to choose a new username and/or display name. Until you follow these steps and rename your account, you will be unable to access your account on Videy. Once you have renamed your account, you will be able to use Videy as normal, and your account history (aside from the offending username) will be preserved.

- If Videy has the ability to reset account usernames, why suspend some accounts indefinitely?
Our suspension data indicates that the vast majority of users who create names that would result in indefinite suspensions create many such accounts, and are often involved in malicious raiding, brigading, and harassment campaigns. Because these individuals harm and spread toxicity within the Videy community, we indefinitely suspend them immediately in order to mitigate this abuse, as well as remove the username. As with all account enforcements, if you have been suspended under this policy and believe that there has been a mistake or error, you may submit a suspension appeal (instructions can be found here).

- If usernames can be such a large issue, what is Videy doing to proactively monitor them at account sign-up?
We do have systems in place to proactively monitor usernames at account sign-up and automatically deny names that appear to violate our policies. However, malicious individuals often leverage a number of tactics to try and confuse these systems. While our automated detection catches a significant amount of this abuse, we also leverage account suspensions and resets to deal with names that do manage to evade or pre-date our filtering system.

Authenticity - Impersonation

Impersonation is a malicious practice that compromises trust in our service and can harm the target of impersonation. Content or activity meant to impersonate an individual or organization is prohibited, including impersonation of Videy staff, celebrities, companies, or friends.

For example, you may not:

Impersonate a Videy partner’s account

Pose as a celebrity in a streamer’s chat

Spam, Scams, and Other Malicious Conduct

Spam and other deceptive practices create a negative user experience, decrease trust in our service, and mislead viewers, creators, and advertisers. Any content or activity that disrupts, interrupts, harms, or otherwise violates the integrity of Videy services or another user’s experience or devices is prohibited.

For example, you may not:

Post spam, such as large amounts of repetitive, unwanted messages or user reports

Distribute unauthorized advertisements

Engage in phishing, spreading malware, or viruses

Defraud Videy or others

Engage in viewership tampering (such as artificially inflating follow or live viewer stats)

Sell or sharing user accounts, services, or features

Engage in any cheating, hacking, botting, or tampering, that gives the account owner an unfair advantage in an online multiplayer game

We understand that sometimes creators are victims of account takeover, fraud, or viewbotting directed by a malicious third party. We have methods to detect the responsible party and do not penalize good-faith creators under these circumstances.

Suspension Evasion

Circumventing our enforcement actions undermines the integrity of our service. Any attempt to circumvent an account suspension or chat ban by using other accounts, identities, or by appearing on another user’s account will also result in an additional enforcement against your accounts, up to an indefinite suspension. Similarly, you may not use your channel to knowingly feature or advertise a suspended user.

For example, you may not:

Create a new account in order to evade a suspension issued to your primary account

Facilitate a suspended user on your own channel, either by restreaming their content or hosting them directly

We understand that there may be instances where suspended users appear on your stream due to circumstances beyond your control. However, we expect that you make a good faith effort to remove them from your broadcast, mute them, or otherwise limit their interactions with your stream.

Harmful Misinformation Actors

In order to reduce harm to our community and the public without undermining our creators ’ open dialogue with their communities, we prohibit harmful misinformation superspreaders who persistently share misinformation on or off of Videy. We remove users whose online presence is dedicated to (1) persistently sharing (2) widely disproven and broadly shared (3) harmful misinformation topics.

This policy is focused on Videy users who persistently share harmful misinformation. It will not be applied to users based upon individual statements or discussions that occur on the channel. We will evaluate whether a user violates the policy by assessing both their on-platform behavior as well as their off-platform behavior. You can report these actors by sending an email to [email protected] with the account name and any available supporting evidence.

Under this policy we cover the following topic areas, and will continue to update this list as new trends emerge:

Misinformation that targets protected groups, which is already prohibited under our Hateful Conduct & Harassment Policy

Harmful health misinformation and wide-spread conspiracy theories related to dangerous treatments, COVID-19, and COVID-19 vaccine misinformation

Discussions of treatments that are known to be harmful without noting the dangers of such treatments

For COVID-19—and any other WHO-declared Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)—misinformation that causes imminent physical harm or is part of a broad conspiracy

Misinformation promoted by conspiracy networks tied to violence and/or promoting violence

Civic misinformation that undermines the integrity of a civic or political process

Promotion of verifiably false claims related to the outcome of a fully vetted political process, including election rigging, ballot tampering, vote tallying, or election fraud*

In instances of public emergencies (e.g., wildfires, earthquakes, active shootings), we may also act on misinformation that may impact public safety

*Note: In order to evaluate civic misinformation claims, we work with independent misinformation experts such as the Global Disinformation Index, as well as information from election boards and congressional certification.

Content Labeling

You are expected to accurately label your content to the best of your ability. When choosing a category or tag, please choose whichever best describes your content.