The goal of our Community Standards is to create a place where people feel free to express themselves and are able to browse through "family safe" content, i.e. content that is considered suitable for an audience of all ages, including children and that do not contain offensive, vulgar or explicit material. To ensure a safe and appropriate environment for all, we are committed to promoting freedom of expression, but at the same time we restrict some content in order to:

• protect and safeguard the security of our users, our systems and those of our partners and service providers
• protect and safeguard the privacy of our users
• safeguard some aspects related to the health and dignity of our users, avoiding exposure to illegal, inappropriate or potentially harmful content

1. Technology and Breach Detection

People on Area Social post hundreds of content daily. Every day our reviewers and moderators manually survey many of the media that are inserted but it is impossible to have complete control over all uploads and modifications. For this reason, we also support the manual review of automated systems. The technologies we implement identify content that does not comply with the regulations and send it to the control team so that they can take the most appropriate measures. The automated detection technologies carry out checks on all the multimedia content inserted on the platform, on the meetings and on the live broadcasts

Our heuristics mainly apply to specific models for the:

• detection of pornographic content
• detection of the degree of nudity
• detection of gender and age
• detection of symbols and signs of hate
• detection of gestures and signs
• detection of firearms
• detection of scenes of violence and bloodshed
• drug and medication detection

2. Team of controllers

Area Social frequently receives questions about how the content vetting process works, how the regulations are enforced, and whether or not the enforcement teams are enforcing them.

2.1 When we find content that violates our policies and guidelines, we rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to help us identify and flag a lot of violating content. Potentially infringing content is then passed on to our team of reviewers who process and evaluate it individually.

2.2 The platform gives the possibility to report, through special functions present in the interface, contents that may present in the opinion of a user violations of our Terms and Conditions or our Community Standards. Reports sent via this feature are always and in any case reviewed by an operator of the control team.

2.3 In cases where a signaling function is not possible or is not foreseen, Area Social gives the possibility to communicate via email, attaching photographic or video documentation, potential violations of our Terms and Conditions or our Community Standards. The mailbox to which reports can be sent is [email protected] Reports sent using this method are always and in any case reviewed by an operator of the control team.

3. Adoption of measures

Removal of infringing content

If the contents violate the Terms and Conditions or the Community Standards, Area Social will proceed to remove them. We will also notify you via email so that you can understand why we have removed the content. According to the regulation violated by the contents, the account could also be disabled.

Counting of warnings

If a user posts content that violates the Terms and Conditions or the Community Standards, we can remove such content by applying a strike to the user account. Whether a strike is enforced depends on the severity of the content and the context in which it was shared and posted. In some cases, a violation may be so serious, such as posting content relating to the sexual exploitation of minors, that we may disable your account. We do not count strikes for certain violations of the regulations. This includes when users post their own private information, which we only remove to prevent fraud or to protect the privacy or integrity of an account or third party service. If we remove multiple content at once we may count those removals as a single strike.

4. Restricted Content

Our tracking, review, moderation, removal, and blocking practices apply to everyone, everywhere, and to all types of content. Below we describe in as much detail as possible the contents that cannot be published on our platform or the unauthorized uses of our services.

4.1 Violence and incitement to violence

While we know it's common for people to express dislike or disapproval by jokingly threatening or inviting violence, we remove any content that seriously promotes or incites violence. We remove content and may disable accounts if we determine that there is a serious risk of physical harm or direct threat to public safety, especially in the event of:

• Threats that could lead to death, injury, and admissions of previous acts of violence targeting people or places
• Content soliciting or offering services to hire people to commit murder (e.g. hit men, mercenaries, assassins) or advocating the use of hit men, mercenaries or assassins against a target
• Admissions, statements of intent or support, invitations, hypothetical, or purported statements to abduct or abduct a target, or that promote, support, or advocate abduction or abduction
• Content depicting an abduction or abduction, if it is clear that the content was not shared by a victim or family member as a request for help, or if it was shared for a purpose other than informational, condemnation, or punishment awareness
• Threats of very serious violence using digitally altered or produced images to target living people with weapons, methods of violence or dismemberment
• Threats that could result in serious injury (violence of medium severity) and admissions of previous acts of violence against individuals, specific individuals without naming them, minor public figures, high-risk individuals or groups
• Content related to targets other than individuals, minor public figures, high-risk individuals, or high-risk groups
• Threats that may involve bodily harm (or other minor violence) to private individuals (self-reporting required), minor public figures, vulnerable individuals or vulnerable groups
• Instructions on how to make and use weapons if there is evidence that the intent is to seriously harm or kill people
• Provide instructions on how to make or use explosives, unless it is clear the content is not for violent purposes (e.g. in video games)
• Any content containing statements of intent, calls to action, threatening or wishful statements, or advocating violence as a result of voting, voter registration, or election result handling
• Statements of intent or support, invitations or statements that threaten or advocate the introduction or use of weapons in certain places or in places where there are signs of an increased risk of violence or harm. This could occur, for example, in the event of a protest or counter-protest. This includes the visual representation of weapons or methods that represent the violence aimed at these places.

4.2 Dangerous people and organizations

We remove content that praises, substantially supports, or represents various dangerous organizations. These concepts apply to the organizations themselves, their activities and their members and do not prohibit the peaceful support of specific political outcomes. Below is a non-exhaustive list of types of dangerous organizations:

• terrorists and terrorist organizations
• hate organizations
• criminal organizations
• acts of violence with multiple victims and multiple homicides
• hate ideologies, including: Nazism, White supremacy, White nationalism, White separatism
• violent non-state actors
• militarized social movements, conspiracy networks that lead to violence

4.3 Organizing acts of violence and promoting crime

We prohibit, by removing related content, from facilitating, organizing, promoting or condoning certain criminal or harmful activities that target any person, business, property or animal. Below is a non-exhaustive list of violent content:

• Violence against people
• Violence against animals (except in cases of fishing, hunting, preparation or treatment of food, parasites or pests)
• Violence against property (vandalism, hacking, theft or unauthorized access to data systems)

4.4 Restricted Products and Services

We prohibit attempts by individuals, manufacturers and retailers to buy, sell, gift, transfer or trade certain goods and services on our platform. Below is a non-exhaustive list of restricted products and services:

• Firearms or their components, ammunition, explosives or lethal safety devices, except content posted by a legitimate natural entity
• Drugs (narcotic substances or substances not used for an intended medical purpose)
• Medicines (drugs that require a prescription or administration by a doctor)
• Entheogens, Marijuana and derivative products
• Flora and fauna of endangered species
• Live animals not of endangered species, excluding livestock
• Human blood
• Alcohol and tobacco
• Dangerous goods and materials

4.5 Fraud and Deception

Content that instructs, promotes, coordinates, encourages, facilitates, recruits people, or solicits any of the following:

• Scams, financial scams or fake investments (fake loans, advance payment scams, Ponzi or pyramid schemes)
• Interactions and coordination with other people to fraudulently obtain personal or economic advantage at the expense of a third party
• Information, goods or services stolen through
• Bet manipulation
• Manipulation of measuring devices

4.6 Suicide and self-harm

We remove all content that encourages suicide or self-harm, including fictitious content such as memes or illustrations, and any graphic content about self-harm, regardless of context. We also remove content that negatively, seriously, ironically, or rhetorically identifies and targets victims or survivors of suicide or self-harm, or real-time depictions of suicide and self-harm. The following is a non-exhaustive list of content related to suicide and self-harm:

• Content that depicts images or content that shows a person attempting or dying by suicide
• Content that focuses on the depiction of ribs, collarbones, thigh spaces, hips, abdominal hollows, or protruding spines or shoulder blades when shared together with terms associated with an eating disorder
• Content that contains instructions for drastic and harmful weight loss when shared with terms associated with eating disorders.
• Content that mocks victims or survivors of suicide, self-harm or eating disorders, who have implicitly experienced suicide or self-harm

4.7 Sexual Exploitation of Children

We do not allow content that sexually exploits or endangers minors. Violations are always reported to the competent authorities. In particular, we remove all content that threatens, depicts, praises, supports, provides instructions for, presents statements of intent, admits participation in, or shares links to the sexual exploitation of minors (infants, children, or minors real or otherwise), including, without limitation example and not exhaustive:

Sexual intercourse

• Sexual intercourse or explicit oral intercourse, defined as situations in which the mouth or genitals come into contact with the genitals or anus of another person, where the genitals of at least one person are exposed
• Implied sexual intercourse or oral sex, including where contact is imminent or not directly visible
• Stimulation of the genitals or anus, including where the activity is imminent or not directly visible.
• Presence of derivatives of sexual acts
• Any of the above cases where the presence of an animal is expected

Minors with elements of a sexual nature, including, but not limited to

• Chains, ropes, ties or other constraints
• Focus on the genitals
• Presence of an excited adult person
• Presence of sex toys
• Sex themed costumes
• Removal of clothing
• Open mouth kisses

Content featuring minors in a fetishistic sexual context

Content that supports, promotes, supports or encourages pedophilic acts

Content that identifies or mocks victims or alleged victims of child sexual exploitation by name or image

4.7.1 Priming

Content soliciting the following:

• Child sexual abuse material
• Images of naked minors
• Sexual images of minors
• Real sexual relations with minors

4.7.2 Inappropriate interactions with minors

Content that constitutes or facilitates inappropriate interactions with minors, for example:

• Organization or planning of sexual relations with minors
• Intentionally exposing minors to sexually explicit language or material of a sexual nature
• Participation in explicitly or implicitly sexual conversations in plain text or in private messages with minors
• Acquisition or request of material of a sexual nature from minors in the clear or in private messages

4.7.3 Images for exploitation and extortion

Content that attempts to exploit minors by:

• Extortion of money, favors or intimate images, threatening to publish images or information
• Sharing, threatening or declaring the willingness to share private conversations with sexual content or intimate images

4.7.4 Sexualization of minors

Content requesting images of sexual exploitation of minors or images or videos of minors naked or in sexual contexts

• Content (including photos, videos, real art, digital content and verbal depictions) that depict minors in a sexualized context
• Profiles, Channels, Pages, Content aimed at the sexualization of minors

4.7.5 Nude images of minors

Content with nude images of minors, where nude means the following:

• Close-ups of minors' genitals
• Nude pictures of children showing visible genitalia, visible anus, bare backside (even when covered in see-through clothing)
• Nude images of minors showing visible genitalia, visible anus, bare bottom, exposed female nipples, no clothing from neck to knees (even if covered by see-through clothing or pubic hair)
• Digitally created depictions of nude minors, children or infants, unless the image is used in a health care or educational context

4.7.6 Child abuse of a non-sexual nature

Images that depict child abuse of a non-sexual nature, regardless of the intent of publication. Content that praises, advocates, promotes, defends, educates, or encourages participation in non-sexual child abuse.

4.8 Sexual exploitation of adults

We allow victims to share stories and experiences, but we remove content that depicts, threatens, or promotes sexual violence, sexual assault, or sexual exploitation. We also remove content that displays, advocates, or coordinates sexual acts with non-consenting individuals in order not to facilitate non-consensual intercourse, including but not limited to:

• non-consensual sexual contact, necrophilia or forced removal of clothing
• extortion of money, favors or intimate images by threatening to publish images or intimate information of the persons in question
• sharing, threatening, declaring the willingness to share, offering or asking for non-consensual intimate images of naked or semi-naked people, engaged in sexual acts or in a sexual pose
• Covertly captured non-commercial images depicting typically sexual body parts of a real person (breasts, bikini line, buttocks or thighs) or a real person engaged in sexual acts
• Threat or declaration of willingness to share private conversations with sexual content

4.9 Bullying and intimidation

We remove content posted with the intent to disparage or embarrass a person. By way of example and not limited to, we remove content that:

• they target someone with bad intentions
• attack someone based on their status as a victim of harassment, sexual exploitation, sexual harassment or domestic abuse
• incite self-harm or suicide
• attacking someone with sexually offensive terms
• deal with a major tragedy by including statements denying the occurrence of the tragedy
• make statements that they intend to engage in sexual activity or urge a person to engage in sexual activity
• make comments of a heavily sexual nature
• inciting or declaring the intention to adopt bullying and/or intimidating behaviors
• further degrade or express disgust towards people depicted in degrading situations or contexts
• wish death or to contract or develop a disease
• contain swear words or curses of the feminine gender, used in a derogatory way
• contain statements about sexual activity or sexually transmitted diseases
• contain elements that praise, celebrate or mock death or serious bodily injury
• contain offenses based on negative physical descriptions
• contain comparisons to animals or insects culturally perceived as intellectually or physically inferior

4.10 Exploitation of human beings

We remove content that facilitates or coordinates the exploitation of human beings, including human trafficking or any activity that deprives people of their liberty for profit or profit By way of example but not limited to, we remove content that promotes, facilitates or exploits:

• sex trafficking
• sales of minors or illegal adoptions
• trafficking in human beings from orphanages and tourism aimed at volunteering in orphanages
• arranged marriages
• the exploitation of labour
• domestic servitude
• Organ trafficking (excluding the removal, donation or transplantation of organs in a non-exploitation context of donation)
• enforced criminal activities (e.g. begging, drug trafficking)
• recruitment of child soldiers

4.11 Privacy Violations

We remove content that shares, offers, or solicits personal information or other private information that could result in physical or economic harm, including financial, residential, and medical information, as well as private information obtained from unlawful sources. In some cases, we may allow information to be published if it is made public through newsletters, court documents, press releases or other public sources. By way of example but not limited to, we remove content that features:

• personal information about yourself or others, through personal identification documents, official civil records or documents, immigration and employment status documents, driving licenses, etc.
• government identification documents of law enforcement, military or security personnel
• digital identity and/or authenticated accesses (email addresses and passwords, id and password, username and password, session information and links, etc.)
• private keys, passwords, codes or pins to access personal or financial information
• non-public financial statements or records
• bank account numbers with pin or security codes
• information about digital payment methods with login details, pin or security codes
• information on credit or debit cards accompanied by an expiration date or security codes and pins
• residence information (e.g. images showing the exterior of private residences, geographical coordinates, etc.)
• medical information
• information obtained from hacked sources, except in limited cases that are newsworthy and do not constitute a violation of other points

4.12 Hate speech

We define hate speech as direct attacks aimed at people based on certain characteristics such as: age, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity and disease. We define attack as violent or dehumanizing speech, abusive stereotyping, assertions of inferiority, expressions of contempt, disgust or rejection, swearing, and incitements to exclusion or segregation. By way of example but not limited to, we remove content that features:

• elements of incitement or support for violence in written or visual form
• dehumanizing texts or images in the form of comparisons, generalizations or behavioral statements
• mocking the concept, events or victims of hate crimes
• generalizations that affirm inferiority due to physical, mental, moral deficiencies
• affirmations of inferiority due to inadequacy, due to the superiority/inferiority of a given characteristic, difference from the norm
• expressions of revulsion, disgust, contempt or hatred
• vulgar terms or phrases with the intention of insulting
• terms or phrases wishing interaction in sexual acts or contact with genitals, anus, feces or bodily fluids/secrets/excrements
• elements of segregation in the form of invitations, declarations of intent, threats, wishes, statements of support or support
• elements of exclusion in the form of invitations, declarations of intent, threats, wishes, statements in support or support

4.13 Strong and violent content

We remove particularly violent or graphic content, such as images, photos or videos that depict dismemberments, visible innards or charred bodies. We also remove content that contains sadistic comments about images that depict the suffering of humans or animals. In the context of discussions on important topics we allow the publication of violent content (with some restrictions) as a form of awareness and condemnation. By way of example but not limited to, we remove content that features:

• photos and videos of people or corpses in a non-medical setting if they depict dismemberment, decomposition, victims of cannibalism, victims of violent death, throat slitting
• photos and videos of executions that are not intended for historical reporting
• elements of sadism aimed at the suffering of people and animals depicted
• offers or requests for deleted images

4.14 Nude images and adult sexual acts

We remove sexual images and media to prevent the sharing of non-consensual or underage content. Restrictions on viewing sexual acts also apply to digitally created content unless posted for educational, humorous, or satirical purposes.

Pictures of nude real adults, if they depict:

• visible genitalia, except in the context of childbirth or in the presence of a medical or health care context
• visible anus
• visible female nipples, except in the context of breastfeeding, childbirth, medical or healthcare context or act of protest, fine art photography (except glamor photography)

Sexual activity, with depictions of:

• explicit sexual activity (sexual intercourse, oral intercourse)
• explicit sexual stimulation (stimulation of the genitals or anus with any part of the body or means)
• implied sexual activity (sexual intercourse, oral intercourse)
• implied sexual stimulation (stimulation of the genitals or anus with any part of the body or means)
• erections, presence of derivatives of sexual acts, sex toys inserted inside the mouth, stimulation of human nipples, squeezing of female breasts
• fetish practices that could cause death
• fetish practices with the presence of faeces, urine, saliva, mucus, menstruation or vomit
• zooerastia (erotic zoophilia)
• sexual activities of adults in digital art (illustrations, images, renderings, etc), with the exception of content published in educational or scientific contexts as long as the realization is representative of adult(s) at least 18 years of age

4.15 Priming

We allow discussions that promote the rights of sex workers, however, we limit when content facilitates, encourages, or coordinates sexual encounters or sexual services (free, paid, or otherwise for compensation). Our goal is to discourage transactions that may involve trafficking, coercion, and non-consensual sexual acts. By way of example and not limited to, we remove content that promotes, facilitates, exploits, requests or offers:

• attempts to coordinate or recruit for sexual activities (filmed activities, stripteases, live performances, sexual/erotic/tantric massages, etc)
• explicit solicitation with offer or request for sexual activities (services, chat, photos, videos, etc.)
• sexual services in an implicit or indirect way or with innuendo (usually by providing a method of contact)
• pornographic material (sharing links to pornographic websites, etc.)

4.16 Account integrity and authentic identity

Authenticity is one of the pillars of our community. We believe authenticity helps create a community where people are accountable to each other in meaningful ways. We want to promote the freedom of expression of each individual, preventing the use of the identity of others and the misleading representation of one's identity. For this reason we ask our users to register with their real name and data.

We do not allow the use of our services and disable accounts if:

• the Terms and Conditions or our Community Standards are violated
• creating or coordinating account networks in order to violate or circumvent our Terms and Conditions or Community Standards
• dangerous people and organizations are represented
• create or use accounts through scripts or other inauthentic means
• you create an account, profiles, channels or content to circumvent the restrictive measures applied following an account disabling
• you create or use an account that misrepresents your identity to confuse or deceive other people or to circumvent control systems
• you assume the identity of other people or entities through photos, logos or brands for which you have no title of representation
• the user is a minor of 13 years
• the user has received a final conviction for crimes that do not allow the use of computer systems or software applications

4.17 Spam

We strive to limit the spread of spam to avoid the publication of misleading content and to preserve the security, stability and usability of our services, also preventing the misuse of our platform to increase views or obtain commercial profits. We remove content that may represent spam, including but not limited to:

• resource publications, manually or automatically, with very high frequencies
• requests for comments, interactions, likes or tokens in order to view or interact with the promised contents
• invitations to like, tokens, shares, add to favorites, use apps or websites with false promises
• use of deceptive or misleading URLs (cloaking, misleading content, deceptive redirects, landing pages with deceptive content, typosquatting, etc)

4.18 Computer security

We do not allow unauthorized collection of personal information or unauthorized access by deceptive, improper or invasive methods on our platform. By way of example, we do not allow the use of our services and disable accounts if the user:

• wants to gain access to accounts, profiles, channels, data on the platform or related services or through deceptive methods or without the explicit authorization of the account, profile or entity holder
• encourage or trick users into downloading or running files or programs that will compromise a user's data or online security, including malicious websites or software
• attempt to obtain, acquire or solicit login credentials, personal information or other sensitive data of another user, explicitly or through deceptive means such as phishing or the use of malicious websites or software
• publicly share your or others' login information on the platform or through a third-party service
• create, share, or host software, including harmful browser extensions or mobile apps, on or off the platform, that put users or our products and services at risk
• provide an online infrastructure, including web hosting services, DNS servers and advertising networks, which allows for improper linking

4.19 Intellectual Property

The Terms of Use of our platform do not allow you to publish content that does not respect intellectual property rights, including those on copyright and trademarks By way of example, but not limited to, we remove content that:

• violate copyright
• violate a registered trademark