MODERATE CAUTIOUSLY
Minimize your control over user expression.
If your product provides a forum for content or communication, consider carefully whether you want to be in the business of policing those forums. If you need to place limits on illegal or other harmful behavior, make sure your policies are as clear and narrow as possible and ensure that there are mechanisms in place to handle disputes with minimal disruption to expression on your service.
BUILD A REPORTING SYSTEM THAT SAFEGUARDS FREE EXPRESSION
Allowing users to report policy violations can help you enforce those policies but can also lead to complaints aimed at silencing innocent users. To ensure you receive accurate information and to help you focus your resources on solving meaningful user concerns, encourage users posting complaints to provide details about their concern.
Case Study
INFORM USERS ABOUT POTENTIAL VIOLATIONS OF YOUR POLICIES
You can help your users better understand your policies and get timely feedback to help you avoid embarrassing mistakes by notifying them when you believe they might have violated your policies. Explain which policies are implicated and any actions you have taken or may take. Communication and transparency helps users better understand your policies and explain their own actions.
KEEP CONTENT AND USER ACCOUNTS ACTIVE
Not every user complaint or automated flag you encounter will actually be a violation of your policies. The best way to avoid angry users and the need to publicly apologize for improperly imposing penalties is to wait until you determine whether one of your rules was actually violated before taking any action.
GIVE USERS THE RIGHT TO BE HEARD
Give your users a chance to be heard by allowing them to make their case, ideally before you make any decision to remove their content or otherwise affect their standing on your service. You might do this by creating a user-to-user informal dispute resolution channel. At a minimum, ensure that any dispute resolution process grants users the right to appeal decisions. With a robust dispute resolution and appeals process, you can help obtain the information to quickly resolve disputes and reduce the risk of incorrect and unfair decisions, all while demonstrating respect of your users’ views and experience.
"We believe that counter-speech, is one of the best ways to deal with hate speech. That's the balance that we're trying to strike." - Ross LaJeunesse, Google Global Head of Free Expression & International Relations