Moderation Policies

This Mastodon instance is provided by the Open Computing Facility, and is moderated by OCF staff. The following guidelines are not a legal document, and final interpretation is up to the staff of OCF. Nonetheless, these guidelines are the basis of our content moderation policies. As with our other services, content on mastodon.ocf.berkeley.edu is created and owned by OCF members, not the OCF itself. This user-generated content is not endorsed or supported by the OCF nor is the OCF responsible for content posted by OCF members. All decisions are made within the context of the rights and responsibilities of OCF members and existing OCF account policies.

1. The following types of content are not permitted:
   1. Excessive advertising
   2. Untagged pornography or sexually explicit content
   3. Untagged gore or extremely graphic violence
   4. Blatant sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, or ableism
   5. Content in violation of University policies, or US, California, or local law applicable in Berkeley, CA
2. Stalking and/or harassment, or conduct encouraging stalking and/or harassment, are not permitted.
   1. We rely on the UC Berkeley Student Code of Conduct in defining harassment: “Harassment defined as conduct that is so severe and/or pervasive, and objectively offensive, and that so substantially impairs a person's access to University programs or activities that the person is effectively denied equal access to the University's resources and opportunities.”
   2. For clarity, we will consider the following actions to be harassment:
      1. Large-scale coordination of posts attacking and mentioning another user
      2. Posting another individual’s private data or information without their permission (commonly referred to as doxxing)
      3. Continuing engagement with another user after said user has explicitly asked for engagement to cease
      4. Credible threats of real-life violence or retaliation
   3. The above list is not meant to be exhaustive. Actions beyond those explicitly described may also be considered stalking or harassment.
3. All users, regardless of student status, are expected to abide by the UC Berkeley Student Code of Conduct as it applies to students. Although mastodon.ocf.berkeley.edu is moderated by OCF staff, not by the staff or faculty of UC Berkeley, behavior in violation of section V of the UC Berkeley Student Code of Conduct is prohibited on this Mastodon instance.
4. If a user of mastodon.ocf.berkeley.edu violates these policies, mastodon.ocf.berkeley.edu moderators may remove content from the public timeline, delete content from the Mastodon instance, or suspend or ban the user’s mastodon.ocf.berkeley.edu account, depending on severity. In egregious cases of willful violation of OCF policies, the OCF Banning Policy may apply. In extremely egregious violations of the UC Berkeley Student Code of Conduct, if the user is a student, we may report the violation to UC Berkeley.
   1. Whenever such action is taken, a brief description of the moderation action will be publicly logged. This log is available at ocf.io/staff/mastodon-moderation.
   2. In the case that a user feels that this policy was misapplied, they may appeal by sending an email to help@ocf.berkeley.edu. The appeal will follow the OCF Decision Making Process.
5. If federated content (that is, content from other Mastodon instances) violates these policies, moderators may take various actions to prevent this content from appearing in the public feed or on this instance, such as by blacklisting the instance.

These policies are based on the UC Berkeley Student Code of Conduct and the mastodon.mit.edu Content Guidelines. Other applicable policies include the OCF Content Removal Policy, and policies of the University where they apply. This document was approved by the Open Computing Facility Board of Directors on 25 Feburary, 2019.

The Open Computing Facility is a student group acting independently of the University of California. We take full responsibility for our organization and this website.