Does Your Brand Have an Anti-Hate Policy?
According to We Are Social‘s Mobbie Nazir all brands should have anti-hate policies visible on all their channels.
Here’s her insight:
Almost all brands choose to silence hate on social media by simply deleting hateful posts, such as racist or homophobic comments in response to ads that include more diverse family units or anti-Islamic replies to holiday campaigns where wider religious and racial diversity have been shown. Simply sweeping the problem under the carpet, however, does not make it go away. That’s not standing up for the issues represented because silence sounds like complicity and shows brands as being all about the ads rather than action itself—and action may be exactly what’s needed.
And:
With a plan in place, an effective response can be possible and might even help your brand gain strength from the community by allowing a more positive voice and then amplifying it. Letting the community speak in this way firmly silences those who are negative, forcing them to leave the stage.
Her advice? Create your own anti-hate policy.
Here are some examples:
Do not post content that encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm against an individual or a group of people; likewise, do not post content that glorifies or encourages the abuse of animals. We understand there are sometimes reasons to post violent content (e.g., educational, newsworthy, artistic, satire, documentary, etc.) so if you’re going to post something violent in nature that does not violate these terms, ensure you provide context to the viewer so the reason for posting is clear.
If your content is borderline, please use a NSFW tag. Even mild violence can be difficult for someone to explain to others if they open it unexpectedly.
We encourage free speech and try to defend your right to express unpopular points of view, but we don’t permit hate speech.
Hate speech refers to content that promotes violence against or has the primary purpose of inciting hatred against individuals or groups based on certain attributes, such as:
- race or ethnic origin
- religion
- disability
- gender
- age
- veteran status
- sexual orientation/gender identity
There is a fine line between what is and what is not considered to be hate speech. For instance, it is generally okay to criticize a nation-state, but if the primary purpose of the content is to incite hatred against a group of people solely based on their ethnicity, or if the content promotes violence based on any of these core attributes, like religion, it violates our policy.
Hate content is content that expressly and principally promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics, including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability. We do not permit hate content on Spotify. When we are alerted to content that violates this standard, we will remove it from the platform. If you believe a piece of content violates our hate content policy, complete the form here and we will carefully review it against our policy. We are also continuing to develop and implement content monitoring technology which identifies content on our service that has been flagged as hate content on specific international registers.
Hateful conduct: You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease. We also do not allow accounts whose primary purpose is inciting harm towards others on the basis of these categories.
Hateful imagery and display names: You may not use hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header. You also may not use your username, display name, or profile bio to engage in abusive behavior, such as targeted harassment or expressing hate towards a person, group, or protected category.
Let us know if your company has an online hate policy that’s making a difference.