Content Moderation Policy

[klb]

As a part of our commitment to anti-racism work in fandom, we’ve decided to include content moderation rules for Voiceteam. These rules are based on the ones developed for pod_together 2020.

These rules will serve as a guidepost for participants as they create their works for Voiceteam, and may also motivate them to reach out to a beta or sensitivity reader/listener if they’re not sure if their work falls within the rules. During the challenge, we will help signal boost any searches for betas or sensitivity readers.

Based on the amount of content we know is likely to be made for Voiceteam, the mod team won’t be able to screen content on our own. Instead, we’ll have a system where anyone can anonymously report a work that they believe is in violation of one of these rules. If we get a report about a work being in violation, we’ll follow up as described in our FAQ.

We’re open to continued feedback about the wording of these rules and about our process for enforcing them. If you have any concerns or suggestions, please reach out to us at voiceteammods@gmail.com.
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Works of many different formats are created for Voiceteam, some completely original and some based on existing works. While we recognize that podficcers don’t always create the contents of the stories they record, we ask that existing stories that violate the first two rules not be podficced as part of Voiceteam.

Content Rules:

1. No depicting groups of victimized people without a sense of humanity. For example, no using enslaved people or refugees as set dressing for stories that center on colonizers. This includes centering white characters in an AU of an oppressive or harmful situation that happened to people of color, such as the infamous J2 story set in Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.
 

2. If anyone flags an untagged racist trope or racist language in a work of any kind made for Voiceteam, the mod team will check for accuracy (with outside consultation as needed). If a racist trope or language is confirmed, the creators will be required to tag (on AO3) or warn (on our Voiceteam works spreadsheet) for that content unless they revise the fanwork to no longer include that content. If the creators of the work do not follow the above guidelines, the work will be removed from the spreadsheet, our official AO3 Voiceteam collection, and any points the work previously earned will be removed.
 

2a. Other oppressive tropes or language (sexist, ableist, anti-trans, anti-LGBTQ+, etc) can also be flagged to mods and will have the same follow-up steps as above. This practice of tagging and warning is to make sure the audience can make informed decisions on the content that they choose to interact with, therefore these requests for content warnings will be made to creators regardless of whether or not they are part of the relevant marginalized community.

Please note: We previously had a rule that said 'Don't use negative stereotypes as a way to demonize or discard characters of color in favor of white characters. (example: for Kirk/Spock fic, making Uhura an angry black woman to justify Spock's relationship with Kirk).' After discussion, we are removing that as a rule so that we don't restrict creators of color from exploring these issues in ways that are meaningful to them. However, all works with negative racial stereotypes still need to be tagged accordingly. Also, we strongly suggest that if you're white and using a negative racial stereotype, you really question why, and that if you are not sure you are familiar enough with negative racial stereotypes to know whether you are doing so, you take time to study them. This post may be a helpful starting place.

Content Moderation Rules Reporting Form:

Voiceteam works that don’t meet the content rules we just described can be reported to the mods. The reporting form will be shared and pinned in the Voiceteam server at the start of each new round of Voiceteam.

Reports can be anonymous or you can give us your contact information so we can reach out to you if we have questions. We’ll look into every issue that’s reported to us. Multiple people don’t need to coordinate reporting the same issue unless they have extra information to add; we’ll take a single report as seriously as multiple identical ones.

Recommended Resources:

This section will be updated periodically as the mods locate or participants suggest resources that can assist in creating antiracist fanworks. Please feel free to comment with additional suggestions.

1. Sensitivity Readers - This Tumblr can help you connect with people who have volunteered to sensitivity read writing. If you would like to connect with a sensitivity reader from here, please reach out to the mod team and we will be happy to pay for it!

2. Posts tagged "What Fandom Racism Looks Like" at Stitch's Media Mix. There are 500+ posts on a huge range of useful topics, so keep clicking "older posts" at the bottom to see more.

3. Writing with Color - A tumblr focused on writing and resources centered around racial diversity. Contains Q&A-style advice, writing guides, etc.

4. White Light, Black Magic: Racism in Esoteric Thought (pdf) - Resource about the racist history of the terms black or dark and white or light when describing magic. Relevant quote: "Wherever we find ourselves using the term "white" to mean positive, socially acceptable and sacred, and black as undesirable, ugly and evil, this is a flag to re-examine our thinking and recast our terminology." This is very long, so you may or may not read it all, but check out at least the first page and the section called "Inclusive Esoteric Language" that starts on page 48.

Comments

[flowersforgraves]

If we get a report about a work being in violation, we’ll follow up as described in rule 3.

I'm not seeing a third rule! Is there perhaps an HTML error in the post, or did you mean rule 2 here?

[klb]

Thank you for catching that! We used to have 3 rules, and the third rule stopped being a rule and became the "please note" suggestion. I think the most up-to-date info about our plans to follow up on a report are in the FAQ, though, so I'll change the link at the top to point there.