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We believe that everyone should have the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers. In order to protect the experience and safety of people who use CounterSocial, there are some limitations on the type of content and behavior that we allow. These limitations are set forth in the CounterSocial Rules below. The CounterSocial Rules and Privacy Policy, collectively make up the "CounterSocial User Agreement" that governs a user's access to and use of CounterSocial's services. All individuals accessing or using CounterSocial’s services must adhere to the policies set forth in the CounterSocial Rules. Failure to do so may result in CounterSocial taking one or more of the following enforcement actions: requiring you to delete prohibited content before you can again create new posts and interact with other CounterSocial users; temporarily limiting your ability to create posts or interact with other CounterSocial users; asking you to verify account ownership with a phone number or email address; or permanently suspending your account(s). If you attempt to evade a permanent suspension by creating new accounts, we will suspend your new accounts. Please note that we may need to change these Rules from time to time and reserve the right to do so. The most current version is always available here. The policies set forth in these CounterSocial Rules govern organic content on our platform. We reserve the right to suspend accounts or take other appropriate action when someone’s brand or trademark, including business name and/or logo, is used in a manner that may mislead or confuse others about your brand affiliation.
Copyright
Images uploaded to CounterSocial servers may be automatically water-marked with the server address, however all rights including the legal copyright of any user uploaded image and or content remain solely and wholly with the owner of the image and or content. We will respond to clear and complete notices of alleged copyright infringement.
Graphic violence and adult content
We consider graphic violence to be any form of gory media related to death, serious injury, violence, or surgical procedures. We consider adult content to be any media that is pornographic and/or may be intended to cause sexual arousal. CounterSocial allows some forms of graphic violence and/or adult content in toots marked as containing sensitive media. However, you may not use such content in your profile or header images. Additionally, CounterSocial may sometimes require you to remove excessively graphic violence out of respect for the deceased and their families if we receive a request from their family or an authorized representative.
unlawful use
You may not use our service for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities. By using CounterSocial, you agree to comply with all applicable laws governing your online conduct and content.
research use
You may not use our service for any form of research purposes without official written prior permission from CounterSocial, and a further OPT IN from any CounterSocial users whose content you include within said research.
account verification
CounterSocial offers multiple ways to verify account ownership and or authenticity. In order to make CounterSocial account verification meaningful we have developed a verification model that combines speed and ease of use with accountability and responsibility. Verification is not mandatory and you can use our services just fine without verification if you wish. CounterSocial verification cannot be purchased, only obtained via one of our approved methods. CounterSocial reserves the right to swift action, without notification, ranging from verification declassification to the permabanning of users attempting to pose as, pass themselves off as, or otherwise fraudulently abuse the verification badge for the purposes of impersonating other users or company brands by name. Users may request for their own verified user status to be removed if they so wish.
misuse of countersocial badges
You may not use CounterSocial badges, unless provided by CounterSocial. Accounts using unauthorized badges as part of their profile photos, header photos, display names, or in any way that falsely implies affiliation with CounterSocial or authorization from CounterSocial to display these badges, may be suspended.
misuse of usernames
Selling usernames: You may not buy or sell CounterSocial usernames. Username squatting: You may not engage in username squatting. Some of the factors we take into consideration when determining whether conduct is username squatting include: the number of accounts created; the creation of accounts for the purpose of preventing others from using those account names; the creation of accounts for the purpose of selling those accounts; and the use of third-party content feeds to update and maintain accounts under the names of those third parties. Please note that CounterSocial may also remove accounts that are inactive for more than six months.
abusive behavior
We believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up. In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, we prohibit behavior that crosses the line into abuse, including behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another user’s voice. Context matters when evaluating for abusive behavior and determining appropriate enforcement actions. Factors we may take into consideration include, but are not limited to whether: the behavior is targeted at an individual or group of people; the report has been filed by the target of the abuse or a bystander; the behavior is newsworthy and in the legitimate public interest.
violence and physical harm
You may not make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people. This includes, but is not limited to, threatening or promoting terrorism.
suicide or self harm
You may not promote or encourage suicide or self-harm. When we receive reports that a person is threatening suicide or self-harm, we may take a number of steps to assist them, such as reaching out to that person and providing resources such as contact information for our mental health partners.
child sexual exploitation
You may not promote child sexual exploitation of ANY kind. CounterSocial is committed to providing no safe haven for abusers and exploiters of children. All images uploaded to CounterSocial, whether in a public or private context, are hashed en-route to us. Then transparently and automagically, that hash is compared to multiple National Media Exploitation Center (NMEC) databases of known Child Sex Abuse Material (CSAM) hashes. This happens at our infrastructure edge - BEFORE any image lands on CounterSocials' at-rest encrypted storage systems. If a positive hash-match is discovered CounterSocial administrators will be alerted, in realtime, and neccessary actions will be taken to lock the offending account, preserve evidence, and notify the appropriate law enforcement agencies. No ifs. No buts. No exceptions, no mercy. PRIVACY NOTE to users: At NO TIME are your images being 'viewed' or 'looked' at. They are simply being 'hashed' and that hash then compared to NMEC CSAM hash databases.
abuse and hateful conduct
You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. We consider abusive behavior an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else’s voice.
unwanted sexual advances
You may not direct abuse at someone by sending unwanted sexual content, objectifying them in a sexually explicit manner, or otherwise engaging in sexual misconduct.
hateful conduct
You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.
private information and intimate media
You may not publish or post other people's private information without their express authorization and permission. Definitions of private information may vary depending on local laws. Read more about our private information policy. Intimate media: You may not post or share intimate photos or videos of someone that were produced or distributed without their consent.
threats to expose or hack
You may not threaten to expose someone’s private information or intimate media. You also may not threaten to hack or break into someone’s digital information.
impersonation
You may not impersonate individuals, groups, or organizations in a manner that is intended to or does mislead, confuse, or deceive others. While you may maintain parody, fan, commentary, or newsfeed accounts, you may not do so if the intent of the account is to engage in spamming or abusive behavior.
security
We strive to protect people on CounterSocial from technical abuse and spam. To promote a stable and secure environment on CounterSocial, you may not do, or attempt to do, any of the following while accessing or using CounterSocial: Access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of CounterSocial, CounterSocial’s computer systems, or the technical delivery systems of CounterSocial’s providers (except as expressly permitted by the CounterSocial Bug Bounty program). Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any system or network, or breach or circumvent any security or authentication measures (except as expressly permitted by the CounterSocial Bug Bounty program). Access or search, or attempt to access or search, CounterSocial by any means (automated or otherwise) other than through our currently available, published interfaces that are provided by CounterSocial (and only pursuant to the applicable terms and conditions), unless you have been specifically allowed to do so in a separate agreement with CounterSocial. Note that crawling CounterSocial is permissible if done in accordance with the provisions of the robots.txt file; however, scraping CounterSocial without our prior consent is expressly prohibited. Forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or posting, or in any way use CounterSocial to send altered, deceptive, or false source-identifying information. Interfere with or disrupt the access of any user, host or network, including, without limitation, sending a virus, overloading, flooding, spamming, mail-bombing CounterSocial’s services, or by scripting the creation of content in such a manner as to interfere with or create an undue burden on CounterSocial. Any accounts engaging in the following activities may be temporarily locked or subject to permanent suspension.
Services Provision
Services and features provided by CounterSocial may be removed either temporarily or permanently without notice.
cosotv
While we endeavor to provide high quality services, due to certain limitations, the COSOTV streaming service is not implicity guaranteed at all times and is not an inherent or implied part of ANY CounterSocial subscription fees. The channel lineup is subject to change at anytime. COSOTV is bonus complimentary content and therefore provided 'as-is' via independent 3rd party sources, freely available to anyone with an internet connection. No content therein is owned by, or stored on, or transits through any CounterSocial servers, equipment or domains. No content is stored on any device or domain owned or operated by CounterSocial. Connections to the feeds are 'direct' between the origin source and the end-user. CounterSocial or agents thereof are not the source of the feeds or content. No content is or was made available on the internet by CounterSocial or agents thereof and is freely available outside of CounterSocial on the public internet. All network commercials remain unimpeded. CounterSocial inserts its own additional small periodic 'intermission' every 30 minutes to prevent continuous viewing.
Malware and Phishing
You may not publish or link to malicious content intended to damage or disrupt another person’s browser or computer or to compromise a person’s privacy.
In-Beta Features and Services
No guarantees or promises of functionality or uptime are implied or inferred for any services, features or functions that are marked as in the 'beta' version of the development lifecycle.
spam
You may not use CounterSocial’s services for the purpose of spamming anyone. Spam is generally defined on CounterSocial as bulk or aggressive activity that attempts to manipulate or disrupt CounterSocial or the experience of users on CounterSocial to drive traffic or attention to unrelated accounts, products, services, or initiatives. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming include: if you have followed and/or unfollowed a large number of of accounts in a short time period, particularly by automated means (aggressive following or follower churn); if your toots or Direct Messages consist mainly of links shared without commentary; if a large number of people have blocked you in response to high volumes of untargeted, unsolicited, or duplicative content or engagements from your account; if a large number of spam complaints have been filed against you; if you post duplicative or substantially similar content, replies, or mentions over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account, or create duplicate or substantially similar accounts; if you post multiple updates to a trending or popular topic with an intent to subvert or manipulate the topic to drive traffic or attention to unrelated accounts, products, services, or initiatives; if you send large numbers of unsolicited replies or mentions; if you add users to lists in a bulk or aggressive manner; if you are randomly or aggressively engaging with toots to drive traffic or attention to unrelated accounts, products, services, or initiatives; if you repeatedly post other people’s account information as your own (e.g., bio, toots, profile URL, etc.); if you post misleading, deceptive, or malicious links (e.g., affiliate links, links to malware/clickjacking pages, etc.); if you create fake accounts, account interactions, or impressions; if you sell, purchase, or attempt to artificially inflate account interactions; and if you use or promote third-party services or apps that claim to get you more followers, Boosts, or likes.
Payment Processing
All financial transactions and payments to or from CounterSocial are handled by a professional dedicated 3rd party payments processor. No payment details are stored on CounterSocial infrastructure, at any time. This protects both the user and CounterSocial.
Artificial Intelligence, Large Language Model and Translation Services
All CounterSocial AI (for example: our 'Alfred' AI Assistant), Large language Model, and Language Translation elements operate with your privacy in mind, and as such NO user or personally identifying information is collected. Only the raw information necessary to complete the transaction is transmitted. Further, all systems covered in this section are opt-in or activated with a 'wake word'. None of these elements have the ability to monitor CounterSocial users or harvest their interactions for the purposes of training any internal or external Large Language Models or other AI technology.
Right to be forgotten
The right to be forgotten is the right to have private information about a person be removed from Internet services, searches and other directories under some circumstances. CounterSocial respects a user's Right to Be Forgotten. As such, by default all user content is protected from web crawlers, archivers, search engines, and other 3rd party scrapers around the web. Users may enable their Public Landing Page if they so wish. Further, in order to combat and deter cyber-stalking and harassment the content search scope is limited to usernames, hashtags and posts a user has made, was mentioned in or interacted with via favoriting, replying or boosting. Moreover, when a user is suspended or deletes their own account, all content and account information is irrevocably removed from our infrastructure. Upon account deletion, only the username is retained in order for us to keep it flagged as no longer available to prevent later impersonation or brand hijacking by nefarious actors. Usernames are non-reusable, non-recoverable and non-recyclable, except in cases of brand impersonation for this reason.
Third Party Integrations
In order to provide high quality services, in certain cases, such as realtime translation, CounterSocial makes use of 3rd party APIs. In any and all of these cases, to protect our users privacy, no identifying user information is transmitted.
license
CounterSocial comprises many elements of both open source and proprietary code. As such, in order to comply with the various complex and differing 'open' license agreements we release our service(s) under an umbrella OPEN CORE license. Individual 'open' component license, including Affero General Public License, Mozilla Public License and MIT license compliance is detailed in this document as part of our overall licensing agreement.
More information on the Open Core model can be found
here and
here.
dickhead clause
CounterSocial operates a NO DICKHEAD policy. This policy is an umbrella policy and therefore 'DICKHEAD' includes but is not limited to rustlers, cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados (case by case basis), mugs, pugs (bigger than 17 hands), thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, bandits, muggers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers, penis wrinkles, shit-goblins, shit-gibbons, ranchmeisers, malcrepits, boordinglers, ghoulborkers, mashdribblets, copiwanknuts, incels, bad-smells, klinker-pickers, clagnut-harvesters, meanies, poo-poo heads, gobshites, turd-knuckles, hallions, sealions, cockwombles, anyone who identifies as 'a nice person once you get to know me' ... and twatwaffles... and Elon Musk. As such, if you are a DICKHEAD, have been known to be a DICKHEAD, or are thinking about being a DICKHEAD today, we ask that you go be a DICKHEAD some place else. Namaste. NOTE: Pirates are exempt.
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These provisions notwithstanding, the administration of the service reserves the right to change these terms or revoke any IP address(s) or user access permissions, at any time, for any reason, except as limited by law. Please see our FAQ for more details.
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SEE RELATED: Privacy Policy and
GDPR Policy and
CCPA Policy and
License
This document was last updated January 30 2024.