Every day, people go online to share content and connect. Affiliate Zimbabwe (AZ) appreciates the diversity of the internet community communicating across countries and cultures, posting everything from text to photos and videos.
It is important for Affiliate Zimbabwe to represent the brands it has been entrusted with by marketing with integrity, professionalism and respect. This we take seriously for the continuity of our services and the livelihood of our affiliates. The stakes are high for us. So affiliate must comply or risk the whole program. That’s why we have developed a set of Community Standards that we believe are the general acceptable community standards that guide affiliate approval and work ethic.
The goal of our Community Standards is to be transparent with all stakeholders and advocate freedom of expression and safe environments. We base our policies on research from experts in fields such as technology and public safety. Our policies are also rooted on online safety.
People need to feel safe online. We are committed advocates against content that encourages real-world harm, including (but not limited to) physical, financial and emotional injury. We may also notify law enforcement when we believe that there is a genuine risk of physical harm or a direct threat to public safety. We will continue to develop over time. It is in this spirit that we ask affiliates of the AZ to adhere to these content guidelines.
Violence and criminal behaviour
1. Credible violence
We do not subscribe to any site or platform that has potential real-world harm. We understand that people commonly express disdain or disagreement by threatening or calling for violence in facetious and non-serious ways. That’s why we try to consider the language, context and details in order to distinguish casual statements from content that constitutes a credible threat to public or personal safety. In determining whether a threat is credible, we may also consider additional information such as a targeted person’s public visibility and vulnerability. We will not partner with affiliates that associate with such ideologies in whatever fashion, which includes the distribution of such material and work with law enforcement when we believe that there is a genuine risk of physical harm or direct threats to public safety.
2. Dangerous individuals and organisations
In an effort to perpetuate and disrupt real-world harm, we do not partner with any organisations or individuals that are engaged in the following to have presence online:
Terrorist activity
Organised hate
Mass or serial murder
Human trafficking
Organised violence or criminal activity
We also consider content that expresses support or praise for groups, leaders or individuals involved in these activities.
3. Promoting or publicising crime
We also do don’t partner with people who promoting or publicise violent crime, theft and/or fraud because we do not want to condone this activity and because there is a risk of copycat behaviour. This also includes depicting criminal activity or admitting to crimes that they or their associates have committed.
4. Coordinating harm
To uphold our passion to not to perpetuate, prevent and disrupt real-world harm, we will not partner with people who facilitate or coordinate future criminal activity that is intended or likely to cause harm to people, businesses or animals. People can draw attention to harmful activity that they may witness or experience as long as they do not advocate for or coordinate harm.
5. Regulated goods
In line with safety and compliance with common legal restrictions, we do not consider people, manufacturers and retailers who purchase, sell or trade non-medical drugs, pharmaceutical drugs and marijuana. This includes the purchase, sale, gifting, exchange and transfer of firearms, including firearm parts or ammunition, between private individuals online. Some of these items are not regulated everywhere; however, because of the borderless nature of the online community, we try to be as consistent as possible.
Firearm shops and online retailers may promote items available for sale off our services as long as those retailers comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
Safety
6. Suicide and self-injury
To promote a safe environment online, we remove we do not partner with people with content that encourages suicide or self-injury, including real-time depictions that might lead others to engage in similar behaviour. Self-injury is defined as the intentional and direct injuring of the body, including self-mutilation and eating disorders. We would rather be seen partnering with people who share their experiences, raise awareness about these issues and support each other through difficult experiences.
However any content that identifies and negatively targets victims or survivors of self-injury or suicide seriously, humorously or rhetorically will lead to the application not being approved.
7. Child nudity and sexual exploitation of children
On this we are very rigid and passionate about. A person that shares, distributes or has any link to content that sexually exploits or endangers children will be reported, in compliance with applicable law. We know that sometimes people share nude images of their own children with good intentions; however, we generally do not encourage these images because of the potential for abuse by others and to help avoid the possibility of other people reusing or misappropriating the images.
8. Sexual exploitation of adults
We recognise the importance of the internet as a place to discuss and draw attention to sexual violence and exploitation. We believe that this is an important part of building common understanding and community. In an effort to promote a safe environment, any content that depicts, threatens or promotes sexual violence, sexual assault or sexual exploitation will be good grounds for us not approve the application. This includes content that displays, advocates for or coordinates sexual acts with non-consenting parties or commercial sexual services.
We do this to avoid associating with transactions that may involve trafficking, coercion and non-consensual sexual acts. “Sexual services” include prostitution, escort services, sexual massages and filmed sexual activity.
9. Bullying
Bullying happens in many places and comes in many different forms from making statements degrading someone’s character to posting inappropriate images to threatening someone. We do not tolerate bullying as advocates of online safety and respect.
This includes content that purposefully targets private individuals with the intention of degrading or shaming them. We recognise that bullying can be especially harmful to minors.
10. Harassment
Online harassment is unacceptable for both public and private individuals because we do not want to perpetuate unwanted or malicious contact on the platform.
11. Privacy breaches and image privacy rights
Privacy and the protection of personal information are fundamentally important values for the online community. Any content and posts of a personal or confidential mature about others should not be posted without first getting their consent.
Objectionable content
12. Hate speech
Hate speech online creates an environment of intimidation and exclusion and in some cases may promote real-world violence. We define hate speech as a direct attack on people based on what we call protected characteristics – race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity and serious disease or disability.
We define “attack” as violent or dehumanising speech, statements of inferiority, or calls for exclusion or segregation. People that advocate or associate or perpetuate ANY kind of speech cannot be associated with us.
13. Violence and graphic content
Content that glorifies violence or celebrates the suffering or humiliation of others is unacceptable because we believe in people, we are pro-people. MAYBE if a person is helping to raise awareness about them, MAYBE with some limitations can we accept it because we also know that people value the ability to discuss important issues such as human rights abuses or acts of terrorism. We also know that people have different sensitivities with regard to graphic and violent content. For that reason, we look for indications of intent like a warning label to especially graphic or violent content so that it is not available to people under the age of eighteen and so that people are aware of the graphic or violent nature before they click to see it.
14. Adult nudity and sexual activity
The display of nudity or sexual activity is really not something we support or would want to be associated with because some people in our community may be sensitive to this type of content, additionally, the chance of sharing of non-consensual or underage content, then imagine the brand owners now seeing their products in such a place. Our reservations on the display of sexual activity, also extends to digitally created content. Maybe one vey justifiable reason for sharing such content would be for educational or medical reasons in the truest form.
15. Sexual solicitation
We acknowledge that people use the internet to discuss and draw attention to sexual violence and exploitation. We recognize the importance of and want to allow for this discussion. We draw the line, however, when content facilitates, encourages or coordinates sexual encounters between adults. We also restrict sexually explicit language that may lead to solicitation.
16. Cruel and insensitive
Any content that targets people based on their vulnerabilities is by general rights and purposes unacceptable. As such, we have higher expectations for content that we call cruel and insensitive, which we define as content that targets victims of serious physical or emotional harm.
Integrity and authenticity
17. Spam
We work hard to limit the spread of commercial spam to prevent false advertising, fraud and security breaches, all of which detract from people’s ability to share and connect. We would not want to be associated with people who use misleading or inaccurate information to collect likes, followers or shares. No unsolicited communication. It puts our reputation and the future of the program at risk.
18. Misrepresentation
Authenticity is the cornerstone of our program. We believe that people are more accountable for their statements and actions when they use their authentic identities. That’s why we require people to register using the name that they go by in everyday life. This way we help create a safe environment where people can trust and hold one another accountable.
19. False news
Reducing the spread of false news online is a responsibility that we take seriously. We also recognise that this is a challenging and sensitive issue. We want to help people stay informed without stifling productive public discourse. There is also a fine line between false news and satire or opinion.
20. Intellectual property
AZ takes intellectual property rights seriously and believes that they are important to promoting expression, creativity and innovation online. A person ordinarily should own all of the content and information that they post online, and control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. However, before sharing content we need to make that the person has a right to do so. We ask that you respect other people’s copyrights, trademarks and other legal rights. We are committed to helping people and organisations promote and protect their intellectual property rights.
What is Intellectual Property?
Content that you did not create someone else’s intellectual property rights, such as copyright and trademark.
Copyright
Copyright is a legal right that seeks to protect original works of authorship (ex: books, music, film, art). Generally, copyright protects original expression such as words or images. It does not protect facts and ideas, although it may protect the original words or images used to describe an idea. Copyright also doesn’t protect things like names, titles and slogans; however, another legal right called a trademark might protect those.
Trademark
A trademark is a word, slogan, symbol or design (example: brand name, logo) that distinguishes the products or services offered by one person, group or company from another. Generally, trademark law seeks to prevent confusion among consumers about who provides or is affiliated with a product or service.
Contact us for any queries or clarity on hello@affiliate.co.zw