Terms of Service

Ignite Chelmsford Content Policy​

 

​Ignite Chelmsford is a service for communication, self-expression and freedom of speech. We believe that Ignite Chelmsford increases the availability of information, encourages healthy debate and makes possible new connections between people. It is our belief that censoring this content is contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression.

 

However, in order to uphold these values, we need to curb abuses that threaten our ability to provide this service and the freedom of expression that it encourages. As a result, there are some boundaries on the type of content that can be hosted and/or shared via Ignite Chelmsford. The boundaries that we’ve defined are those that both comply with legal requirements and that serve to enhance the service as a whole.

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If you encounter any content that you believe violates our policies, please report it by emailing hello@ignitechelmsford.org.uk

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Content Boundaries

Our content policies play an important role in maintaining a positive experience for you, the users. Please respect these guidelines. From time to time, we may change our content policies, so please check back here. Also, please note that when applying the policies below, we may make exceptions based on artistic, educational, documentary or scientific considerations, or where there are other substantial benefits to the public from not taking action on the content.

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• Hate Speech: Our products are platforms for free expression, but we don’t permit hate speech. Hate speech is content that promotes or condones violence against or has the primary purpose of inciting hatred against an individual or group on the basis of their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalisation.

• Crude Content: Don’t share content just to be shocking or graphic. For example, collections of close-up images of gunshot wounds or accident scenes without additional context or commentary would violate this policy.

• Violence: It’s not OK to share violent or gory content that’s primarily intended to be shocking, sensational or gratuitous. If posting graphic content in a news, documentary, scientific or artistic context, please be mindful to provide enough information to help people understand what’s going on. In some cases, content may be so violent or shocking that no amount of context will allow that content to remain on our platforms. Lastly, don’t encourage others to commit specific acts of violence.

• Terrorist Content: We do not permit terrorist organisations to use Ignite Chelmsford for any purpose, including recruitment. Ignite Chelmsford also strictly prohibits content related to terrorism, such as content that promotes terrorist acts, incites violence or celebrates terrorist attacks. If sharing content related to terrorism for an educational, documentary, scientific or artistic purpose, be mindful to provide enough information so that viewers understand the context. Graphic or controversial footage may be subject to age restrictions or a warning screen.

• Harassment and Threats: Do not harass or bully others. Anyone using Ignite Chelmsford to harass or bully may have the offending content removed or be permanently banned from the site. Online harassment is also illegal in many places and can have serious offline consequences. Don’t threaten other people on your blog. For example, don’t share death threats against another person or group of people and don’t share content encouraging your readers to take violent action against another person or group of people.

• Copyright: It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. Also, please don’t share links to sites where people can obtain unauthorised downloads of other people’s content.

• Personal and confidential information: It’s not OK to share another person’s personal and confidential information. For example, don’t share someone else’s credit card numbers, National Insurance numbers, unlisted phone numbers and driver’s licence numbers. In addition, do not share or distribute images or videos of minors without the necessary consent from their legal representatives. If someone has shared an image or video of a minor without the necessary consent, please report it to us. Also, please bear in mind that in most cases, information that is already available elsewhere on the Internet or in public records is not considered to be private or confidential under our policies.

• Impersonation and misrepresentation: Do not use Ignite Chelmsford with the intent to deceive, mislead or confuse users by impersonating any person or organisation that you do not represent, or by concealing your ownership or primary purpose. This includes directing content about politics, social issues or matters of public concern to users in a country other than your own, if you misrepresent or intentionally conceal your country of origin or other material details about yourself. We’re not saying you can’t share parody or satire, or use a pseudonym or pen name – just avoid content that is likely to mislead readers about your true identity.

• Illegal activities: Do not use Ignite Chelmsford to engage in illegal activities or to promote dangerous and illegal activities. For example, don’t encourage people to drink and drive. Please also do not use Ignite Chelmsford to sell or promote illegal drugs. Otherwise, we may remove your content. Also, in serious cases, such as those involving the abuse of children, we may report you to the appropriate authorities.

• Regulated Goods and Services: Do not use Ignite Chelmsford to sell or facilitate the sale of regulated goods and services, such as alcohol, gambling, pharmaceuticals and unapproved supplements, tobacco, fireworks, weapons or health/medical devices.

• Spam: Spam takes several forms in Ignite Chelmsford, all of which can result in deletion of your account or blog. Some examples include creating blogs designed to drive traffic to your site or to move it up in search listings, posting comments on other people’s blogs just to promote your site or product and scraping existing content from other sources for the primary purpose of generating revenue or other personal gain.

• Malware and viruses: Do not create blogs that transmit viruses, cause pop-ups, attempt to install software without the reader’s consent or otherwise impact readers with malicious code. This is strictly forbidden on Ignite Chelmsford.

• Adult Content: We do allow adult content on Ignite Chelmsford, including content that contains nudity or sexual activity. There are some exceptions to our adult content policy:

  • Do not use Ignite Chelmsford as a way to make money on adult content. For example, don’t share content that contains ads for or links to commercial porn sites.

  • We do not allow illegal sexual content, including image, video, verbal or textual content that depicts or encourages rape, incest, bestiality or necrophilia.

  • Do not post or distribute private nude or sexually explicit images or videos without the subject’s consent. If someone has posted a private nude or sexually explicit image or video of you, please report it to us.

• Child safety: We have a zero-tolerance policy towards content that exploits children. Some examples of this include:

  • Child sexual abuse imagery: We will terminate the accounts of any user we find publishing, sharing or distributing child sexual abuse imagery. We will also report that user to the police.

  • Paedophilia: We do not allow content that encourages or promotes sexual attraction towards children. For example, do not create blogs with galleries of images of children where the collection of images or text accompanying the images is sexually suggestive, and do not share content of a sexual nature involving an underage participant.​

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Enforcement of Ignite Chelmsford’s Content Policy

Please report suspected policy violations to us using by emailing hello@ignitechelmsford.org.uk

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Our team reviews this inbox for notifications of policy violations. If the content does not violate our policies, we will not take any action against the content or content owner. If we find that content does violate our content policies, we take one or more of the following actions, based on the severity of the violation:

• Put the content behind an interstitial where only the content author can access the content

• Delete the offending content and notify the user

• Disable the author’s access to their Ignite Chelmsford account

• Report the user to the police

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We may also take any of the actions above if we find that a user has shared numerous content engaging in repeated abusive behaviour. If you have had any content disabled, do not create replacement content that engages in similar activity.

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