Community Guidelines

Purpose

Europe Social is civic infrastructure for European public discourse. It is designed to be a space for informed conversation, local journalism, and community engagement across Europe's languages and cultures. These guidelines exist to protect that purpose.

Expected Behavior

Engage in good faith — Contribute to conversations constructively. Disagree respectfully.
Respect local context — Zone-based conversations reflect local communities. Respect the norms and concerns of those communities.
Be truthful — Especially during incidents and breaking news. If you report on-site, report accurately.
Credit sources — When sharing journalism or research, credit the original source.
Use translation thoughtfully — Automatic translation enables cross-language conversation. Be patient with translation artifacts and cultural differences.

Prohibited Content

The following content is not allowed on Europe Social:

Illegal content — Content that violates applicable EU or member state law
Hate speech — Content that attacks individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristics
Harassment and threats — Targeted harassment, bullying, doxxing, or threats of violence
Deliberate misinformation — Knowingly false information, especially regarding public health, elections, or active incidents
Spam and manipulation — Coordinated inauthentic behavior, bot networks, or manipulation of zone feeds and incident reporting
Sexual exploitation — Non-consensual intimate imagery, sexual exploitation of minors
Terrorism and violent extremism — Content that promotes, glorifies, or recruits for terrorist organizations or violent extremist ideologies
Intellectual property violation — Content that infringes copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights (see our Copyright Policy)

Verification System

Europe Social uses an AT Protocol-based labeling system to verify accounts. Verified accounts carry badges indicating their role:

Verified Journalist — Working journalists with editorial accountability
Government Official — Elected officials and authorized government communicators
NGO / Institution — Non-governmental organizations and public institutions
Local Business — Verified local businesses
Notable Person — Public figures of significance

Misrepresenting your verification status or impersonating verified accounts is a serious violation of these guidelines.

Incident Reporting

Europe Social's incident detection system relies on honest, on-site reporting. Misuse of the incident system is prohibited:

Do not file false on-site attestations
Do not fabricate or exaggerate incidents
Do not use the incident system for personal disputes
Verified journalist reports carry elevated trust — abuse of this trust will result in verification removal

Moderation Approach

Europe Social uses a layered moderation approach:

AT Protocol labeling — Content labels applied via the standard AT Protocol labeling system, allowing users to configure their own filtering preferences
Community reporting — Users can report content that violates these guidelines
Human review — Reported content is reviewed by human moderators
Zone moderators — Local community members may serve as volunteer moderators for their zones

We aim to be transparent about moderation decisions. We do not use automated content removal except for clearly illegal content (e.g., CSAM).

Appeals

If you believe a moderation action was taken in error, you can appeal by contacting moderation@europesocial.org. Appeals are reviewed by a different moderator than the one who made the original decision. We aim to resolve appeals within 7 days.

AT Protocol Federation

Europe Social is part of the AT Protocol network. Content from other AT Protocol services may appear in your feeds. While we apply our labeling and moderation standards to content displayed on Europe Social, we cannot control the moderation policies of other services in the network.

When interacting with accounts on other services, their community guidelines may also apply.