The CoSocial Community Cooperative’s Code of Conduct

The CoSocial Community Cooperative (“CoSocial”) is an inclusive non-profit social media cooperative for Canadians. Membership is open to those residing within the borders of Canada. Read more in our vision statement.

The CoSocial Community Cooperative (“CoSocial”) is dedicated to providing a positive, welcoming, and inclusive experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, age, race, Indigenous status, linguistic and cultural background, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment in any form.

This code of conduct applies to all CoSocial spaces both online and at CoSocial-sponsored in-person events. This includes any present and future Social Web services offered by CoSocial. Violations of this code of conduct may result in sanctions against members, including suspension from CoSocial’s Social Web services at the discretion of the Trust and Safety working group (T&S). Conduct violations in person, in public, or within CoSocial member interactions may also be addressed by the Membership team or the Board of Directors.

CoSocial Social Web services may have additional rules in place, which govern conduct on a specific platform or application, and which will be made clearly available to participants. Members are responsible for knowing and abiding by these rules, and shall consider them extensions of the Code of Conduct

Expected Behaviours

• Treat all persons fairly and with respect, courtesy and dignity.
• Be sensitive to cultural and social differences and practices.
• Be careful in your use of language that may be disrespectful or demeaning.
• Commit to working with the process outlined even if you are the subject of a complaint.
• If you are asked to disengage from a discussion, interaction, or other contact with someone, do so.
• Think about the community and be respectful that some may find certain content problematic even if you don’t.
• Make use of Content Warnings or similar tools when available in online applications. They are a means of engaging a reader’s consent to interaction, and are also useful to summarize longer posts.
• Being part of the coop, you represent it and your behaviour (constructive or not) reflects on the coop as a whole.

Unacceptable behaviour

The following behaviour is not welcome anywhere in CoSocial spaces and may lead to moderation actions:

• Offensive comments related to gender, gender identity and expression, sex, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neuro(a)typicality, physical appearance, body size, race, caste, country of origin, or religion.
• Holocaust denial and Nazi symbolism.
• Promotion of totalitarian, white supremacist, or hateful ideology or symbolism, including in choice of user name or avatar.
• Transphobia, including deliberate or persistent misgendering, deadnaming, or the promotion of so-called conversion therapy
• Threats of violence or deliberate intimidation
• Incitement of violence or harassment towards any individual, by any means, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm
• Publishing any individual’s address, phone number, or other private identifying information without consent (sometimes called “doxxing”).
• Unwelcome sexual attention, including sharing sexual content with specific users without consent.
• Publication or sharing of non-harassing private communication without consent.
• Continued communications with someone who’s asked that you leave them alone.
• Unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment.

These behaviours are unacceptable anywhere and to anyone. This includes other CoSocial members, members of the public, or any other social web user on public timelines or in more limited communications (replies, direct or private messages, etc).

Additionally, be aware of the following restrictions on all CoSocial.ca Social Web services:

• No distribution of content which is illegal in Canada.
• No distribution of intentionally false or misleading information. Be prepared to correct or remove misinformation if it is brought to your attention.
• Sustained or deliberate disruption of discussion, or of others’ personal interactions is not permitted. This includes inappropriate posting to hashtags, groups, other social web services, and using follow functions, and direct or private messages, to get attention.
• Child Sexual Abuse/Exploitation material (CSAM/CSEM) is not permitted.
• No distribution of Non-Consensual Intimate materials, including in written text, generated or enhanced content. If your post depicts, describes, or simulates an identifiable person and affirmative consent is not apparent, it is subject to removal.
• Graphic violent or sexual content, whether image or text, must be masked with a content warning.
• Excessive commercial posting or spam is not allowed. It’s fine to promote your work, but it shouldn’t be the bulk of what you share. Such posts belong on the public timeline ONLY and should not use irrelevant tags or groups.
• Automated (bot) accounts are allowed as long as they are clearly identified and the content they post conforms with this code of conduct.

Reporting unacceptable behaviour

As a CoSocial.ca member it is your right to report any unacceptable behaviour that you experience. In addition to reporting, you have other actions that you can take, such as muting, blocking, and filtering. Please see the Mastodon documentation on dealing with unwanted content for more information on available tools and mechanisms to protect yourself…

How CoSocial.ca handles misconduct

Trust and Safety (T&S) is a group of volunteers who are responsible for handling reports of misconduct involving our public and internal social web services, online member spaces, and other services we provide our members under the CoSocial.ca umbrella. For all other issues of member misconduct, including those that involve a board member, ongoing disputes, appeals, or membership termination, Membership group is responsible.

Coop members asked to stop any unacceptable behaviour are expected to comply immediately. If the member continues to engage in similar behavior, T&S, Membership, or the Board of Directors may take any action they deem appropriate, up to and including temporary suspension from services or termination of membership.

Be aware that not every user or post you see in your Social Web timelines is a member registered on CoSocial.ca. Users of CoSocial itself are expected to adhere to this Code of Conduct. Users from other instances are not bound by our Code of Conduct, but we may remove offending content, silence, or suspend users of other nodes (thus limiting their visibility on the instance) if they’re not contributing to the welcoming and inclusive atmosphere we wish to maintain. If many members on an instance regularly behave this way, we may limit or cease interaction with such an instance.

Credits and License

This Code of Conduct is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 and is based on the Wandering Shop’s Code of Conduct, which is in turn based on Geek Feminism’s Community Anti-Harassment Policy.

Changes

This section will keep a summary of all changes to this Code of Conduct

• September 21, 2024: First version of Code of Conduct is released.