CW: Suicide and self-harm
Last week we published a report on self-harm policies on internet platforms. We gave Reddit a low rating, as we could not find any policies that referenced self-harm or suicide. cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io/self-harm-p…
Last week we published a report on self-harm policies on internet platforms. We gave Reddit a low rating, as we could not find any policies that referenced self-harm or suicide. cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io/self-harm-p…
Reddit reached out on this, sending us a link to a blog post outlining their approach to self-harm. It is very thoughtful: redditblog.com/2020/03/04/red…
In our ratings, we only counted policies that appeared in the platforms' main policy documents. For example, we did not give Instagram credit for a similarly thoughtful policy outlined in a blog post, as we worried users might not come across it. about.instagram.com/blog/announcem…
While we had come across Instagram's blog post in our research, we had not come across Reddit's. Two researchers looked for policies for each platform we covered.
The fact that we did not see Reddit's blog post suggests a user or self-harm prevention group may not either. While we are impressed with Reddit's blog post, we encourage Reddit to include all of their policy language in one place.
Reddit also pointed us to their policy on violent content. We recommend Reddit clarify that this policy applies to self-harm, as it was not clear to us when we came across it. Most platforms separate their violent content and self-harm content policies. reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/artic…
We have updated our report to reference Reddit's blog post, but have not changed our ratings.
We all want the same thing: platforms that are safe for users. We applaud Reddit's activities on this front and simultaneously encourage all platforms to consolidate policy language in one place so researchers and advocacy groups can find it and understand what the policies are.
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