A/HRC/38/35 standards on any particular body of law that might govern expression, such as national law or international human rights law. The Chinese search giant Baidu, however, prohibits content that is “opposed to the basic principles established by the Constitution” of the People’s Republic of China.62 25. The development of content moderation policies typically involves legal counsel, public policy and product managers, and senior executives. Companies may establish “trust and safety” teams to address spam, fraud and abuse, and counter-terrorism teams may address terrorist content. 63 Some have developed mechanisms for soliciting input from outside groups on specialized aspects of content policies. 64 The exponential increase in user-generated content has triggered the development of detailed and constantly evolving rules. These rules vary according to a range of factors, from company size, revenue and business model to the “platform’s brand and reputation, its tolerance for risk, and the type of user engagement it wishes to attract”.65 Areas of concern around content standards 26. Vague rules. Company prohibitions of threatening or promoting terrorism, 66 supporting or praising leaders of dangerous organizations 67 and content that promotes terrorist acts or incites violence 68 are, like counter-terrorism legislation, excessively vague.69 Company policies on hate, harassment and abuse also do not clearly indicate what constitutes an offence. Twitter’s prohibition of “behavior that incites fear about a protected group” and Facebook’s distinction between “direct attacks” on protected characteristics and merely “distasteful or offensive content” are subjective and unstable bases for content moderation.70 27. Hate, harassment, abuse. The vagueness of hate speech and harassment policies has triggered complaints of inconsistent policy enforcement that penalizes minorities while reinforcing the status of dominant or powerful groups. Users and civil society report violence and abuse against women, including physical threats, misogynist comments, the posting of non-consensual or fake intimate images and doxing;71 threats of harm against the politically disenfranchised,72 minority races and castes73 and ethnic groups suffering from violent persecution;74 and abuse directed at refugees, migrants and asylum seekers.75 At the same time, platforms have reportedly suppressed lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer activism,76 advocacy against repressive Governments,77 reporting on ethnic cleansing78 and critiques of racist phenomena and power structures.79 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 10 Baidu terms of service, sect. 3.1. Monika Bickert, “Hard questions: how we counter terrorism”, 15 June 2017. See, for example, Twitter Trust and Safety Council and YouTube Trusted Flagger Program. Sarah Roberts, Content Moderation (University of California at Los Angeles, 2017). See also ARTICLE 19 submission, p. 2. Twitter rules and policies (violent extremist groups). Facebook community standards (dangerous organizations). YouTube policies (violent or graphic content policies). See A/HRC/31/65, para. 39. Facebook community standards (hate speech); Twitter rules and policies (hateful conduct policy). Amnesty International, Toxic Twitter: A Toxic Place for Women; Association for Progressive Communications submission, p. 2. Submissions by 7amleh and Association for Progressive Communications, p. 15. Ijeoma Oluo, “Facebook’s complicity in the silencing of black women”, Medium, 2 August 2017; submissions by Center for Communications Governance, p. 5 and Association for Progressive Communications, pp. 11−12. Statement by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, to the thirty-seventh session of the Human Rights Council, 12 March 2018. Association for Progressive Communications submission, p. 12. Electronic Frontier Foundation submission, p. 5. Ibid.; submissions by Association for Progressive Communications and 7amleh. Betsy Woodruff, “Facebook silences Rohingya reports of ethnic cleansing”, The Daily Beast, 18 September 2017; ARTICLE 19 submission, p. 9.