HuffPost Policies & Statements On Standards Of Conduct

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The only way to objectively assess whether or not HuffPost is enforcing its standards of conduct is to understand specifically what those standards are, then compare them to (a) what is observable on the site, and (b) the facts that are documented here at HuffBusters.

This compilation documents some of HuffPost's articulated policies and statements regarding blogger and user conduct --- specifically:

1. HuffPost's Terms of Service & User Agreement
   
   
2. HuffPost's Comment & Moderation Policies
   
   
3. Articles about, and interviews with HuffPost re its standards of conduct

Items (1) and (2) are located at the bottom of all HuffPost pages, as shown below, and via other links (e.g. signup and user preference screens, etc. --- so they are clearly identified and easily accessible).


In summary, as you will see, the basic "rules of conduct" articulated in all three of these document categories are:

• Keep your comments on-topic (pertaining to the topic of the thread).
  
  
• Don't harass other users, or attack them on a personal (ad hominem) basis, or with vulgarity, defamation, slanders, etc.
  
  
• Don't engage in hate speech, or use slurs relating to race, sexual orientation or gender, ethnicity, etc., or celebrate anyone's sickness or death.
  
  
• Don't threaten anyone.
  
  
• Don't break any laws, and don't encourage anyone else to do so.

In short, act like a civilized, law-abiding human being while using HuffPost.

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(1) HUFFPOST TERMS OF SERVICE & USER AGREEMENT

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The link to this document is here. This is the legal agreement between HuffPost and its users (as the defendant discovered in the federal MySpace indictment). It defines the terms under which users are authorized to access and use HuffPost --- terms that, if intentionally broken by the user, constitute unauthorized access, a basic factor in the MySpace indictment.

The salient portions of this agreement, as applied to the topics covered at HuffBusters, are:

"Please read this User Agreement before using this Service. By continuing to use TheHuffingtonPost.com (THP), you agree to abide by the conditions of this User Agreement.

HUFFINGTONPOST.COM SERVICE USER AGREEMENT

1. Your use of this Service constitutes your agreement to all such terms, conditions and policies.

3. In furtherance of the foregoing, you agree that you will not:

(i) submit material that is copyrighted (...) unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the material and to grant THP all of the rights granted herein;

(ii) publish falsehoods or misrepresentations that could damage THP or any third party;

(iii) submit material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, libelous, threatening, pornographic, harassing, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, violate any law, or is otherwise inappropriate.

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(2) HUFFPOST'S COMMENT AND MODERATION POLICIES

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HuffPost has two links that lead to two slightly different versions of these policies: its Comment Policy and its FAQ: Comments & Moderation.

The following are the salient portions of these policies (emphasis added):

"Huffington Post pre-moderates comments on our blog posts and post-moderates comments on news stories.*
(*NOTE: We already know this is not true; see here and here)

We never censor comments based on political or ideological point of view.
(NOTE: This is untrue, as close HuffPost observers know, and will be abundantly documented here at HuffBusters in the future)

We only delete those comments that include the following transgressions:

• are abusive, off-topic, use excessive foul language
  
  
• include ad hominem attacks including comments that celebrate the death or illness of any person, public figure or otherwise
  
  
• contain racist, sexist, homophobic and other slurs
  
  
• are posted with the explicit intention of provoking other commenters or the staff at Huffington Post

Q: I posted a comment. Why can't I see it on the site?

A: There are two scenarios for which your comment may not appear:

1. It may be pending approval (...)

2. Your comment violated the policy above. We pride ourselves in providing a medium for engaging and thought-provoking stories and encourage our users to speak their minds freely, provided comments fall within our commenting policy. We must respect our writers and protect them from vicious and inflammatory comments. They too are entitled to free speech- the right to share their opinions without being subject to scathing and mean-spirited remarks.

Q: Why am I blocked from commenting on Huff Post?

A: There are a few scenarios in which a comment might be blocked:

1. A comment is extremely abusive, off-topic, uses excessive foul language, or includes an ad hominem attack

2. If a commenter has previously posted comments that are abusive, off-topic, used excessive foul language, or include ad hominem attacks, a Huff Post moderator may decide to ban the commenter's IP address. This means the abusive commenter is banned from commenting on the site in the future, even if the later comments are not abusive. We ban IPs because the sheer volume of comments makes it too time consuming to individually delete comments written by someone with a pattern of abuse.

Q: There is a comment that I find insulting and in violation of your policy. What can I do?

A: You can flag the comment as abusive by pressing the Flag As Abusive link below the comment. This alerts our moderators and delete the comments that don't comply with our policy."

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(3) ARTICLES ABOUT, AND INTERVIEWS WITH HUFFPOST RE ITS
STANDARDS OF CONDUCT

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New Kid On The Block
Newsweek, May 6, 2005

Excerpt:

(Arianna Huffington) writes in the site's inaugural May 9 (2005) post [...]: "If you're looking for the usual flame-throwing, name-calling, and simplistic attack dog rhetoric ... don't bother coming to the Huffington Post." [...]

(Huffington): "What we're doing is two things. We do news. I don't believe news is left wing or right wing. And then we do the group blog, which is going to be a dialogue from all viewpoints."

Setting the Record Straight: On Trolls, Moles, and Dis-Invited Bloggers
Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post, June 22, 2006

Excerpt:

(H)is (Dr. Rost’s) penchant for airing personal grudges on HuffPost continued, becoming problematic when he devoted another long post to a personal attack on one of the commenters to his posts… (H)e responded (to HP’s gestures) by doing the exact opposite of what we had asked -- posting a follow up to his earlier post that included more personal attacks. At this point, it was clear that Peter Rost had ceased acting as a member of our online community [...]

“Arianna Huffington Defies Skeptics, Conquers The Web”
Fortune, October 29, 2007

Excerpt:

[Arianna Huffington]: "(O)ur desire (is to) not to have the Huffington Post become a forum for unending personal battles and potentially libelous charges."

“Bill O'Reilly Needs to Enroll in ‘Understanding the Internet 101’”
Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post, March 20, 2008

Excerpt:

We have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to abusive or hateful language or comments – such comments are taken down as quickly as they come to the attention of our moderators. And we are constantly working to develop new technologies -- and backing them up with more and more 24/7 moderators -- which will allow us to more effectively filter out objectionable comments. But no system is perfect and offensive comments occasionally slip through.