Ethical Terms of Service (ToS)
A toolkit designed to help people operating small platforms protect their communities.
OES is developing an Ethical ToS (“Terms of Service”) toolkit designed for people operating small platforms, for example ActivityPub implementations including Mastodon instances, discussion forums, and other online community spaces.
The Ethical ToS is meant to be a starting point for continuous processes of improvement, not an ending point or a solution. Adopting and adapting the Ethical ToS will signal that the platform has given substantial thought to a plan for protecting their community from harmful and possibly illegal actions– and that the platform will work to ensure that the ToS is not weaponized against vulnerable users.
Are you interested in helping us develop the Ethical ToS toolkit? Become an OES member and join the OSC working group.