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Key things to think about when starting a new community or adding your groups to Communities on WhatsApp.
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202: Enforcing Community Rules and Managing Difficult Members

10 MIN READ

Creating a safe space for members starts with writing good rules that are clear, specific, positive, and enforceable. Learn how you can ensure members know what to do when faced with problematic content and people, and how you can enforce your community rules transparently and consistently.

Ensure community rules are clear and communicated often

Good community rules reflect the community’s values. They clarify which behaviors are encouraged and which are not tolerated. They also clearly state what actions will lead to warning, removal, banning from the group/community, and reporting to WhatsApp. Members will also benefit from knowing how they can provide feedback and share ideas, what to do when a member breaks the rules, and how they can contact the admins if they have any concerns. It is a good idea to include a link to WhatsApp’s Terms of Service in your community rules.

As admins, you are responsible for safeguarding the community. Members look to your leadership in managing situations where the community rules are not respected. They expect you to uphold the rules consistently, and to remove content and members who violate the community rules.
Encourage members to take the following actions when faced with problematic content and people:
Block the contact on WhatsApp;
Message the group or community admins privately to report the situation;
Report content and people that violate WhatsApp’s Terms of Service to WhatsApp.
Community admins should work with group admins and members to manage and resolve issues at the group level if possible. However, in a situation where a member continuously violates WhatsApp’s Terms of Service, report the contact to WhatsApp. You can report an account by long pressing a single message.
About blocking and reporting contacts
Hate speech, violence, pornography, and any other harmful posts that violate community guidelines must be deleted immediately to stop the content from from being widely seen by members. It is important for you to contact and investigate the source to determine their intention quickly.
Don’t hesitate to remove a member from the group and community if there is a serious violation of the rules. If you end up removing a member, especially one that is well known within the community, consider making a short post sharing that the individual is no longer in the community. Take care not to disclose any sensitive personal details related to the situation and the members involved.
Work with your admins and members to watch out for trolls and vandals. A troll is a person who intends to create controversy. Trolls generally adopt fake identities, and behave in a disruptive manner. Vandals are people who take over your group by doing things like changing your group picture. Remove trolls, vandals, or group members, that continue to disobey the community rules, from the community quickly.
No matter what action you take, it is a good idea to restate the rules in the Announcement group, and let all community members know how you have acted to resolve the matter.
Your members rely on you to keep the community safe. Don't let people, who are acting inappropriately, intimidate you or try to stop you from doing the right thing. You can block a member, who contacts you after being removed, or who tries to stop you from removing them from a group or community.
Once blocked, messages, calls, and status updates sent by the contact won't show up on your phone and won’t be delivered to you. Your last seen, online, status updates, and any changes made to your profile photo will also no longer be visible to blocked contacts.
When you report a message or contact, WhatsApp may ban the account if we believe that the account activity is in violation of our Terms of Service. An account may also be temporarily banned for a period of time. Encourage your members to carefully review the “Acceptable Use of Our Services” section in our Terms of Service to learn more about the appropriate use of WhatsApp, as well as the activities that violate our Terms of Service and could result in an account ban.
If an account is banned, the user will see the following message when trying to access WhatsApp – "Your phone number is banned from using WhatsApp. Contact Support for help." If a user thinks their account was banned by mistake, they can contact WhatsApp via email and a case will be opened.
If there is an emergency, or you believe someone is a danger to themselves and you're concerned for their safety, contact your local emergency services or a suicide prevention hotline immediately. If you receive or encounter content indicating that a child is being abused or exploited, contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) or the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC), and report and block the user. Do not forward the abusive content when you are reporting it or messaging with anyone about the incident.
How to stay safe on WhatsApp

In summary:

Help members understand when to escalate issues to group and community admins, or WhatsApp;
Delete content that is harmful to the members immediately;
Block, remove, and report content and members that violate WhatsApp’s Terms of Service;
Contact your local authorities if there is a serious risk to safety.

What’s next…

Community admins carry a great responsibility in managing and growing a community safely. Learn how to recruit and build a strong admin team, share the workload, and develop processes to help you perform your tasks effectively.

Back to 201: Managing Conflict and Promoting Inclusion

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NEXT UP

203: Managing and Assigning Roles for Multi Admin Communities