200: Establishing Boundaries and Maintaining a Good Community Atmosphere

Boundaries clearly define safe and acceptable behaviour. They define what we are comfortable or uncomfortable with, and how we’d like to be treated by others. Boundaries clarify responsibilities and expectations, and help to build trust. When writing your community guidelines, use a positive tone to communicate the boundaries and the actions that will be taken when rules are broken.

Communities with a positive culture and limited conflict credit their success to having good rules communicated clearly to them from day one. Post your rules in the community description so they are easily accessible, and broadcast them regularly in the Announcement group. It is important to update your rules as your community grows and evolves so that they remain relevant to all members. Make sure to clearly and transparently communicate any new expectations or changes in rules, and introduce changes gradually to allow your community to react and adapt.

It is also important to consider personal boundaries within your admin role to set expectations around your availability and create space for your own wellbeing. For example, you might like to set your online hours to 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Mondays to Fridays, so let your admin team and members know that you won’t be responding to messages outside of this time.

Work with group admins to look out for violations of your community rules, and stay vigilant against potentially harmful information and interactions within your groups. Act immediately to shut down misinformation and hoaxes to stop them from spreading rapidly. It is important to quickly delete the messages, and consider temporarily changing the “Send Messages” group setting to “Only Admins” to disable members from sending messages.

Fake news often goes viral. Even if a message is shared many times, this doesn’t make it true. Photos, audio recordings, and videos can be edited to mislead people.

Encourage your members to always check whether a disturbing or suspicious-looking message is true, and avoid falling victim to false information by:

• Checking trusted news sites to see where the story came from. Stories reported in multiple places and from trustworthy sources are more likely to be true;
• Consulting fact-checkers affiliated with the International Fact-Checking Network to verify facts and information.

It is wise to double check facts in messages labelled “Highly Forwarded Messages”, as they are at least five forwards away from the original senders.

Remind members that stories that seem hard to believe are often untrue. Many unwanted messages and links have spelling or grammar mistakes, or request the receiver to share personal information. Always look closely at a link before clicking it.

If you see posts containing false information, quickly alert the sender that the posted information is inaccurate. Ask them to correct and clarify the message in the group immediately. If a member is consistently sharing fake news, reach out to them privately to explain why this is harmful to the community, and help them understand how to recognize misinformation. However, don’t delay removing serious offenders from the group and community.

How to prevent the spread of misinformation

Bullying happens when someone harasses, threatens, embarrasses, or targets another person with the intention to belittle or shame them. Work with your community admin team and group admins to look out for these signs of abuse:

• Hateful and disrespectful comments about someone’s appearance, abilities, race, gender, sexuality, or religion;
• Repeated, unwanted contact or messages within groups;
• Personal information and intimate images being shared without consent.

When a member is bullying or harassing another, act quickly to delete any messages and content that are against the community rules. Contact the offending member to remind them of your community expectations, and to clarify and calm the situation. Depending on your community, you might consider banning the offending user from the community and/or group. Or you might try to gain a deeper understanding of what has caused the bullying or harassment in the first place. Help the member to understand how their action has made the other member feel, the effect on the group and community, and the consequences of continuing such abusive behavior. Ask the member for their ideas to resolve the problem and rebuild trust.

It is also important to approach the victim to offer comfort and support. Remind them to reach out to the admins or people they trust for help, and that they have the ability to control whom they interact with by blocking the contact or reporting messages and contacts on WhatsApp.

While you investigate and talk to the members involved, you may want to ask the group admins to temporarily mute the group by adjusting group settings to allow only admins to send messages.

If a member is constantly hostile by bullying and harassing others, you should remove them from the community by promptly removing them from every group they belong to.

Community safety is every member’s responsibility. Openly discuss potential online harms like misinformation, scamming, bullying, and harassment within your community, and create a culture where members feel a strong sense of ownership and responsibility for the community’s well being.

Proactively share tips and information on online safety to help members understand how to protect themselves and others from any unintended risks. Also make sure that members know about the available privacy and safety settings that help them stay safe while using WhatsApp.

Use your community rules to create a kind and inclusive culture that invites and accepts differences of opinions, and encourages respecting others within the community. Helping your members to understand how their words and actions affect other people can reduce the likelihood of abuse and conflict.

Encourage members to speak up when they see inappropriate behavior and/or content that’s directed at them or another member. When members are having an interesting discussion with different views and opinions, write a message to acknowledge and thank the members for a great discussion.

How to change your privacy settings