200: Establish boundaries and a positive atmosphere

Boundaries clearly define safe and acceptable behavior. They define what we’re comfortable or uncomfortable with, and how we’d like to be treated by others. Boundaries clarify responsibilities and expectations and help build trust. When writing your community rules, use a positive tone to communicate these boundaries and what actions you’ll take when rules are broken.

Communities with a positive culture and limited conflict credit their success to good rules communicated clearly on day one. Post your rules in the community description so that they are prominent and 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, and introduce rule changes gradually to allow your community to react and adapt.

For your own well-being it’s important to consider your personal boundaries and set expectations around availability. For example, you may want to set your online hours from 9am - 6pm, Mondays to Fridays, to let your admin team and members know that you won’t be responding to messages outside of this time.

Work with Group admins to check for violations of your community rules, and potentially harmful information and interactions within your groups. Act immediately to shut down unwanted or harmful conversations and stop them from spreading. It’s important to quickly delete messages that violate your community’s expectations and rules. You might also consider temporarily changing the “Send Messages” group setting to “Only Admins” to prevent members from sending further messages if a Group thread has gotten particularly toxic.

Misinformation 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 information

It’s especially wise to double-check facts in messages labeled “Highly Forwarded Messages,” as they are at least five forwards away from the original sender.

Remind members that stories that seem hard to believe are often untrue. Many scammy messages and links have spelling or grammar mistakes, or contain a request for the receiver to share personal information. Always “hover” over a link and review it carefully before clicking it.

If you see messages containing false information, quickly alert the sender that the 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 and help them understand how to recognize misinformation. Don’t delay removing serious offenders from a Group or the community.

How to prevent the spread of misinformation

Bullying is when someone harasses, threatens, embarrasses, or targets another person with the intention of belittling or shaming them. Work with your 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 or content that contravenes the community's rules. Contact the offending member to remind them of community expectations, and to clarify and calm the situation. You might try to gain a deeper understanding of what caused the bullying or harassment in the first place, to help them understand how their action made the other member feel and the effect on the Group and community. Make sure they understand the consequences of their behavior or ask the member for their ideas on how to resolve the problem and rebuild trust. Or you may want to ban the offender from the community.

It’s also important to approach the victim and offer comfort and support. Remind them to reach out to admins or people they trust for help and explain that they can control their interactions by blocking the member.

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

If a member is constantly hostile and bullying and harassing others, you should promptly remove them from the Community and from every Group to which they belong.

Community safety is every member’s responsibility. Openly discuss potential online harms and create a culture where members feel a strong sense of ownership and responsibility for community well-being.

Proactively share tips and information on online safety to help members understand how to protect themselves and others from any risks. Also, make sure that members know about the 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 opinion, and encourages respect for 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 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