revoltchat · insertish · Mar 15, 2023 · Oct 2, 2023 · Oct 30, 2023 · Oct 30, 2023
diff --git a/About.md b/About.md
@@ -1,26 +1,4 @@
-# Communication is critical.
-# Privacy is essential.
+Migrated to our team wiki, check out:
 
-Revolt is currently led by [Paul Makles](https://insrt.uk) and in part by [Martin Löffler](https://github.com/fatalerrorcoded).
-
-> "From your first dirt block, to the greatest guild you have ever played with, to late-night deep conversations with your friends, we all know how important communication is.
->
-> We at Revolt strive to create a free and open platform, allowing diversified communities of all kinds to thrive and to be fully transparent with our users. We believe everyone should have total freedom over how they talk with each other.
->
-> We realize these days that privacy has come down lower in priority amongst other values. We believe in freedom of speech, that everyone should have the right to talk freely and express themselves in any way."
-
-\- nizune, Former Designer
-
-## Our Story
-
-The Revolt project originally started back in 2019 by a group of three students from the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic, looking for an alternative to the already emerging, closed-source chat platforms.
-
-Our main focus for the project was to create an open-source, completely compromise-free platform that offered all of the same features and competed against other chat apps.
-
-Revolt as it stands today began development towards the end of 2020 and went online on the 27th of January 2021.
-
-Revolt went into a public beta on the 11th of August 2021.
-
-## For the people
-
-We at Revolt made our platform completely [open-source](https://github.com/revoltchat) to remain transparent while maintaining the best user experience possible. We are very thankful to our users for using Revolt and we think they deserve transparency from our side and we do our best to provide the best platform with the highest standard of privacy and security they deserve. We recognize everyone who helps improve our solution and we are open to contributions from our community as together, we can develop a platform that we all deserve.
+- [Our background & history](https://wiki.revolt.chat/notes/project/background--history/)
+- [Our vision and values](https://wiki.revolt.chat/notes/project/core-vision/)
diff --git a/Acceptable Usage Policy.md b/Acceptable Usage Policy.md
@@ -1,59 +1,153 @@
-*Last updated: 03. June, 2022*
+_Last updated: 31. July, 2024_
 
 # Acceptable Usage Policy
 
-This **Acceptable Usage Policy** (**AUP**) applies to the official instance of Revolt available at [revolt.chat](http://revolt.chat). Self-hosted instances may choose to adopt this AUP if they wish. 
+This **Acceptable Usage Policy** (**AUP**) applies to the official instance of Revolt available at [revolt.chat](http://revolt.chat). Self-hosted instances may choose to adopt this AUP if they wish.
 
 ## Community Guidelines
 
-**Revolt** can cater to your community, raid guild, study group and anything in-between. We encourage you to:
+**Revolt** can cater to your community, raid guild, study group, and anything in-between. We encourage you to:
 
 - Take advantage of our powerful community tools.
 - Be kind and make friends with others on our platform.
-- Have fun talking and sharing content on our platform.
+- Have fun collaborating, communicating, and sharing content.
 
 Online communities have the potential to change people's lives, so we want to encourage a positive environment for anyone willing to join.
 
-### What We Don't Allow
+### Keeping You Safe
 
-Engaging in any of the following actions will result in a warning and may lead to having your account suspended.
+To ensure users stay safe on the platform, we explicitly disallow:
 
-- Creating accounts or using existing accounts to send unsolicited advertisements to other people on the platform or to harass other individuals on the platform.
-- Sharing any kind of copyrighted content, or any type of content that violates another person's personal, intellectual property or other rights. This includes any content that would violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). We respond to DMCA requests as described in our [Terms of Service](https://revolt.chat/terms).
-- Using Revolt for illegal operations. These include, but are not limited to, hacking, the cracking or distribution of pirated software, cheats, exploits or hacks for our or another company or person's service.
-- Using Revolt with malicious intent, in a way that is not reasonable under normal usage, in order to outsource computing and/or storage resources to our servers, as well as other forms of Denial of Service to our infrastructure.
-- Sharing any type of imagery that depicts real-life violence, gore or animal cruelty. However, an exception to this rule has been made for violence portrayed in media (including movies, games, books and such).
-- The selling and buying of Revolt accounts is prohibited.
+- **Violent Extremism**
 
-To report any of the above activity, contact us at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
+  Content that promotes, encourages, or glorifies violent extremist ideologies or activities is not permitted on our platform.
 
-Please note we are *committed to resolving every single report*. Please be patient and **do not spam our support team** - we appreciate your concerns and will act upon them.
+- **Misinformation & Conspiracy Theories**
 
-### What We Can't Allow
+  Spreading false or misleading information that can cause harm to individuals or society is prohibited. This includes conspiracy theories that have been debunked or lack credible evidence.
 
-Engaging in any of the following will result in **immediate account termination** as well as content removal. You may also be **blacklisted** from using our services indefinitely.
+- **Hate Speech & Hateful Conduct**
 
-- Sharing any content or imagery that is illegal ([see footnote](#jurisdiction)). We don't want you or us to get into any legal trouble, so stay in line by not engaging in illegal activities or sharing illegal content such as, but not limited to, sharing any pornography that is subject to legal age restrictions, pornography that depicts minors, revenge pornography, the selling or facilitating the usage of drugs, extortion or blackmail.
-- Sharing any content promoting, encouraging or glorifying self-harm or suicide. This includes any content that pushes people to cut or injure themselves; that embraces eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia; or that encourages people to commit suicide as opposed to referring them to the correct treatment and help. If you notice someone in need of urgent help, **please contact your local authorities**.
-- Attempts to hack or otherwise gain unauthorised access to our service - for example, accessing another person's account without permission, or attempting to steal another person's account. This also includes attempts to gain access to our backend networks. **Please contact us ahead of time for permission to test our networks by emailing [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).**
-- Distributing malware such as viruses, trojans, worms, etc. Any software designed with malicious intent to attack another person or to steal their data is not tolerated.
-- Sharing content that is designed to harass or degrade someone else, or that can directly threaten someone's physical, mental or financial state. This includes death threats, doxxing (sharing personal information without permission), or ignoring someone's privacy.
+  We define hate speech as any form of expression that attacks, promotes harm, or promotes hatred against other people based on their protected characteristics.
 
-To report any of the above activity, contact us at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
+  We define the following as protected characteristics: age; caste; colour; disability; ethnicity; family responsibilities; gender; gender identity; housing status; national origin; race; refugee or immigration status; religious affiliation; serious illness; sex; sexual orientation; socioeconomic class and status; source of income; status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual violence, or stalking; and weight and size.
 
-### Strikes
+- **Promoting, Encouraging, or Glorifying Self-Harm or Suicide**
 
-Strikes are **irreversible**. Account suspensions can be removed through a successful appeal, but only if you believe that we took the wrong action. There is no point asking to be appealed for breaking the law.
+  This includes any content that pushes people to cut or injure themselves; that embraces eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia; or that encourages people to commit suicide as opposed to referring them to the correct treatment and help. If you notice someone in need of urgent help, please contact your local authorities.
 
-If you would like to appeal a suspension, please contact [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
+- **Promoting, Organising, or Engaging In Illegal Behaviour on Platform**
+
+  Any content or activity that violates applicable laws is strictly prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to:
+
+  Local laws: Laws applicable in the user's location of access or residence. <br>
+  National laws: Laws of the country where the user is located or where their actions have effect. <br>
+  International laws: Widely recognized international laws and treaties. <br>
+  Laws of our jurisdictions: As outlined in the "Jurisdiction" section below, we are bound by and enforce laws within specific jurisdictions due to our operational locations and data storage.
+
+  Users are responsible for ensuring their activities comply with all applicable laws and ignorance is not a valid defence for violations.
+
+- **Promoting off-platform content that violates our acceptable usage policy**
+
+  Sharing links or references to external content with intent to promote content that violates our AUP is not allowed.
+
+- **Sharing content designed to harass or degrade someone, or that can directly threaten someone's physical, mental, or financial state**
+
+  This includes death threats, doxing (sharing personal information without permission), or ignoring someone's privacy.
+
+- **Sharing any content that violates another person's intellectual property or other rights**
+
+  This includes any content that would violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). We respond to DMCA requests as described in our [Terms of Service](https://revolt.chat/terms). This includes, but is not limited to, hacking, the cracking or distribution of pirated software, cheats, exploits, or hacks for our or another company, or person's service where it is forbidden.
+
+- **Sharing any imagery that depicts real-life violence, gore, or animal cruelty**
+
+  An exception is made in regards to violence depicted in media (within the context of journalism, movies, games, music, books, and such).
+
+- **Distributing malware**
+
+  Any software designed with malicious intent to attack another person or steal their data is not tolerated.
+
+- **Impersonation of individuals, groups, etc with intent to cause harm or deception**
+
+  Pretending to be another person, organization, or entity in a way that is intended to mislead or harm others is prohibited.
+
+- **As a minor, engaging in any conduct that puts your safety at risk**
+
+  Any sexual conduct involving minors, whether online or offline, is strictly prohibited and will be reported to the appropriate authorities. We prioritize the safety of our younger users and prohibit any behaviour that could compromise their well-being.
+
+- **Sharing sexually explicit content in places where it can't be age restricted**
+
+  Sexually explicit content must be properly age-gated and should not be shared in unrestricted areas of the platform.
+
+### Keeping It Fair
+
+To ensure users have equal opportunity to use the service and are not taken advantage of, we disallow:
+
+- **Unsolicited advertising**
+
+  Creating accounts or using existing accounts to send unsolicited advertisements to other people on the platform.
+
+- **Financial scams / fraud**
+
+  Any attempt to deceive users for financial gain, including phishing, multi level marketing, or other fraudulent activities.
+
+- **Buying and selling of Revolt accounts**
+
+  The transfer of Revolt accounts for monetary or other compensation is not permitted.
+
+- **Selling, purchasing, or providing means to artificially grow servers**
+
+  This includes botting, paid advertisements, and any other methods of artificially inflating server membership or engagement. Legitimate marketing efforts and community-building strategies that don't involve artificial inflation of metrics are generally acceptable. If you're unsure whether a growth strategy violates this policy, please contact our support team for clarification.
+
+- **Evasion of permanent platform level moderation actions**
+
+  Attempting to circumvent bans or other moderation actions by creating new accounts or using alternative methods to access the platform is prohibited.
+
+- **Engaging in hacking**
+
+  Any attempt to compromise the security of our platform or its users, including phishing attacks, distribution or creation of malware, or Denial of Service attacks, is strictly forbidden.
+
+- **Attempts to hack or otherwise gain unauthorised access to our service**
+
+  For example, accessing another person's account without permission, or attempting to steal another person's account. This also includes attempts to gain access to our backend networks. _Please contact us ahead of time for permission to test our networks by emailing [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])._
+
+- **Abusing our server resources**
+
+  Using Revolt with malicious intent, in a way that is not reasonable under normal usage, in order to outsource computing and/or storage resources to our servers, as well as other forms of Denial of Service to our infrastructure.
+
+- **Usage of user bots**
+
+  Automated activity from user accounts that is not initiated by the user in question is forbidden.
+
+- **Unconsenual gathering of personally identifiable information**
+
+  We do not allow any gathering of PII without end-user consent. This includes but is not limited to automated scraping of messages, member lists, and other personally identifiable information gathered without consent of the users in the dataset in question.
+
+- **Misleading the support team**
+
+  Providing false information or making fraudulent reports to our support team is prohibited.
+
+### Reporting Violations
+
+To report any of the above activity, please use the in-app reporting system. If you cannot use the in-app reporting system for any reason, please contact us at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
+
+### Strikes and Suspensions
+
+Violations of this AUP, or other platform terms, may result in strikes against your account. Strikes are irreversible. Account suspensions can be removed through a successful appeal, but only if you believe that we took the wrong action. There is no point asking to be appealed for breaking the law.
+
+If you wish to appeal a suspension, please contact [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
+
+### Off-Platform Behavior
+
+In certain cases, we may take action based on off-platform behaviour, particularly when it involves severe violations of our policies or legal issues.
 
 ### Jurisdiction
 
-We abide by laws within the following jursdictions:
+We abide by laws within the following jurisdictions:
 
-| Jurisdiction | Reason |
-|--------------|--------|
-| United Kingdom, Poland | Service operator |
-| Germany | Data storage |
-| Lithuania | Media storage |
-| European Union | 👍 |
+| Jurisdiction                  | Reason                            |
+| ----------------------------- | --------------------------------- |
+| United Kingdom                | Service operator                  |
+| Germany, Finland, Netherlands | Data storage                      |
+| Lithuania                     | Media storage                     |
+| European Union                | Encompasses our area of operation |