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Terms of service

Effective as of: 29 April 2018

This document constitutes the Terms of Service agreement for using the websites and online services of the Online Hate Prevention Institute (ABN: 65 155 287 657). For purposes of this agreement, our websites include https://ohpi.org.au and https://fightagainsthate.com, but also any other websites at a domain which is registered to us (as shown by whois data) and which includes a link to these terms of service, while our online services include Fight Against Hate in which users and report online content and Crowd Sourced Intelligence – Cyber Hate and Threats (CSI-CHAT) in which approved organisations can conduct research based on reported content. These terms of service apply whether our services are hosted on our websites or accessed via the websites of third parties.  The terms “OHPI”, “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to the Online Hate Prevention Institute. “You” refers to you, as a user of our Site or our Service.

The following Terms of Service apply when you view our websites or interact with our services. In the case of Fight Against Hate, interacting includes loading the application whether via one of our websites or via a third party website, and also includes submitting data to the service e.g. by logging in, clicking any other link or button provided by the service, or sending data to the service in any other way.

Please review the following terms carefully. By viewing our website or accessing or using our online services, you signify your agreement to these Terms of Service. If you do not agree to be bound by these Terms of Service in their entirety, you may not access or use the Service.

PRIVACY POLICY

The Online Hate Prevention Institute respects the privacy of our visitors and of those using our services. Given our work monitoring, tracking and reporting on online hate and abuse, and our software systems which facilitate such work both by us and by others, we recognize the public are interested in way we handle personal information. Our Privacy Policy takes the form of a Privacy Statement (See: https://ohpi.org.au/privacy-statement/) which explains how we collect, use, and disclose information that pertains to your privacy. When you access or use the Service, you signify your agreement to the Privacy Policy as well as these Terms of Service.

ABOUT THE FIGHT AGAINST HATE SERVICE

The Fight Against Hate service allows you to report publicly visible content found on certain online sites and services (e.g. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter). It allows you to categorise the items you are reporting as being of a certain type of hate e.g. racism, bulling, extremism etc. The system allows you to track the items you have reported. The service also allows certain other people to see these items and the categories you have given them. This allows these others to potentially respond and address the problem.

The service is offered both directly by OHPI and through a range of other organisations. Where you access the services on the website of a third party, that organisation may be able to see all the items reported through their website as well as the type of hate it was reported as, but they cannot see who reported what. OHPI controls the data, even when the service is provided via a third party site, and our privacy statement still applies.

ABOUT THE CSI-CHAT SERVICE

The CSI-CHAT service allows approved organisations to access information about the items reported to the Fight Against Hate service. These organisations can search, filter, sort, file and annotate records about these items. They can also produce a range of reporting facilities, for example, showing graphical models of the break down of a types of hate in to more specific sub-types, showing trend analysis for one or more types of hate, or allowing a range of other comparisons and summary information. Approved organisation may have access limited to data that was report via their own website, or they may have access to a wider pool of data reported from other websites. CSI-CHAT does provide access to Fight Against Hate users information, but may allow data to be sorted or filtered based on characteristics of the users who reported the content, for example, allowing reports of bullying to be filtered by gender, or reports of racism by city of the person who reported it.

USE OF THE SERVICE

You need to be at least 13 years old to register for and use our websites and services.

If you register for a service you will create an account with us to access the Service. You may do this using an external authentication service (such as registering and logging in with Facebook) or you may create a unique username and a password in our system. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account. OHPI will not be responsible for any liabilities, losses, or damages arising out of the unauthorised use of your account.

Your permission to use our website and services is conditioned upon the following restrictions:

You agree that you will not under any circumstances:

  • Use the service to harass, abuse or harm another person or group;
  • Use the Service for any unlawful purpose or for the promotion of illegal activities;
  • Use another user’s account without permission;
  • Intentionally allow another user to access your account;
  • Provide false or inaccurate information when registering an account;
  • Interfere or attempt to interfere with the proper functioning of the Service;
  • Without our prior content, make any automated use of the service, or take any action that we deem to impose or to potentially impose an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our servers or network infrastructure;
  • Circumvent, disable or otherwise interfere with any security-related features of the Service or features that prevent or restrict use or copying of content, or enforce limitations on use of the Service or the content accessible via the Service; or
  • Publish or link to malicious content of any sort, including that intended to damage or disrupt another user’s browser or computer.

Where the service allows communication between users, whether private messaging or by public or group based posting through forums, you agree:

  • You are solely responsible for your account and the activity that occurs while signed in to or while using your account;
  • You will not post information that is malicious, libelous, false or inaccurate;
  • You will not post any content that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory, libelous, or racially, sexually, religiously, or otherwise objectionable and offensive, unless the content falls within the “permitted use of hate speech” exception;
  • That we cannot pre-screen content nor monitor all content, but that we may monitor communications and remove content which in our sole opinion breaches the terms of service;

The “permitted use of hate speech” are exceptions under which you may post content (including the item, a link to the item or a description of the item) that may be regarded as abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory, libelous, or racially, sexually, religiously, or otherwise objectionable and offensive. The exceptions only apply if you are acting reasonably and in good faith. These exceptions are:

  • When the content you are sharing is an item which has been reported to the Fight Against Hate service and you are sharing it as part of a discussion on how this content can be addressed;
  • When giving examples of hate speech for the purpose helping others to identify it;
  • When discussing the boundaries between freedom of speech and protection from hate speech and using the hate speech as an example;
  • When discussing the boundaries between permitted and prohibited speech under laws or terms of service;

It is not reasonable or good faith if you:

  • Engage in conduct with the intention of promoting hate against a group or individual;
  • Engage in unlawful activity;
  • Target a real and identified individual when using hypothetical examples;
  • Bully someone participating in a discussion;
  • Seek to derail an existing discussion about one form of hate to shift focus to another form of hate;

DISCLAIMER

Opinions (including judgments both to report content and classifying such reported content) are those of the user who makes them. While our services provide an opinion about the correct classification of an item, this is a form of crowd sourced aggregate opinion and you rely upon it at your own risk.

We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information on our Sites or provided via our Services, nor do we adopt nor endorse, nor are we responsible for, the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice, or statement made by other parties. Under no circumstances will we be responsible for any loss or damage resulting from anyone’s reliance on information or other content accessed via the Service.

We reserve the right, but have no obligation, to monitor the materials posted in the public areas of the Site or the Service or to limit or deny a user’s access to the Service or take other appropriate action if a user violates these Terms of Service or engages in any activity that violates the rights of any person or entity or which we deem unlawful, offensive, abusive, harmful or malicious.

We shall have the right to remove any material that in our sole opinion violates, or is alleged to violate, the law or this agreement or which might be offensive, or that might violate the rights, harm, or threaten the safety of users or others.

LICENSE GRANT

By sending content to any of our services, you expressly grant, and you represent and warrant that you have a right to grant, to OHPI a royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, worldwide license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, list information regarding, edit, translate, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, and make derivative works of all such content, in whole or in part, and in any form, media or technology, whether now known or hereafter developed, for use in connection with the Service.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

You acknowledge and agree that we and our licensors retain ownership of all intellectual property rights of any kind related to the Service, including applicable copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary rights. Other product and company names that are mentioned on the Service may be trademarks of their respective owners. We reserve all rights that are not expressly granted to you under these Terms of Use.

WARRANTY DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICE, IS PROVIDED “AS IS,” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, REGARDING THE SERVICE INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, SECURITY, ACCURACY AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, WE MAKE NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION THAT ACCESS TO OR OPERATION OF THE SERVICE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE. YOU ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY AND RISK OF LOSS RESULTING FROM YOUR DOWNLOADING AND/OR USE OF FILES, INFORMATION, CONTENT OR OTHER MATERIAL OBTAINED FROM THE SERVICE. SOME JURISDICTIONS LIMIT OR DO NOT PERMIT DISCLAIMERS OF WARRANTY, SO THIS PROVISION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

LIMITATION OF DAMAGES

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL THE SITE, THE SERVICE, ITS AFFILIATES, DIRECTORS, OR EMPLOYEES, OR ITS LICENSORS OR PARTNERS, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS, USE, OR DATA, OR FOR ANY INCIDENTAL, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, HOWEVER ARISING, THAT RESULT FROM: (A) THE USE, DISCLOSURE, OR DISPLAY OF DATA YOU PROVIDE TO THE SERVICE; (B) YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE SERVICE; (C) THE SERVICE GENERALLY OR THE SOFTWARE OR SYSTEMS THAT MAKE THE SERVICE AVAILABLE; OR (D) ANY OTHER INTERACTIONS WITH USE OR WITH ANY OTHER USER OF THE SERVICE, WHETHER BASED ON WARRANTY, CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) OR ANY OTHER LEGAL THEORY, AND WHETHER OR NOT WE HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE, AND EVEN IF A REMEDY SET FORTH HEREIN IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. SOME JURISDICTIONS LIMIT OR DO NOT PERMIT DISCLAIMERS OF LIABILITY, SO THIS PROVISION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

MODIFICATION OF TERMS OF USE

We can amend these Terms of Service at any time and will update these Terms of Service in the event of any such amendments. It is your sole responsibility to check the Site from time to time to view any such changes in this agreement. Your continued use of the Site or the Service signifies your agreement to our revisions to these Terms of Service. We will endeavor to notify you of material changes to the Terms by posting a notice on our website and/or social media and/or sending an email to the email address linked to your account. For this additional reason, you should keep your contact and profile information current. Any changes to these Terms (other than as set forth in this paragraph) or waiver of our rights hereunder shall not be valid or effective except in a written agreement bearing the physical signature of one of our officers. No purported waiver or modification of this agreement on our part via telephonic or email communications shall be valid.

GENERAL TERMS

If any part of this Terms of Use agreement is held or found to be invalid or unenforceable, that portion of the agreement will be construed as to be consistent with applicable law while the remaining portions of the agreement will remain in full force and effect. Any failure on our part to enforce any provision of this agreement will not be considered a waiver of our right to enforce such provision. Our rights under this agreement survive any transfer or termination of this agreement.

You agree that any cause of action related to or arising out of your relationship with OHPI must commence within ONE year after the cause of action accrues. Otherwise, such cause of action is permanently barred.

These Terms of Service and your use of the Site and / or service are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Australia and the laws of the State of Victoria, without regard to conflict of law provisions.

We may assign or delegate these Terms of Service and/or our Privacy Policy, in whole or in part, to any person or entity at any time with or without your consent. You may not assign or delegate any rights or obligations under the Terms of Service or Privacy Policy without our prior written consent, and any unauthorized assignment or delegation by you is void.

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THESE TERMS OF SERVICE, UNDERSTAND THE TERMS OF SERVICE, AND WILL BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS. YOU FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THESE TERMS OF SERVICE TOGETHER WITH THE PRIVACY POLICY AT  https://ohpi.org.au/privacy-statement/ REPRESENT THE COMPLETE AND EXCLUSIVE STATEMENT OF THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN US AND THAT IT SUPERSEDES ANY PROPOSAL OR PRIOR AGREEMENT ORAL OR WRITTEN, AND ANY OTHER COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN US RELATING TO THE SUBJECT MATTER OF THIS AGREEMENT.