Community Safety Initiative
Draft — open community review. Nothing here has been adopted. Any votes are a sentiment signal only — decisions happen in group forums (e.g. Loomio), not on this site. This tool is not legal advice.

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Value draft

SYN-006

Within the law, beyond the law's test

The community operates within, and upholds, South African law — including gender-based-violence law — and organisers accept civic responsibility for public welfare. But the guidelines' test is not legality or general social acceptability: it is whether people felt safe and whether feedback was heeded. Broken trust, not broken law, is the starting point; behaviour that is legally defensible can still be unacceptable here. Online communities also carry legal responsibility of their own.

Deliberately left open — POPIA and platform-liability implications are flagged at plan level (register §5) — professional advice recommended before any tool goes live.
Where this comes from · 9 source items

This draft merges what the community actually said across 9 source items — every source ID is permanent and traceable.

  • PRIN-007 Civic Responsibility: Community members who organize events assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to conduct events in accordance with local laws.
  • GTC-014 Guidelines are put in place around acceptable behaviour – not testing legality of your actions. We are testing if the person felt safe, comfortable and did they respond to your feedback? Not implementing rule about what is socially acceptable? Not applying those rules.
  • GTC-017 Broken Trust is a powerful starting point. We are not here to test if your actions broke a law. The nervous system does not know about the Protection of Harassment Act 17 of 2011. You can legally prove to someone that your behaviour was "not that bad" according to the law, but the person's nervous system still won’t trust you. If your actions make the space less safe, or causes a trust deficit, please stop, or continue somewhere else
  • GTC-052 We exist within the laws of the country, and those are upheld
  • OPIN-012 A reminder that we exist within the laws of the country, which includes the laws on gender-based violence
  • OPIN-051 Policies are put in place around acceptable behaviour – not testing legality of your actions. We are testing if the person felt safe, comfortable and did they respond to your feedback?
  • OPIN-052 Not implementing rule about what is socially acceptable? Not applying those rules. Certain male behaviours are acceptable in certain places in society, like a club.
  • OPIN-071 Broken Trust is such a powerful starting point. We are not here to test if your actions broke a law. The nervous system does not know about the Protection of Harassment Act 17 of 2011. You can legally prove to someone that your behaviour was "not that bad" according to the law, but the person's nervous system still won’t trust you.
  • OPIN-098 Communities online are legally responsible

Themes · legal interface · consent and feedback culture · scope of community safety

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