Want to Avoid Getting Banned on Social Media? Learn the Rules ~ Pare News

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Ann Smarty is a search marketer and full-time web entrepreneur. Ann blogs on search and social media tools. Her newest project, My Blog Guest, is a free platform for guest bloggers and blog owners. Follow Ann on Twitter @seosmarty.

For as long as I have been actively participating in social media, I have determined that no one is ever immune from getting banned. You can put a lot of time and effort into your favorite social media community, and consider yourself a “power” user, but your account is still at risk of suspension.

There are a lot of examples of this, both old and recent. Digg made a series of bans in 2008 “allegedly due to script use;” Reddit engaged in “ghost” banning in 2009; and more recently, Google+ suspended accounts that used pseudonyms.

In most of the cases of mass banning, social networks have responded to users who have broken the terms of service (TOS). However, when you take a look at the TOS on various social networks, you’ll see that many of them have different opinions as to what is considered acceptable behavior versus what is prohibited.

Official TOS of Popular Social Networks

Google+: Google+, the youngest social network of the five discussed here, has very complex and sometimes contradicting pages describing its terms of service.

Here’s the User Content and Conduct Policy page, which Google+ links to at the bottom of its stream page. However, you may have trouble getting to it because of the auto-refresh feature expands the stream faster than you can click the link.
A user sees the Community Standards policy after his or her account is suspended. It’s a slightly different version than the policy above.
And finally, the Your name and Google+ Profiles page seems to have been introduced in response to the mass-banning of accounts that use pseudonyms.

Facebook: Facebook has only one TOS page: Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. There are also Promotions Guidelines as well as the Privacy Policy to consider.

Twitter: Twitter has a few quite detailed policy pages worth checking out.

Twitter Terms of Service explicitly disclaims that Twitter itself cannot be held responsible for what is being shared through its network (“By using the Services, you may be exposed to Content that might be offensive, harmful, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate”).
Twitter Rules highlight the boundaries surrounding spam and abuse.
Safety: Abusive Users explains that Twitter cannot control or censor what’s going on within its service. (“Everyone has different levels of sensitivity towards content. What may be shocking to one may be fine or acceptable to another. Twitter does not prescreen content and we do not remove potentially offensive content.”)

LinkedIn: The LinkedIn User Agreement is very detailed, clear and, for the most part, very straightforward. It’s possibly the easiest out of these networks to follow.

Quora: Quora has quite a lot to say about its rules of conduct. There’s the lengthy Wiki with Frequently Used Questions, which lists various guidelines and policies, as well as the basic rules of using the site, various spam definitions and a general TOS.

What’s Clearly NOT Allowed?

Of course, each network states that the following activities are never allowed.

You are not allowed to threaten or bully other users.
You should stay away from gambling and sexually explicit content.
You are not allowed to promote dangerous and illegal activities.
You are not to transmit viruses and malware.
You cannot spam (more about this in the next section of this article).
You cannot buy (or solicit in any other way) up- or down-votes.
You cannot use software to automate sharing of content through the network (except for official or approved software, or software that properly uses the official service API).

How about less obvious areas? Let’s see.

	Google Plus	Facebook	Twitter	LinkedIn	Quora
Impersonation (Pretending to Be Another Person)	Not allowed: "Your profile should represent you."	Not allowed: "You will not provide any false personal information."	Not allowed: "You may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse, or deceive others."	Not allowed: You cannot post content that "impersonates or otherwise misrepresents your identity."	Not allowed: You cannot impersonate anyone or represent your account information in any other way.
Using Your Real Name	Required: "Use the name your friends, family or coworkers usually call you" (with numerous clarifications and corrections here).	Not mentioned: (You cannot provide "false" information, but it’s unclear if a nickname is "false" information or not.)	Not mentioned	Required: You cannot use pseudonyms.	Required: "you have to use your full real name on your account."
Using Content Field Improperly	Not allowed: You cannot use "’unusual’ characters in your name (like an asterisk, slash or, understandably Wingdings)."	Not mentioned	Not mentioned	Not allowed: You cannot "publish inaccurate information in the designated fields on the profile form (e.g., do not include a link or an email address in the name field)."	Not allowed: Name field is only for your name; extra information "may be included in the user headline that appears to the right of your name."
Maintaining Multiple Accounts	Not directly mentioned, but since you are required to only use your real name for your account, it’s implied that should only be able to maintain one.	Not allowed: "You will not create more than one personal profile."	You can create several accounts, provided they are not ‘serial’/mass accounts for "disruptive or abusive purposes" and that you are not "overlapping" use cases.	Not allowed: It is not allowed to create multiple or false profiles.	Not allowed: "Multiple accounts representing the same person. (e.g. a professional identity under one name and a personal identity under a different one) are not permitted."
Using Another Person’s Account	Sure, if you have a permission: "Do not access another user's account without their permission"	Not allowed: You cannot "solicit login information or access an account belonging to someone else", and you can’t "create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission."	Not mentioned	No allowed: You may not "use or attempt to use another’s account without authorization from the Company."	Not mentioned
Using Only Photos of Yourself as Your Avatar	Not mentioned	Not mentioned	Not mentioned	Required: You can only use a headshot photo that looks “clearly” like you.	Not mentioned
Are You Allowed to Be Inactive?	Not mentioned	Not mentioned	No: "Accounts that are inactive for more than 6 months may…be removed."	Not mentioned	Not mentioned
Can a profile represent a business?	No: "Your profile should represent you."	Not directly mentioned, but should be clear.	Not mentioned	No: You may not "create a user profile for anyone other than a natural person."	No: "All users of Quora have to sign up as individuals, but there is nothing stopping them from writing answers representing their firm."
Can a Profile Earn Money?	Not mentioned	No: "You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser)."	Not directly mentioned	No: You cannot use it "commercially without LinkedIn's authorization."	Not mentioned
Age Restrictions?	Not mentioned	Yes: You cannot use Facebook if you are under 13.	Not mentioned	Yes: You should be 18 years of age or older.	Yes: You should 13 years of age or older.
If you Banned, Can You Create a New Account?	Not mentioned	No: "If we disable your account, you will not create another one without our permission."	Not mentioned	Not mentioned	Not mentioned
Selling Your Account / Username	Not directly mentioned	Not directly mentioned	No "Unless you have been specifically permitted to do so in a separate agreement with Twitter."	Not directly mentioned	Not mentioned, but frowned upon.

What’s Considered Spam?

	Google Plus	Facebook	Twitter	LinkedIn	Quora
Unsolicited Emails?	You are not allowed to engage in "unwanted or mass solicitation."	Not mentioned	"What constitutes ‘spamming’ will evolve as we respond to new tricks and tactics by spammers."	Not allowed: "Unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, ‘junk mail,’ ‘spam,’ ‘chain letters,’ ‘pyramid schemes,’ or any other form of solicitation."	N/A
Commercial or Promotional Content?	You are not allowed to send "promotional or commercial” content.	You are not allowed to engage in unauthorized commercial communications.	Kind of: "Your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates."		Some self-promotion is acceptable, provided you are still useful to the community.
Adding People to Friends?	"Do not aggressively add people to your circles."	Not mentioned	Not allowed: "followed and unfollowed people in a short time period, particularly by automated means (aggressive follower churn)."	You cannot add people you don’t know if you plan to send "unsolicited promotional messages to those direct connections without their permission."	Not mentioned
"Invitation" Spam?	Not mentioned	Kind of not allowed: "You will not tag users or send email invitations to non-users without their consent."	NO: "You may not use Twitter.com’s address book contact import to send repeat, mass invitations."	Not allowed if you don’t know the recipient: You may not "invite people you do not know to join your network."	Not mentioned

So, Now That You Know the TOS, Are You Secure?

No, unfortunately. That’s not to say that knowing the TOS is absolutely useless. At least with the information, you know what is clearly considered to be bad manners, unethical or even unacceptable behavior.

But are you secured from being banned? No. Here’s why.

TOS can be changed (with or without notice). For instance, Google+ has started adding more rules and even more pages to its official TOS, while in the process of banning.
TOS can be interpreted various ways. Facebook’s vague rule against content that “contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence” has several times been speculated upon, for instance, when Facebook removed material that featured two men kissing and images of breastfeeding mothers. (In neither case were the accounts banned. Only the content was removed.)

So should you worry about getting banned? As soon as you are actively sharing content and adding friends, there’s always a chance people may report you as a spammer. That’s the problem of any social network: What some users consider perfectly normal, others deem intrusive and self-promoting.

On the other hand, don’t become obsessed with the rules. If you have researched the TOS and believe you aren’t doing anything profoundly wrong or illegal, ask the appropriate network to reconsider your account suspension, should it occur. Most social networks will get back to you sooner or later with an explanation and sometimes even the opportunity to fix the errors and become reinstated.

Playing the fair game helps in most cases. The trick is to clearly understand what is considered bad practice in the first place.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, RapidEye

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