Q2 policy updates: public advocacy, content moderation, and more

As part of our ongoing mission to keep our policymaking predictable, transparent, and inclusive, we’re back with a Creator Policy Engagement Program (CPEP) update. Read on to hear about this quarter’s policy developments and how you can share your feedback with our team.

Last quarter

In February, we proposed updates to the “hate speech” and “dangerous organizations” sections of our Community Guidelines, which we refined and finalized in March thanks to creator feedback. We also announced plans for the Creator Advocacy Initiative and our first Transparency Report, both of which are works in progress we’ll be sure to keep you updated on in the future.

This quarter

Although there are no proposed updates to our Guidelines this quarter, we do have some developments to share:

Public policy advocacy

As part of Patreon’s ongoing support of public policies that promote the creator economy around the world, we recently joined…

• 60+ companies in denouncing the recent directive against health care access for transgender children and their families by Governor Abbott of Texas, United States:
  “For years we have stood to ensure LGBTQ+ people … are safe and welcomed in the communities where we do business,” said the statement published in the Dallas Morning News, “... We call on our public leaders — in Texas and across the country — to abandon efforts to write discrimination into law and policy.”
• 40+ companies in supporting a United States bill designed to stop major tech companies from “preferencing” their own products on their online marketplaces. It’s important that policymakers hear from as many groups as possible that big companies should not be gatekeepers to the creator economy.
  “These tactics not only harm competition,” the letter said, “but also deprive consumers of the innovative offerings a vibrant market would yield.”
• 35+ companies and groups in cautioning against proposed United States legislation which was intended to protect consumers from unsafe products. In practice, however, it would saddle small and growing digital service businesses with burdensome compliance requirements that, as noted in the letter, would ultimately “limit creative expression.”

Additionally, the Policy Team’s own Courtney Duffy hosted a panel at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, United States focused on how private, public, and government leaders can build enduring policies to promote the creator economy.

New tool for creator-first content moderation

The vast majority of Patreon creators operate within our Community Guidelines, which are upheld by our content moderators and are designed to keep users safe. When creators do engage with Patreon’s content moderation, they deserve interactions rooted in compassion and education. That’s why we’re happy to announce a tool we’ve been working on (which creators have been asking for!) that’ll make content moderation more creator friendly.

The context:
Most content violations on Patreon are mild and easily remedied. In those cases, and in the spirit of compassionate moderation, the moderator first offers the creator a chance to amend or remove the content on their own. Until now, if the piece of content flagged for violation gets left unresolved, the moderator’s only next step has been to freeze the creator’s full Patreon page until the fix is made. When that happens, creators can be disrupted from posting new content, engaging with patrons, collecting payouts, and so on.

The update:

The new tool, which will roll out gradually over the coming months, gives moderators an intermediate (and less disruptive) option for addressing those mild violations: temporarily hiding the specific post from patron view so the violation can be addressed without freezing the creator’s whole Patreon page. This lets the creator operate as usual in the meantime.

The bottom line:
We believe this tool will significantly reduce instances of single moderation actions resulting in full page suspensions, and we hope it will help you feel both more informed and better protected on Patreon. If you have any thoughts, our Product and Design colleagues are eager to hear your feedback both on this tool and in general.

Join our policy live stream

The Policy Team will host a livestream on Tuesday, June 14. If you’re unable to join us live, we’ll follow up with a recording. (Note that the live stream will take place in English.)

Click here to RSVP and feel free to include any questions you’d like us to answer. Also, for a full week following the event, the Policy Team will be answering additional policy questions in Discord #policy-live-q2-2022, a dedicated Q&A channel in the Patreon Creator Community Discord server. In the meantime, you can always reach the team by email at CreatorPolicy@Patreon.com.