Situation regarding Vizier op Links
March 23rd, 2021 by Ahmed AaradVizier op Links registered itself to be able to collect donations via BackMe. We have an open door policy. Everyone is welcome, as long as you adhere to the law and our terms of service.
Nevertheless, for the first time we spoke extensively with each other whether we would allow Vizier op Links on our platform. After much deliberation, we came to the decision to give him access to our content creators platform. Because we do not wish to be politicized and do not judge on our own personal preference. Rejecting someone before something has happened is not part of our policy.
Freedom of speech and adding to the independence of content creators are our top priorities. In addition, this content creator was a test case for us. Since we also want content creators to use BackMe in countries where there is little to no freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Countries like as Belarus, Turkey, Iran and China.
We wanted to see how it would work with an anonymous content creator. Payments via crypto currency and additional security measures to guarantee the anonymity of the content creator. So this was a first for us. And surprisingly it went pretty easy. To the extent that the test has passed. What has not been successful is the collaboration with Vizier op Links.
Vizier op Links was sending out stickers and these were used to intimidate people that disagree with his/her political views. This is unacceptable. Because of this BackMe immediately contacted the content creator to make sure that he or she was responsible. As we did not receive an answer, it was unanimously decided to suspend the account. In the end, we got a response that we didn’t like. The content creator stated that the stickers were manufactured and distributed by him, but that he is not responsible how they were used. However, we conclude that this is intimidation and that this is a violation of our terms of service. BackMe was founded precisely to give people a voice, help them build a sustainable income. Not to intimidate or to use to promote fear or violence. We have acted to the best of our ability in this situation and intervened immediately. We distance ourselves from Vizier op Links and decided to cancel our cooperation definitively.
Timeline:
Sunday March 21st
12.25 We got an abuse notice through WhatsApp
12.28 We immediately asked Vizier op Links what was going on
13.00 We decided to suspend his/her account and page
13.15 His account was offline
14.52 Vizier op Links replied to us
19.28 We terminated the account permanently
Because of this situation we added a “report abuse” page into the footer of every page on our platform. So that in the future it will be easier and faster to make reports of content creators that do not abide by our terms of service. And lastly we as BackMe want to emphasize that we have a zero tolerance policy in regard to threats with physical harm, stalking and breaking the law.
We would like to end with an sincere apology to the people affected by this content creator. Be sure that we did and are taking this seriously and we’re doing our best to make sure that this kind of situation won’t happen again.
24/01/2021 Update
Several news outlets are talking about it, here some links:
