As an Online Community Volunteer you will often post to other websites, blogs, forums and other virtual spaces. This is a highly valuable and visible volunteer position.

As an individual, we support your freedom of speech and freedom to hold your opinions. However, as a volunteer and ambassador of the Online Communities for International Members and e-activists, we have provided the following guidelines for appropriate behaviour while volunteering in this position.

Any contributions by an Online Community Volunteer must:

• be accurate (where they state facts)
• be genuinely held (where they state opinions)
• be in solidarity with the policies and human rights agenda of Amnesty International
• comply with applicable law in the UK and in any country from which they are posted

In addition:

• When using the debate area of the sites please do not provide personal details, either your own or those of someone else.
• Do not endanger yourself or others.
• Assume that what you publish on the web is permanent. Anyone on the internet can easily print out a submission or save it to a computer.
• Participants should treat each other with respect, recognising their right to freedom of opinion and expression.

Any contributions by an Online Community Volunteer must NOT:

• be defamatory (a defamatory comment is one that may damage the reputation of a person or organisation);
• be in contempt of Court (for example, your contribution must not contain anything that risks prejudicing current or forthcoming Court proceedings);
• be threatening, abusive, harassing or invasive of a person's privacy;
• be sexist, racist, profane, blasphemous, homophobic or otherwise discriminatory and/or offensive;
• promote violence or advocate, condone or assist any unlawful act;
• describe violent intentions towards other people or organisations;
• be pornographic, sexually explicit, obscene or lewd;
• be used to impersonate any person or to misrepresent your identity;
• infringe any copyright, database right, trade mark or any other intellectual property, confidentiality or privacy rights of any person or organisation or otherwise violate any law