Content Moderation

The talent, creativity & innovation of our local entrepreneurs represent everything that makes The Monkey Barrel of any use at all. Because of the commitment and investment of our sellers, we enforce content policies so that we can honor their efforts while providing buyers with an experience that speaks to our values here.

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The Monkey Barrel takes user safety and well-being seriously, and utilizes people, policies, and technology to enforce our content moderation policies. We work diligently to remove harmful and fraudulent content from the website but we also expect that content to align with the mission of The Monkey Barrel, and we develop these policies with these company values at the forefront.

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We strive to consistently enforce our policies and hold all members accountable to the same standards, in order to strengthen trust in our community and maintain the integrity of our site. This goal is achieved through human review, automated tooling and processes, quick action upon notice of an issue, educating The Monkey Barrel’s member community, and a continuing commitment to a thoughtful content moderation strategy.

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1. Policies that apply to you and your content
2. How we detect violating content
3. How we enforce on violating content
4. Appeals

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Policies that apply to you and your content
The Monkey Barrel policies allow us to moderate Your Content, which includes listings, messages, reviews, images, videos, and all other content posted using The Monkey Barrel Services (as these terms are defined by the Terms of Use). We retain the right to employ enforcement mechanisms on an account when these policies are not followed.

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The following are key policies that apply, in whole or in part, to the content created by our members, including but not limited to:

Seller Policy
Buyer Policy
Prohibited Items Policy
Creativity Standards
Anti-Discrimination and Hate Content Policy

Community Policy
Intellectual Property Policy

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If The Monkey Barrel has reason to believe you, Your Content, or your use of the Services violate our Terms, we may deactivate Your Content to some or all users, or suspend or terminate your account (and any account(s) The Monkey Barrel determines is related to your account) and your access to the Services. Generally, The Monkey Barrel will notify you that Your Content or account has been suspended or terminated, unless you’ve repeatedly violated our Terms or we have legal or regulatory reasons preventing us from notifying you.

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How we detect violating content

• Our team uses a combination of automated systems and human review to detect and remove policy violating listings and shops. Violations may be brought to our attention in any of the following ways:

• Users: Listings can be reported directly to The Monkey Barrel, such as through the ‘Report this Item to The Monkey Barrel’ button on the bottom of each listing page.

• Automated systems: Our automated systems attempt to identify violative content within seller content. Upon detection, the content is then reviewed and/or removed.

• Internal agents: The Monkey Barrel internal agents may scan The Monkey Barrel to identify violating content.

 

How we enforce on violating content
In order to keep The Monkey Barrel safe and improve our services, we may take actions that restrict or suspend a shop, account, or listings content. We may also take actions on a user’s payment account by holding seller funds. If we determine that a flagged item violates The Monkey Barrel’s policies, the enforcement action we take may vary based on the nature and severity of the violation. For example, we may suspend a seller’s payment deposit, deactivate a listing, restrict a listing from some or all members, or suspend an account. We may use a combination of manual enforcement and an automated system to send warning notifications and ultimately suspend the account of sellers who have repeatedly had listings deactivated due to policy violations.

 

Appeals
The Monkey Barrel’s marketplace presents unique challenges for content moderation detection and enforcement. These challenges include the breadth of The Monkey Barrel’s independent sellers’ offerings, the non-standardized nature of those items and the listing content used to describe them. The Monkey Barrel iteratively updates its tools, controls, and enforcement to increase their effectiveness and reach, but occasionally, inaccurate enforcement actions are taken, policies are updated such that the enforcement outcomes change, or members have experienced extenuating circumstances. We provide routes to appeal for users whose listings or accounts have been impacted by The Monkey Barrel enforcement actions.

 

Listing
Appeals for listing suspensions may be available in some cases. Learn more about listing removals.

 

Account
Accounts may be permanently or temporarily suspended.

If your account has been temporarily suspended, you’ll generally receive an email from The Monkey Barrel explaining what happened and how to resolve the suspension. The suspension will remain until these issues are resolved. If you’re a seller, you may see a banner in your Shop Manager Dashboard. Learn more about temporary suspensions. If your account is permanently suspended, the email from The Monkey Barrel will specify this. You may be able to appeal a permanent suspension once you resolve the issues that led to the suspension. The suspension will remain unless your appeal is accepted. Please note that you have 6 months from the day your account was suspended to file an appeal, and if you miss this window, your account will remain permanently suspended. Learn more about permanent suspension appeals.