User generated content in time of conflict
In time of conflict, there are special sensitivities for example about operational military plans, about not naming casualties until next-of-kin have been informed and about how to handle unsubstantiated rumours. This applies particularly to user-generated content as our users have become accustomed to seeing their content published as soon as they send it to us.
On such occasions, we may publish additional guidelines to the effect that:
- we will concentrate comment and debate about the conflict in a limited number of spaces, with additional hosting and moderation, to maintain a full debate
- we will be prepared to switch to premoderation if necessary
- we may ask for claims or statements by third parties to be attributed so that their status becomes easier for our users to evaluate
- we may link from such statements to relevant stories written by the BBC News site so that users can more easily compare them.