Vimeo’s terms of service policy was updated back in June 26th, 2019 prohibiting negative or critical content about vaccines, followed up with additional provisions to the terms of service on December 12th, 2019, with a clause explaining that you can have your account banned for criticizing vaccines, even when using off-site services.
Filmmaker Jon du Toit tweeted about the changes and highlighted Vimeo’s policies to punish users for off-site behavior.
Saying vaccines are bad on Twitter or Facebook can also get you banned on Vimeo pic.twitter.com/lZEpafsWeU
— Jon du Toit (@jondutoit) December 18, 2019
That’s right, if you make a post on Facebook or Twitter proclaiming that vaccines are harmful, you could lose your Vimeo account.
Over on the Vimeo guidelines page they explicitly state the following under the kind of content you can’t upload…
“No videos that make false or misleading claims about vaccination safety or claim that mass tragedies are hoaxes.”
This was explained back in June of 2019 in a blog post, where they detail that content you make off-site could affect your content and channel on the platform. Vimeo’s general counsel, Michael Cheah explained…
“Our rules and processes are designed to be applied fairly, consistently and transparently. As always, context matters. When prohibited content appears in the context of a news story or a narrative device in a dramatic work, we are likely to leave it up. If, however, the overall driving message of the work is to perpetuate a viewpoint that we have specifically banned, we will remove it. We will also consider a user’s speech outside of Vimeo (such as social media platforms, blogs, or anywhere else their personal views are clearly represented) in making calls about intent and good faith.”
That’s a really scary precedent they’re setting.
The initial policy change may have been announced back in June, but it’s spread throughout the terms of service and content guidelines following the December 12th, 2019 update, which also includes another new clause: you waive your rights to go to court over potential privacy claims.
The update states…
“Section 11 of this Agreement contains a mandatory ARBITRATION AGREEMENT for certain privacy claims that you or Vimeo could assert. By using our Services and accepting this Agreement, you (1) agree to binding arbitration of these claims before a neutral arbitrator; and (2) waive your rights to go to court, have a jury hear your case, or participate as part of a class of plaintiffs with respect to such claims.”
So just to put this into perspective, if you make public claims or statements critical of vaccines or vaccination off-site and Vimeo catches wind of it, you could lose your account and you waive your right to go to court over the issue.
If you thought Vimeo banning Project Veritas and other users for nebulous reasons was a bad precedent, it looks like their newest policies are showcasing just how draconian they’re willing to become as a video hosting site.
We’ve also recently seen other companies employ these exact same kind of prohibitory and punitive measures against end-users based on off-site behavior, including Square Enix, Blizzard Entertainment, Jagex, and Twitch.tv. We can now add Vimeo to the list.
(Thanks for the news tip msoltyspl)
