Coral

Open source commenting platform free from adtech and surveillance

Website: https://coral.voxmedia.com/

Type of Digital Public Good

  • Open content
  • Open data
  • ✅  Open software
  • Open standard
  • Open AI model

1. Is it relevant to one of the Sustainable Development Goals?

  • 5. Gender Equality

    Evidence: Online violence against women is a pervasive problem. By creating a strong community moderation platform and strategy guides, we help make the internet a safer place for women

    Link to Evidence: https://guides.coralproject.net/what-women-want-in-community/

  • 9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

    Evidence: Community engagement is a core piece of digital infrastructure. Our platform empowers moderation and community management to empower online conversation

  • 10. Reduced Inequality

    Evidence: Our platform, built and designed by a diverse team, is designed to create more productive, welcoming online communities, with software and research designed to reduce online racism and abuse

    Link to Evidence: https://guides.coralproject.net/survey-marginalized-voices/

  • 16. Peace and Justice Strong Institutions

    Evidence: By designing safer community software for major media organizations, we empower both state broadcasters and local news startups to improve online dialog without the abuse and spam that plagues conversation

2. Does it use an appropriate open license?

Yes, this project is licensed under the following license(s):

3. Is ownership clearly defined?

Is the ownership of the project and everything that the project produces clearly defined and documented?

Yes

If yes - please link to the relevant copyright, trademarks, or ownership documentation for the project.

https://coralproject.net/about-2/

4. Does the license of libraries/dependencies undermine the openess of the project?

Does this open project have mandatory dependencies (i.e. libraries, hardware) that create more restrictions than the original license?

No

If yes - are the open source components able to demonstrate independence from the closed component(s) and/or are there functional, open alternatives?

Not Applicable

If yes - please describe how the open source components are independent and/or list the open alternatives for the closed component:

Not Applicable

5. Is there documentation?

Does some documentation exist of the source code, use cases, and/or functional requirements. For software projects, this should be present as technical documentation that would allow a technical person unfamiliar with the project to launch and run the software. For datasets and data projects, this should be present as documentation that describes all the fields in the set, and provides context on how the data was collected and how it should be interpreted. For content collections, this should indicate any relevant compatible apps, software, hardware required to access the content and any instructions about how to use it.

Yes

If yes - please link to the relevant documentation:

6. Is non PII data and/or content accessible?

Does this project collect or use non-personally identifiable information (non-PII) data and/or content?

Yes

If yes - is there a mechanism for extracting or importing non-personally identifiable information (non-PII) from the system in a non-proprietary format?

Yes

If yes - describe the mechanism for extracting or importing non-personally identifiable information from the system in a non-proprietary format:

You can use the API or a db dump. We don't get any access to any information whatsoever - we don't even know if you're running the software - but in order for it to work, people have to create accounts, and that information lives on your servers

7. Does the project adhere to privacy and other applicable international and domestic laws?

Has this project taken steps to ensure adherence with relevant privacy, domestic, and international laws? For example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union or the Supplementary Act A/SA.1/01/10 on Personal Data Protection for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) (yes/no)

Yes

If yes, please list some of relevant laws that the project complies with:

  • We don't host any of your data (unless we have a separate paid relationship with you), so it is up to each individual host to ensure that they are compliant. However, we provide the infrastructure and tooling to make compliance easy for GDPR, PIPEDA, CCPA, etc.

If yes, please describe the steps this project has taken to ensure adherence (include links to terms of service, privacy policy, or other relevant documentation):

8. Does the project adhere to standards and best practices?

Does this project support standards? (i.e. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 or other standards such as those listed on W3C)

Yes

Which standards does this project support (please list)

Can you point to evidence of your support? (i.e. please link to your validator, open test suite, etc.)

Was this project built and developed according to or in adherence with any design, technical and/or sector best practices or principles? i.e. the Principles for Digital Development?

Yes

Which principles and best practices does this project support (please list)

9. Does the project do no harm by design?

Has this project taken steps to anticipate, prevent and do no harm by design?

On the whole, does this project take steps to ensure that it anticipates, prevents and does no harm by design?

Yes

Is there any additional information you would like to share about the mechanisms, processes or policies that this project uses to avoid doing harm by design?

We always consider how any feature could be used by a hostile force, eg abuser, spammer, troll. We will not ship any feature that can be used also to troll without strong mitigation principles. https://medium.com/the-coral-project/by-andrew-losowsky-head-of-coral-365c44152149

9.a. Data Privacy & Security

Does this project collect or store personally identifiable information (PII) data and/or content?

Yes

If yes - please list the types of data and/or content collected and/or stored by the project:

  • Email address
  • Username (which can contain PII)

If yes - does this project share this data and/or content with third parties?

No

Please describe the circumstances with which this project shares data and/or content with third parties. Please add links as relevant.

Not Applicable

If yes - does the project ensure the privacy, security and integrity of this data and/or content collection and has it taken steps to prevent adverse impacts resulting from its collection, storage and distribution.

Yes

If yes - please describe the steps, and include a link to the privacy policy and/or terms of service:

https://docs.coralproject.net/gdpr

9.b. Inappropriate & Illegal Content

Does this project collect, store or distribute content?

Yes

If yes - what kinds of content does this project, collect, store or distribute? (i.e. childrens books)

UGC via comments

If yes - does this project have policies that describe what is considered innappropriate content? (i.e. child sexual abuse materials)

Yes

If yes - please link to the relevant policy/guidelines/documentation.

https://coralproject.net/acceptable-use-policy/

If yes - does this project have policies and processes for detecting and moderating innappropriate/illegal content?

Yes

If yes - please describe the policies and processes for detecting, reporting and removing innapropriate/illegal content (Please include the average response time for assessment and/or action. Link to any policies or descriptions of how inappropriate content is handled):

We have several mechanisms in place to prevent spam and abuse, including optional integration of AI (including free-to-use AI services), the ability to block/flag/remove users, domains, and language, and much more

9.c. Protection from harassment

Does this project facilitate interactions with or between users or contributors?

Yes

If yes - does the project take steps to address the safety and security of underage users?

No

If yes - please describe the steps this project takes to address risk or prevent access by underage users:

Not Applicable

If yes - does the project help users and contributors protect themselves against grief, abuse, and harassment?

Yes

If yes - please describe the steps taken to help users protect themselves.

  • The entire platform is built around best-in-class safety and moderation tools. Users can mute each other, flag/report abusive content, and moderators have dozens of dedicated tools to help spot, remove, and take action against grief, abuse, harassment

Development & deployment countries

List of countries this project was developed in.

  • United States of America
  • Canada
  • Germany

List of countries this project is actively deployed in.

  • Argentina
  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • Denmark
  • Chile
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • New Zealand
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Serbia
  • Spain
  • Switzerland
  • United Kingdom
  • United States of America
  • Uruguay
  • Montenegro
  • Poland