FutureLearn Code of Conduct

When you sign up for an account on FutureLearn, you agree to abide by our Code of Conduct. In that Code we state that users "will not deliberately post false information with the intent to cause harm to others." Comments on FutureLearn that break this rule will be removed by our moderators.

Moderation of comments

We welcome healthy debate at FutureLearn, and we know that it is impossible to fully prove or disprove some information. Sometimes we have different opinions as a matter of personal comfort or taste- for example, the opinion 'Marmite is tasty' could be completely false for one user, and completely true for another.
However, as part of our responsibility to provide a safe and constructive learning environment we will remove reported posts if we find that they are spreading harmful misinformation or disinformation.

Misinformation definition and examples

Misinformation is defined as the unintentional spread of false information.
When deciding whether to remove a comment, assignment review, or assignment submission that contains misinformation, we will consider the following:

Does the post contain false information that could lead to harm to others?
Does the post contain false information that is from an untrustworthy source?
Does the post contain false information which has been posted without necessary context?

Examples of comments that may be removed under our Code of Conduct rule on misinformation:

"I've heard that getting the polio vaccine makes children more likely to contract Covid-19, I'm not sure I would let any children I know get it."

"Transwomen are statistically 100% likely to attack ciswomen in single-sex spaces, as per this post I saw on Facebook"

"We had a really cold winter last year, so I think that this course on climate change is completely incorrect"

Disinformation definition and example

The UK Government defines disinformation as the: "…deliberate creation and spreading of false and/or manipulated information that is intended to deceive and mislead people, either for the purposes of causing harm, or for political, personal or financial gain".

Like removing posts which contain misinformation, when we remove a post for spreading harmful disinformation we are looking for the behaviour or content that shows a deliberate intent to spread incorrect information that could cause harm to others.

For example, if someone repeats the same or similar piece of misinformation in several comments across a course, we might view this as deliberate intent to misinform the other learners on that course. We would then remove all of the comments from that learner which fell into that pattern. The learner may also be removed from the course, if they display persistently negative behaviour, as per our Persistent Negative Behaviour Policy.

How to report misinformation and/or disinformation

You can report a comment by clicking on the flag icon beneath it:

Misinformation and disinformation can be hard to spot. For help on how please visit the website for the UK's independent fact checking charity, Full Fact: https://fullfact.org/.

Inappropriate reporting

Learners who report another's learners comments for misinformation or disinformation should do so only in line with the advice in this article. Abusing the report function to report another learner for harmless differences in opinion is unacceptable, and learners who do this may be removed from the course. Please see the section 'Malicious reporting of comments' in our Persistent Negative Behaviour Policy for more information.