Mission Statement & Statement of Values

Mission Statement

The Creator Accountability Network empowers Community Members to build trust with Content Creators through ethical training and credentialing, victim-centered reporting of unethical behavior, and the promotion of community healing through active accountability.

Purpose

Content Creators and the Communities built around them have struggled to address harmful and unethical behavior. The legal and social systems that currently exist offer very little accountability for those who have social, financial, physical, and/or political power over others. Without oversight, Community Members have been forced to rely on whisper networks or the court of public opinion for any sense of justice. We have witnessed harm fester and grow, people become ostracized, and entire Communities negatively impacted.

The Creator Accountability Network aims to empower Community Members to address these behaviors in a restorative fashion; centering on educational resources, transparency, open dialogue, and accountability.

How We Will Achieve Our Goals

1. Training and Credentialing

The Creator Accountability Network will provide proactive education for Community Members and training for Content Creators. This training forms the basis of our credentialing process. Education helps make Community Members aware of the standards we are promoting, while training ensures that accredited Creators understand and adhere to a code of conduct and will engage in our accountability process. This system is designed to prevent harm before it happens and enable us to address it if it does.

2. Reporting

The Creator Accountability Network has developed an impartial process to intake reports of harmful behavior and ethical misconduct. Working with teams of specialists, victim advocates, and experts, this system will give Community Members a safe, secure place to make reports. Certified victim advocates will be available to help Community Members articulate their experience and needs, to ensure that our team’s response honors their wishes. Advocates can also connect Community Members to any resources they might need.

3. Accountability

After reports of misconduct are received and investigated, The Creator Accountability Network (along with panels of experts, specialists, and advocates) will collaborate with all parties to ensure that the violation is understood, further harm does not continue, and that any damage will be mitigated and, ideally, repaired.

Because people can change, grow, and learn from their mistakes, our focus is on a restorative solution. This may include (but is not limited to) additional training, dialogue, oversight, and/or removal of credentialing depending on the level of harm and extent of damage done.

Final Note

The Creator Accountability Network believes ethics go beyond legal minimum requirements. While good ethical practices do minimize the risk of illegal activity, we aim higher. We believe we can help make communities safer and more welcoming by providing a safe and constructive way for Content Creators to engage with feedback and address unethical behavior in ways that promote honesty, self reflection, education, and the repairing of harm. By joining our organization, Content Creators also benefit from a process that protects them from unsubstantiated accusations, “witch hunts” or trial in the court of public opinion. We also provide resources for networking with creators and organizations who share their commitment to ethical behavior. Ultimately, we endeavor to give Community Members and Content Creators alike peace of mind that their interactions will result in more safe, welcoming, and respectful spaces for all.

Statement of Values and Principles

“Values are like trees. The best time to plant them is 20 years ago, the second best time to plant them is right now.”

Care

Reduce unnecessary suffering through empathy, compassion, and respect for everyone’s needs.

Care continued

CAN endorses a positive obligation to reduce unnecessary suffering that goes beyond simply not causing harm. We believe that reciprocal care is a cornerstone of flourishing lives within flourishing communities. We believe that caregiving requires the ability to understand another person’s perspective and to value the well being of others enough such that their suffering motivates action.

Equity

Promote fairness that accounts for variations in capacities, needs, and histories of marginalization.

Equity continued

CAN endorses a thick account of fairness where everyone is both enabled and encouraged to participate, no matter the luck of their constitution or circumstances. While equality of opportunity is valuable, providing equitable access within our communities involves more than merely avoiding overt discrimination in our rules and behaviors. Communities should proactively improve themselves in ways that remove barriers to access and should encourage participation from marginalized individuals, such as by offering complimentary childcare at live events and providing online options for individuals with in-person access issues. We discuss diversity, equity, and inclusion more in the glossary of our code of conduct.

Trust

Build a community where everyone feels comfortable being their authentic selves.

Trust continued

Trust is what makes a community function smoothly, and ethics is what makes trust possible. Without trust, individuals are forced to shield themselves from risk of harm in ways that stifle the community, as flourishing takes a back seat to securing basic needs. When a community organizes around shared values and acts consistently on those values, individuals are able to express themselves authentically and engage in acts of vulnerability like sharing past traumas or current insecurities, knowing that no one will take advantage of their vulnerability. Acts of vulnerability enable further acts of vulnerability, creating a space where flourishing is the norm.

Integrity

Be authentic by consistently acting on stated values.

Integrity continued

Integrity is about demonstrating a commitment to your moral principles while managing unavoidable moral tradeoffs. Integrity requires accepting some costs for the sake of a flourishing community, while also recognizing that integrity is different from complete self-sacrifice and that each person’s well-being matters equally.

Expertise

Respect expertise by cultivating it where possible and deferring to the expertise of others when necessary.

Expertise continued

Expertise is crucial for navigating complex topics and challenges. Expertise involves extensive understanding developed through formal and informal training and experience. Experts tend to apply skills flexibly in novel situations, integrate updates in best practices, and maintain a high standard of professional rigor in every part of their work.

We believe that expertise can come in a variety of forms, and that an over-emphasis on limited forms of intellectual and social expertise has contributed to the marginalization of some communities. We value both expertise about theory and expertise about practice. Both academic experience and lived experience. We value a diversity of viewpoints because of the many cases where the hard fought expertise of lived experience provided insights that trained experts missed. Our goal should always be respectful and productive dialogue, not mere deference.

Liberty

Promote and respect the freedom of individuals to engage in their preferred projects of worth.

Liberty continued

Liberty involves both “negative” and “positive” forms of freedom, ensuring that individuals have the autonomy to shape their own lives and pursue their passions without undue constraints.

Negative liberties involve freedom from external constraints like systemic injustice, while positive liberties involve the freedom for authentic, self-determined action. Liberties we value include bodily autonomy, equitable access, and freedom of expression.

While some find the idea of community values excessively constraining, we believe that promoting moral norms within our community actually provides for greater personal autonomy.