Community Rules

Along with our Terms of Use, these Community Rules apply to all activity on any Health Union operated properties, including but not limited to Health Union’s websites, Facebook pages, Instagram accounts, etc. The term “Activity” includes, but is not limited to posts, comments, replies, messages, status updates, or any other action taken by you.

We encourage open conversation within Health Union communities. Discussions around health and healthcare can be sensitive and sometimes emotional, and disagreement is okay. However, all activity must be respectful, non-inflammatory, and non-threatening. If your activity does not follow our Community Rules or violates our Terms of Use, Health Union, at its sole discretion, reserves the right to edit or delete your activity or close your account.

  1. Activity cannot offer medical advice of any kind.
  2. All activity must relate to the subject of a health condition or living with a health condition. Conversations about politics, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual preference, body image, age, or disability must be in the context of the health condition.
  3. Activity that Health Union determines to be threatening, harassing, abusive, violent, sexually explicit, or obscene will be removed and account deleted.
  4. Activity that promotes, encourages, coordinates, or provides instructions for harmful activities, such as suicide, self-injury, or eating disorders, is not permitted and will be removed.
  5. Do not encourage any illegal activity. Posts discussing illegal activity without encouraging it is permitted so long as the discussion pertains to the conversation and health condition.
  6. Activity cannot contain any personal information such as an e-mail address, physical/mailing address, or phone number. Please remember that Health Union websites, like the entire Internet, are publicly viewable and discoverable by search engines.
  7. We do not allow nudity or sexual content on our platform unless it specifically refers to living with the health condition. When warranted, we report violative content to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and/or other relevant legal authorities.
  8. Content must be written in English; we can only moderate comments written in English.
  9. Messaging many users at once, sending repeated messages, and/or sending any form of unwelcome messaging is not permitted.
  10. If you copy content from another individual or website, you must provide full credit to the original author or owner. If in doubt, refrain from using it.
  11. We do not allow users to offer to sell, barter, or trade any items in any way. This includes solicitations to participate in legal actions, fundraisers, offers to sell a product or service or participate in surveys, studies, invitations to join closed/private groups, etc., without the prior approval from Health Union.
  12. All activity must be respectful and non-inflammatory. Personal attacks and/or bullying moderators, bloggers, writers, or fellow community members will not be tolerated. Please be careful about making statements or accusations about others by name, including other community members, employers, physicians, etc. While you should feel free to speak your mind, remember that you are accountable for all content you post. Consequently, any post that may be considered libelous will be deleted.
  13. Activities involving multiple comments, posts, or other communications of the same content may be interpreted as spam and deleted.
  14. Profanity should be used sparingly and only in the context of living with a health condition, as some in the community may find coarse language offensive. Moderators retain the right and discretion to edit and delete such content.
  15. Community members in clinical trials are expected to respect and adhere to the confidentiality guidelines of their trial protocol.
  16. Completing or participating in on site activities for the purposes of cheating or gaming rewards, giveaways, and/or surveys is not permitted. If Health Union determines that you are doing so, we will void your entries, and you will be disqualified.
  17. Every account and its activities must be initiated by a person, not by automated bots. While AI tools can be used for accessibility purposes, content from these tools should not be directly copied and posted.

Last updated November 29, 2023