Blocking, Muting & Restricted Lists Policy

1. Purpose & Rationale

Friendium is a real-identity social network designed to foster meaningful and respectful connections. To support user safety, autonomy, and emotional well-being, Friendium provides robust tools that allow users to limit or prevent interactions with others.

Blocking, muting, and restricted lists empower users to manage their social environment without requiring formal moderation intervention in every case.

2. Scope of This Policy

This policy applies to all users, accounts, pages, groups, and interactions on Friendium, including posts, comments, messages, tags, mentions, reactions, and profile visibility.

3. Definitions

• Blocking: A complete prevention of interaction between two accounts.
• Muting: A visibility control that hides content without notifying the other user.
• Restricted Lists: Custom audience controls that limit what specific users can see or do.

4. Blocking Functionality

When a user blocks another account, the following restrictions apply immediately:

• No direct messages can be sent or received.
• No posts, comments, or reactions can be exchanged.
• Profiles become invisible to each other.
• Existing connections are automatically removed.
• Future connection requests are disabled.

5. Effects of Blocking on Existing Content

Blocking does not retroactively delete past content but hides it from view between the involved parties.

6. Muting Functionality

Muting allows users to reduce unwanted exposure without alerting the muted party.

• Muted users’ posts may be hidden from feeds.
• Notifications from muted users are suppressed.
• Muted users are not informed of the action.

7. Temporary vs Permanent Muting

Friendium may offer time-based muting options (e.g., 24 hours, 7 days, indefinitely), allowing users to manage short-term conflicts or content overload.

8. Restricted Lists Overview

Restricted lists enable users to customize audience visibility and interaction rights for selected accounts.

9. Common Restricted List Use Cases

• Limiting who can see personal updates
• Preventing certain users from commenting
• Reducing visibility without blocking
• Managing professional vs personal audiences

10. Content Visibility for Restricted Users

Users on restricted lists may only see content explicitly shared with them or public content, depending on the configuration chosen by the account holder.

11. Comment & Interaction Restrictions

Restricted users may be prevented from commenting, reacting, or tagging, depending on the selected restrictions.

12. Notifications & Transparency

Friendium does not notify users when they are muted or added to restricted lists. Blocking may be indirectly inferred but is not explicitly disclosed.

13. Abuse Prevention & Safeguards

Blocking and restriction tools are intended for personal safety and comfort. Misuse of these tools to evade accountability may be reviewed by Friendium.

14. Interaction with Moderation & Enforcement

Blocking or muting does not replace reporting mechanisms. Serious violations should still be reported to Friendium for review.

15. Blocking in Group & Page Contexts

Blocking applies across Friendium globally, but group administrators may have additional moderation powers independent of user-level blocks.

16. Limits on Blocking

Friendium may impose reasonable limits on the number of accounts that can be blocked within a certain timeframe to prevent abuse of the feature.

17. Law Enforcement & Legal Exceptions

Blocking and restriction settings may be overridden where legally required for safety, investigations, or compliance with lawful orders.

18. Accounts Under Investigation

If an account is under active investigation, certain blocking or restriction actions may be temporarily limited to preserve evidence.

19. Impact on Recommendations & Discovery

Blocked users are excluded from friend recommendations, search results, and discovery features involving the blocking account.

20. Children & Vulnerable Users

Enhanced blocking and restriction defaults apply to accounts associated with minors or vulnerable populations.

21. User Responsibility

Users are responsible for managing their own blocking and restriction settings and reviewing them periodically.

22. Platform Integrity Considerations

Friendium monitors aggregate patterns to detect coordinated abuse, harassment campaigns, or attempts to manipulate blocking systems.

23. Appeals & Disputes

Users cannot appeal being blocked or muted by another user. Platform-level enforcement actions remain subject to appeal under the Appeals & Review Process.

24. Policy Updates

This policy may be updated to reflect new safety features, regulatory requirements, or evolving best practices.

25. Contact Information

User Safety Support: safety@friendium.com
Privacy Office: privacy@friendium.com
General Support: support@friendium.com