Bharatpedia:Not censored

Bharatpedia is not censored. Bharatpedia's encyclopedic mission encompasses the inclusion of material that may offend some readers, because excluding such material would compromise the completeness and accuracy of the encyclopedia. This is a longstanding principle, and it is closely related to Bharatpedia's core content policies.

This page documents a content policy for Bharatpedia. It describes a widely accepted standard that all editors should normally follow. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

What "not censored" means

Bharatpedia does not remove material solely because it may be offensive, unpleasant, or unsuitable for some readers. This applies to:

• Words and language that some readers consider profane, vulgar, or offensive. Articles about such words, or that quote them, are not edited to remove or alter them.
• Images and media, including those depicting violence, human anatomy, or sexual acts, where they are relevant to the article's subject.
• Discussion of controversial topics, including subjects that may have criminal applications in some jurisdictions or that involve dangerous activities.
• Content that may be distressing, such as material relating to trauma, self-harm, or graphic descriptions of historical events.

Bharatpedia contains millions of articles on a vast array of topics. A relatively small fraction of these are frequently censored by educational, governmental, corporate, parental, and other filtering schemes. Bharatpedia's policy is to include such content, provided it breaches neither any of Bharatpedia's existing policies, especially neutral point of view, nor the laws of the jurisdiction where Bharatpedia is hosted.

What "not censored" does not mean

The principle that Bharatpedia is not censored is frequently misunderstood. It does not mean:

It does not give special favour to offensive content

Material should not be included solely because it is offensive, shocking, or likely to provoke a reaction. Bharatpedia is not a platform for shock value, and an editor who adds offensive content in order to provoke other editors is not protected by this policy. The relevant question is always whether the material is encyclopedically justified, not whether it is offensive.

Offensive words and images should not be included unless they are treated in an encyclopedic manner. Material that would be considered vulgar or obscene by typical readers should be used if and only if its omission would cause the article to be less informative, relevant, or accurate, and no equally suitable alternative is available.

It does not exempt content from other policies

Offensive content is subject to the same content policies as any other material. In particular:

• Neutral point of view requires that articles represent all significant views fairly and without editorial bias.
• Verifiability requires that material be attributable to reliable sources.
• Biographies of living persons imposes strict requirements on material about living individuals.
• Copyright policy governs the use of images, audio, and text owned by others.

An editor cannot invoke "Bharatpedia is not censored" to override any of these.

It does not mean anything goes

Bharatpedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. It is an encyclopedia, and its content must serve that purpose. Material that is gratuitous, off-topic, or included only to shock falls outside the project's scope and may be removed on those grounds—not because it is offensive, but because it does not belong in an encyclopedia.

It does not override legal requirements

Bharatpedia is hosted in a jurisdiction with its own laws. Material that would be illegal there cannot be hosted, regardless of its encyclopedic merit. This is a legal constraint, not a form of censorship in the editorial sense.

Handling offensive material in articles

Language

A vulgarity or obscenity should either appear in its full form or not at all. Words should not be bowdlerised by replacing letters with dashes, asterisks, or other symbols. Partial concealment serves no encyclopedic purpose: it neither removes the offence nor preserves the accuracy of the quotation.

However, when quoting material from a source, rendering the quotation as it appears in the source overrides this guideline. Where it is necessary to indicate that an unusual spelling or usage is carried over from the source, {{sic}} or a similar note may be used.

Images

Images that may be offensive to some readers should be included only where they are relevant to the article and treated in an encyclopedic manner. The relevant questions are:

• Does the image illustrate something the text discusses?
• Would the article be less informative or less accurate without it?
• Is there a suitable alternative that would serve the same purpose?

Where an image is merely decorative, or where its inclusion is contentious and its encyclopedic value marginal, it should be omitted.

Disclaimers

Disclaimers should not be used in articles. Content warnings, spoiler alerts, and similar notices do not belong in encyclopedia articles. Bharatpedia does not flag individual articles as containing potentially objectionable material.

There are several reasons for this:

• Redundancy. Every Bharatpedia page already carries a link to the general disclaimer, which provides access to the content disclaimer and other standard notices.
• False security. If some articles were flagged, readers might assume unflagged articles were inherently safe. They are not.
• Subjectivity. Determining what constitutes "adult content" or "objectionable material" is culturally subjective and would generate endless disputes.
• Consistency with policy. By longstanding principle, Bharatpedia is not censored.

Content warnings are also not permitted in template form or as hidden text within articles.

Discussions about offensive material

Discussions about whether to include a vulgar or explicit image or expression are often heated. As in all discussions on Bharatpedia, editors must practice civility and assume good faith. Labelling content with terms such as "pornography," or responding to content with accusations of "censorship," tends to inflame discussion and should be avoided. Objective terminology is more helpful than subjective terminology.

Editors should focus on whether the material is appropriate to include in a given article, not on whether it is offensive.

Standard disclaimers

Bharatpedia maintains five standard disclaimers that apply to all articles. These are accessible from the general disclaimer, which is linked at the bottom of every page:

• Content disclaimer — Bharatpedia contains content that may be objectionable.
• Legal disclaimer — Bharatpedia does not give legal opinions.
• Medical disclaimer — Bharatpedia does not give medical advice.
• Risk disclaimer — Use Bharatpedia at your own risk.
• Survey disclaimer — Bharatpedia has certain rights when you participate in one of its surveys.

These central disclaimers are the appropriate place for warnings about content. Individual articles do not duplicate them.

Relationship to other policies

This policy operates alongside several others that address related questions:

Policy or guideline	Relationship
What Bharatpedia is not	Establishes that Bharatpedia is not a censored publication, among other things.
Content disclaimer	Sets out what readers may encounter and states that Bharatpedia's policy is to include such content.
Offensive material	Explains how to treat offensive content in articles, and when it should be included.
No disclaimers	Explains why content warnings do not belong in articles.
Neutral point of view	Requires that all significant views be represented fairly, including views that some readers find objectionable.
Biographies of living persons	Imposes stricter requirements on material about living people, which may limit what is included even where it is otherwise relevant.

See also

• Bharatpedia:Content disclaimer
• Bharatpedia:General disclaimer
• Bharatpedia:Offensive material
• Bharatpedia:No disclaimers
• Bharatpedia:What Bharatpedia is not
• Bharatpedia:Biographies of living persons
• Bharatpedia:Neutral point of view
• Censorship of Bharatpedia