Effective Date: August 30, 2026
1. Purpose
The FETP Alumni Platform is a professional community that connects Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) alumni across the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) to exchange knowledge, share experiences, build professional networks, and support collaboration.
This Content and Community Policy outlines the standards for content and conduct on the platform and aims to ensure that it remains a respectful, inclusive, professional, and constructive space for all members.
By using the platform, members agree to follow this policy.
2. Community Standards
We encourage members to:
- Treat other members with respect and professionalism.
- Engage in constructive and meaningful discussions.
- Respect differences in perspectives, cultures, experiences, and professional backgrounds.
- Share relevant and accurate information to the best of their knowledge.
- Give appropriate credit to original sources and content creators.
- Use the platform to support learning, networking, collaboration, and professional development.
- Consider the potential impact of content before posting or sharing it.
3. Appropriate Content
Members are encouraged to share content relevant to the FETP alumni community, including:
- Public health, epidemiology, and field epidemiology-related information.
- Research, publications, tools, and educational resources.
- Professional experiences, lessons learned, and best practices.
- Training, conference, fellowship, and professional development opportunities.
- Job and career opportunities relevant to the community.
- FETP-related news, activities, achievements, and announcements.
- Opportunities for professional collaboration and networking.
- Questions and discussions that support professional learning and knowledge exchange.
4. Content and Conduct That Are Not Permitted
4.1 Is Abusive, Offensive, or Harassing
This includes content that:
- Threatens, intimidates, bullies, or harasses another person.
- Contains personal attacks, insults, or deliberately humiliating language.
- Uses excessively vulgar, obscene, or offensive language.
- Encourages hostility, violence, or harm toward an individual or group.
4.2 Promotes Discrimination or Hate
Content that promotes hatred, discrimination, hostility, or demeaning treatment of individuals or groups based on characteristics such as nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, age, disability, or other personal characteristics is not permitted.
4.3 Is Sexually Explicit or Inappropriate
Sexually explicit, pornographic, or otherwise inappropriate content has no place on the platform and is prohibited.
4.4 Is Intended to Provoke or Disrupt
Members should not use the platform to deliberately provoke, antagonize, disrupt, or inflame discussions or other members.
Healthy debate and differing opinions are welcome; personal attacks and deliberately disruptive behaviour are not.
4.5 Contains False or Misleading Information
Members must not knowingly share false, fabricated, or deliberately misleading information.
When sharing information relating to public health events, disease outbreaks, emergencies, or other sensitive topics, members are encouraged to verify information and provide credible sources where possible.
4.6 Violates Confidentiality or Privacy
Members must not share confidential, sensitive, or personally identifiable information without appropriate authorization.
This includes, but is not limited to:
- Patient or case information.
- Personal contact details.
- Medical or health information.
- Identifiable photographs or documents.
- Confidential workplace, institutional, or government information.
- Sensitive information related to disease surveillance, outbreak investigations, or field activities.
Members are responsible for ensuring that any information they share is appropriate for publication on the platform.
4.7 Violates Copyright or Intellectual Property Rights
Members should respect copyright and intellectual property rights.
Content belonging to others should not be reproduced or distributed without appropriate permission or attribution. When sharing publications, reports, images, research, or other resources, members should credit the original creator or source where appropriate.
4.8 Contains Spam or Unsolicited Promotion
The platform must not be used for spam, repeated unsolicited messages, fraudulent schemes, misleading offers, or excessive commercial promotion.
Relevant professional opportunities, services, events, and resources may be shared where they are appropriate to the FETP alumni community.
4.9 Involves Impersonation or Misrepresentation
Members must not impersonate another individual, organization, or institution or deliberately misrepresent their professional identity, qualifications, or affiliations.
4.10 Promotes Illegal or Harmful Activities
Content that promotes, facilitates, or encourages illegal activity, violence, exploitation, or harm to others is prohibited.
5. Professional Disagreement and Debate
The platform welcomes professional discussion, differing opinions, and respectful debate.
Members may disagree with research findings, policies, approaches, or professional opinions. However, discussions should focus on the ideas or issues rather than attacking individuals.
Members are encouraged to:
- Challenge ideas respectfully.
- Support statements with evidence or credible sources where appropriate.
- Avoid personal attacks.
- Respect different professional and country contexts.
- Maintain a constructive tone, even when opinions differ.
Different opinions are welcome. Disrespect is not.
6. Reporting Content
Members can report content that they believe violates this policy or is otherwise inappropriate for the FETP Alumni Platform.
Reported content may be reviewed by the platform administrators or designated moderators.
Members are encouraged to use the reporting function responsibly and should not report content simply because they disagree with another member's legitimate professional opinion or perspective.
7. Removal of Content
We reserve the right to remove, restrict, or take down any content that we determine, at our discretion, to be inappropriate, offensive, unlawful, or inconsistent with this policy or the purpose of the platform.
Content may be removed following a member report, through routine moderation, or when brought to the attention of platform administrators through other means.
In determining whether content should be removed, consideration may be given to the nature, severity, context, and frequency of the conduct or content.
8. Actions for Policy Violations
Depending on the nature and severity of a violation, platform administrators may:
- Request that a member edit or remove content.
- Remove or restrict access to content.
- Issue a warning to the member.
- Temporarily restrict a member's ability to post, comment, or interact.
- Suspend or terminate a member's access to the platform in cases of serious or repeated violations.
The platform reserves the right to take appropriate action without prior warning where the nature of the content or conduct warrants immediate action.
9. Member Responsibility
Members are responsible for the content they post, share, or otherwise make available through the platform.
Membership of the FETP Alumni Platform does not mean that EMPHNET, the platform administrators, or participating FETPs endorse or agree with the views expressed by individual members.
Members should exercise professional judgment when sharing information and should ensure that their contributions are appropriate for a professional regional alumni community.
10. Policy Updates
This policy may be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect the needs of the FETP alumni community, developments in online community management, and changes in applicable requirements or best practices.
Members will be informed of significant changes to the policy where appropriate.
11. Our Community Commitment
The FETP Alumni Platform brings together public health professionals from across the Eastern Mediterranean Region, representing different countries, cultures, institutions, experiences, and perspectives.
We may not always agree—and constructive disagreement is part of a healthy professional community.
Our shared standard is simple:
Share knowledge. Challenge ideas. Respect people. Protect confidentiality. Build the network.