This Code constitutes IDCDC’s enforceable moral, professional, and safety discipline. It exists to: (a) protect truth and public interest; (b) preserve independence and non-partisanship under pressure; (c) secure protected participation for a dispersed community facing intimidation and manipulation; (d) ensure fairness, dignity, and non-discrimination; and (e) institutionalize correctionability, auditability, and learning as permanent operating standards.
This Code governs all IDCDC activity, including: (a) publications, research, and communications; (b) standards, toolkits, and indicators; (c) peer reviews and follow-up tracking; (d) membership and credentialing; (e) convenings and training; (f) procurement and partner engagement; and (g) all technical systems, data practices, and moderation or community safety operations.
This Code binds: (a) Board members, officers, staff, and volunteers; (b) Chapter and College leaders; (c) credentialed Fellows, reviewers, editors, trainers, and moderators; (d) contractors, vendors, and consultants with access to IDCDC assets; and (e) any person or entity permitted to use IDCDC marks or claim affiliation. Compliance is a condition of participation, credential retention, access to systems, and continued authorization to represent IDCDC.
For purposes of this Code:
(a) “Material claim” means any statement that could reasonably influence safety, reputation, allocation of resources, public understanding, program design, or partner action.
(b) “Protected participation” means safety-aware modalities including confidentiality tiers, role-based attribution, anti-doxxing enforcement, secure reporting channels, and risk-screened convening.
(c) “High-risk content” includes content that could expose individuals to retaliation, trigger targeted harassment, enable surveillance, incite violence, or amplify coordinated misinformation.
(d) “Handling classes” mean Public, Controlled, and Restricted, with least-disclosure and access control rules.
(e) “Correction” means a documented change that remedies error; “supersession” means formal replacement while preserving provenance and history.
Where values conflict, IDCDC prioritizes, in order:
(a) do-no-harm and source protection;
(b) truth and accuracy;
(c) independence and non-partisanship;
(d) accountability and remedy;
(e) transparency to the maximum extent compatible with safety and law.
Speed, virality, and reputational convenience are never valid reasons to degrade any higher-order duty.
IDCDC shall not publish, circulate, or institutionalize content that is knowingly false, materially misleading, or presented in a way that predictably distorts reality. Truthfulness includes: (a) accurate statements; (b) honest framing; (c) explicit uncertainty where uncertainty exists; and (d) refusal to imply conclusions not supported by available evidence.
(a) No material claim shall be published or used in IDCDC standards, indicators, or peer review findings without verification commensurate with risk.
(b) Verification shall prefer primary sources, independent corroboration, and traceable provenance.
(c) IDCDC shall maintain internal verification notes for material claims, including what was checked, what was uncertain, and what was excluded and why.
(d) When verification cannot be completed safely, IDCDC shall either refrain from publication or publish only a clearly bounded statement with explicit limitations and handling restrictions.
IDCDC outputs shall clearly distinguish:
(a) verified facts;
(b) modeled estimates and assumptions;
(c) analytic interpretation and inference;
(d) recommendations and normative commitments.
Conflation is prohibited. When advocacy exists, it shall be explicit, evidence-led, and correctionable—never disguised as neutral fact.
(a) IDCDC shall not isolate facts from context in ways that predictably mislead, inflame, or scapegoat.
(b) For migration, displacement, trauma, and coercion-related topics, IDCDC shall include structural drivers, legal constraints, and plausible counter-explanations sufficient to prevent simplistic narratives from harming vulnerable groups.
(c) Headline, summary, and excerpt text must meet the same truthfulness standard as the full content; “truthful body + misleading headline” is treated as misconduct.
(a) IDCDC shall maintain version identifiers, change notes, and supersession discipline for all durable outputs.
(b) Where facts shift, policies change, or new evidence emerges, IDCDC shall update, annotate, correct, or supersede prior content so that the institutional record does not fossilize error.
(c) Retractions and withdrawals are permitted when safety or unverifiability requires, but must preserve internal provenance, rationale, and disposition records.
(a) No government, party/faction, donor bloc, corporation, religious authority, or pressure group may direct IDCDC’s methods, publications, credentialing, indicators, peer review outcomes, staffing decisions, or procurement choices.
(b) Independence is enforced by conflict disclosure, donor concentration limits, refusal/quarantine powers, publication independence safeguards, and sanctionable misrepresentation controls.
(a) IDCDC shall not endorse, oppose, campaign for, or provide platform advantage to any party, candidate, or faction.
(b) IDCDC shall not conduct electoral activity, partisan fundraising, or partisan mobilization.
(c) IDCDC may publish evidence relevant to public outcomes, but must do so as technical work with documented methods and limitations, not as campaign messaging.
(a) Funding shall not purchase editorial, methodological, or operational control.
(b) Any condition—explicit or implicit—seeking to shape conclusions, suppress critique, change indicator baselines, control publication timing, or steer credentialing decisions is prohibited.
(c) IDCDC shall record, escalate, and respond to interference attempts; repeated interference is grounds for refusal, termination, and correction notice where safe.
IDCDC shall not be used to launder reputations, legitimize coercion, or sanitize harmful practices. When engagement creates that risk, IDCDC shall impose integrity conditions, restrict references, publish clarifications, pause collaboration, or terminate the relationship.
IDCDC shall assess foreseeable harms before publication or convening, including: retaliation risk, doxxing, community targeting, re-traumatization, stigmatization, incitement, and amplification of coordinated manipulation. Harm assessment is mandatory for high-risk content and sensitive convenings.
(a) Content involving torture, detention, sexual violence, or extreme psychological distress shall be handled with heightened care, including warnings, careful language, and avoidance of gratuitous details.
(b) Where feasible, IDCDC shall consult qualified safeguarding or mental-health expertise to reduce re-traumatization and prevent inadvertent harm.
(c) IDCDC shall avoid coercive interviewing, pressure on survivors, or the extraction of testimony for attention or institutional benefit.
(a) IDCDC shall not exploit suffering for clicks, fundraising, recruitment, or reputational positioning.
(b) Fundraising linked to crises must be factual, auditable, and non-manipulative; emotional pressure tactics, guilt campaigns, or inflated claims are prohibited.
(c) IDCDC shall avoid turning individuals into symbols without consent and safety clearance.
(a) Minors and vulnerable persons receive maximum protection: anonymization by default, heightened consent discipline, and strict limits on identifiability.
(b) Publishing identifying details requires a compelling, documented public-interest rationale and safety review, with Restricted handling by default.
IDCDC shall provide participation modalities that reduce exposure to intimidation, infiltration, and manipulation, including: confidentiality tiers, secure reporting channels, risk-screened convenings, anti-doxxing enforcement, and role-based attribution where identity disclosure creates risk.
(a) Anonymity may be granted when disclosure creates credible risk, provided claims remain verifiable by other means or through protected internal review.
(b) IDCDC shall not promise absolute anonymity unless it can be technically and legally supported; limitations must be communicated honestly.
(c) Anonymity decisions require internal justification records, periodic review, and least-disclosure implementation.
(a) IDCDC shall collect only essential data for lawful operation, safety, and accountability; optional data must be clearly marked and consent-based.
(b) Personal data shall not be monetized, traded, or used for behavioral targeting.
(c) Retention limits shall be defined, enforced, and auditable; data shall be deleted when no longer required, subject to legal holds and integrity needs.
(a) Sensitive work shall use approved secure channels with encryption, access controls, and least privilege.
(b) Credentials, keys, and access rights shall be managed with multi-factor authentication and regular review.
(c) IDCDC shall maintain incident logging, breach response procedures, and continuity plans appropriate to threat conditions.
Where disclosure could facilitate harassment or surveillance, IDCDC shall: (a) redact; (b) delay; (c) aggregate; (d) publish summaries only; or (e) restrict distribution—while preserving internal auditability and the ability to correct.
IDCDC shall respect equal dignity across ethnicity, language, religion or conscience, gender, disability, generation, and sexual orientation. Discrimination, dehumanization, and scapegoating are prohibited in IDCDC spaces and outputs.
(a) IDCDC shall not amplify tropes that predictably inflame hatred or divide communities.
(b) Where stereotypes circulate, IDCDC shall correct with evidence and context, and shall avoid framing that turns communities into collective suspects.
(a) When an output alleges wrongdoing by identifiable persons or entities, IDCDC shall apply heightened verification and offer a proportionate opportunity to respond where feasible and safe.
(b) IDCDC shall not allow “right of reply” to become a veto mechanism, intimidation tactic, or delay strategy; refusal to respond may be noted factually.
IDCDC shall reflect plural viewpoints when relevant, but shall not manufacture equivalence between evidence-based claims and manipulative propaganda. Plurality is achieved through method, not through surrender of truth standards.
IDCDC actions and publications must serve measurable public benefit—improving understanding, safety, readiness, accountability, and cooperation—without becoming partisan mobilization or coercive influence.
(a) Public figures, institutional leaders, and persons exercising public-facing influence may be scrutinized regarding their public actions, using careful verification and fair framing.
(b) Private individuals are entitled to heightened privacy. Exposure of identifiers requires compelling public interest and safety clearance.
(a) IDCDC shall avoid publishing personal identifiers, precise locations, or operational details that could enable targeting.
(b) When risk exists, IDCDC shall default to anonymization, aggregation, and Restricted handling, even if content is otherwise publishable.
IDCDC shall use careful language, clear sourcing, and verification notes to avoid negligent reputational harm. Recklessness, insinuation, and “soft allegations” without evidence are prohibited.
All standards, indicators, and peer reviews must: (a) state assumptions; (b) define evidence requirements; (c) document limitations; (d) specify reproducibility posture; and (e) include correction pathways. Method drift for reputational or donor convenience is prohibited.
(a) Reviewers must disclose conflicts, recuse when required, and refrain from factional conduct.
(b) Reviews must distinguish verified evidence from submissions and analytic judgment.
(c) Evidence logs shall be maintained under handling rules; redacted rationales may be published when evidence cannot be disclosed safely.
(d) Recommendations shall include follow-up trackers with milestones, owners, and update cadence to prevent performative reviews.
(a) IDCDC shall credit original work, respect licenses, and prohibit plagiarism or appropriation.
(b) Co-authorship and contributor recognition shall be fair and documented, with protection against exploitation of volunteer labor.
(a) AI may support drafting, summarization, translation, or analysis only under human oversight and documented checks for error, bias, and hallucination risk.
(b) Synthetic media must be labeled clearly; deceptive manipulation is prohibited.
(c) Restricted data shall not be exposed to tools without handling clearance, privacy safeguards, and documented risk assessment.
IDCDC shall not publish or promote content designed primarily to inflame, generate outrage, or chase virality. Emotional impact must never outrank accuracy, safety, and public interest.
(a) Paying for stories, coercive interviewing, entrapment, deceptive infiltration, or reckless publication based on rumor are prohibited.
(b) Exceptions require: (i) demonstrable overriding public interest; (ii) written integrity approval; (iii) documented proportionality; (iv) legal review where relevant; and (v) post-action accountability records.
IDCDC shall avoid language and amplification that predictably escalates inter-community conflict or endangers minorities. Strong critique is permitted; incitement, dehumanization, and harassment are prohibited.
(a) IDCDC shall maintain auditable accounts, internal controls, and clear separation between operational funds and any restricted program support.
(b) Financial statements and use-of-funds summaries shall be published where safe and lawful, with redactions limited to genuine safety or confidentiality needs.
(a) IDCDC shall screen for beneficial control, sanctions risk, hidden influence, capture risk, and reputational laundering risk.
(b) Funding may be refused, quarantined, returned, or conditioned to preserve independence and safety.
(c) Donor pressure, threats, or quid-pro-quo attempts shall be recorded as integrity incidents.
(a) Procurement shall be competitive, conflict-controlled, documented, and reviewable.
(b) Vendor selection shall not be influenced by donors, factions, or personal relationships.
(c) Vendors handling data or platforms must meet security, privacy, and handling requirements proportionate to risk.
IDCDC shall not exploit trauma, fear, or urgency to solicit funds. All fundraising claims must be verifiable, bounded, and non-deceptive, and shall not imply endorsement, authority, or guaranteed outcomes.
(a) Material errors require prompt correction, with appropriate visibility and clarity.
(b) Corrections shall state: what was wrong, what changed, why it changed, and the effective date—subject to safety constraints.
(c) “Quiet edits” to material claims are prohibited unless safety demands discretion and an internal correction log is preserved.
(a) IDCDC shall maintain accessible channels to challenge accuracy, bias, harm risk, conflicts, or misconduct.
(b) Complaints shall be logged, time-stamped, triaged, and resolved under defined response clocks, with escalation for high-risk matters.
Substantiated failures must trigger corrective action: policy updates, training, checklist improvements, and—where needed—disciplinary measures. IDCDC treats correctionability as institutional strength, not reputational weakness.
Any person with material influence over methods, publications, credentialing, procurement, or funds shall disclose relevant relationships, including employment, funding ties, political roles, family ties, and organizational affiliations.
(a) Conflicts require recusals, role limitations, or removal from decision pathways.
(b) Concealment, misstatement, or strategic non-disclosure is sanctionable misconduct.
(c) Where conflicts cannot be managed by recusal, participation may be denied to protect independence.
(a) Gifts and hospitality must be disclosed and may be prohibited or capped.
(b) Anything that appears to purchase access, influence, or endorsement is prohibited, even if nominally lawful.
This Code is enforced by designated integrity functions with protected reporting lines. Enforcement must be impartial, documented, and insulated from donor or factional pressure.
Sanctions may include: corrective plans, suspension, de-credentialing, removal from roles, restricted access, funding quarantine, permanent exclusion, and public correction notices where safe. Sanctions must be reasoned, recorded, and appealable per due-process clocks.
Where credible harm risk exists, integrity leadership may impose temporary holds (publication pause, access restriction, convening limitation) subject to rapid review, time limits, and appeal pathways. Protective holds are safety instruments, not political tools.
(a) Roles with elevated risk (editors, reviewers, safeguards leads, handling officers, moderators, data stewards) shall undergo periodic training and recertification.
(b) Acknowledgment of this Code is required for access to sensitive systems and for credential retention.
IDCDC shall review and update ethical, security, and publication practices as threats evolve (misinformation campaigns, harassment patterns, cyber incidents). Updates shall be versioned, communicated, and enforced.
IDCDC affirms Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds as an institutional operating standard, expressed through: (a) truthful method; (b) safe participation; (c) fair treatment; (d) accountable stewardship; and (e) correctionability without defensiveness.