State of Caution and Emergency Act 2025

The States of Caution and Emergency Act.

Whereas; A significant increase of users may cause destabilising issues,

Whereas; There may be reason for SimDemocracy to need to act to secure itself against brigaders or other issues.

Article 1: State of Caution.

§1. The State of Caution can be activated by the President of SimDemocracy if there is some event causing significant destabilisation for SimDemocracy that requires some management to ensure the stability of the community and the democratic institutions of SimDemocracy.

§1.1. Reasons for the activation of the State of Caution can be however is not limited to, a very significant increase of new users within a limited amount of time, major brigading or spamming of the discord or subreddit, reasonable suspicion of imminent major brigading or spamming of the discord or subreddit, reasonable suspicion of election fraud or imminent election fraud.

§2. To activate the State of Caution the President of SimDemocracy must announce the State of Caution to both the subreddit and discord server unless there is a reasonable reason why it cannot be announced to either territory.

§3. To activate the State of Caution requires approval from a Supreme Court Justice.

§3.1. If the matter is particularly urgent then the President of SimDemocracy may activate the State of Caution without initial approval from a Supreme Court Justice, however if the activation is not subsequently approved by a Supreme Court Justice within 48 hours then the State of Caution is automatically ended.

§4. When the State of Caution is activated, there is to be a vote of the Senate of SimDemocracy as soon as possible to support or reject the activation of the State of Caution, if there is not a ⅔ majority support vote of the Senate for the State of Caution then the State of Caution is to be immediately ended.

Repealed §5. During the State of Caution the President of SimDemocracy can authorise any or all of the following decisions:

Confining newly arrived users to the discord server, for whom there is not any evidence of posting to the SimDemocracy discord server during the past and who are not registered voters, to a specific area for new members, each new user may be confined within the new members area for up to 48 hours.

Restricting the image posting and link embedding permissions for newly arrived users to the discord server, for up to a week after joining the discord server (there may be exceptions decided via a case by case basis).

Postponing Voter Identification applications until the conclusion of the State of Caution or until the postponement of Voter Identification applications has been activated for a week, whichever is sooner.

The ability to post and comment to the subreddit (r/simdemocracy) may be restricted for the duration of State of Caution to approved users, all elected and appointed officials are to be approved automatically while any user that can provide evidence of being active within the discord server or subreddit before the start of the State of Caution can request to be approved and must be accepted unless there is evidence that they intend to commit a criminal offence within SimDemocracy. If a user that has been previously active within SimDemocracy during the past and is not lawfully banned wishes to stand for election they may direct their call for candidates post directly to the Elections Supervisor if they are unable to post to the subreddit.

§5. During the State of Caution the President of SimDemocracy can authorise any or all of the following decisions:

(a) Confining newly arrived users to the discord server, for whom there is not any evidence of posting to the SimDemocracy discord server during the past and who are not registered voters, to a specific area for new members, each new user may be confined within the new members area for up to 48 hours.

(b) Confining users with accounts which have been in the server for up to 4 weeks to a specific area. This can only be done if there is probable cause that the account has committed a crime or is an alternate account. This action must be certified by a court within 48 hours. The account shall only be released after a trial, if there is no certification within 48 hours, or if the state of caution ends.

(c) Restricting the image posting and link embedding permissions for newly arrived users to the discord server, for up to a week after joining the discord server (there may be exceptions decided via a case-by-case basis).

(d) Postponing Voter Identification applications until the conclusion of the State of Caution or until the postponement of Voter Identification applications has been activated for a week, whichever is sooner.

(e) The ability to post and comment to the subreddit (r/simdemocracy) may be restricted for the duration of State of Caution to approved users. All elected and appointed officials are to be approved automatically while any user that can provide evidence of being active within the discord server or subreddit before the start of the State of Caution can request to be approved and must be accepted unless there is evidence that they intend to commit a criminal offence within SimDemocracy. If a user that has been previously active within SimDemocracy during the past and is not lawfully banned wishes to stand for election, they may direct their call for candidates post directly to the Elections Supervisor if they are unable to post to the subreddit.

(f) Enabling the discord ‘apply to join feature’ (via the Access tab in server settings) in order to filter out any potential raiders. The application may have such questions as the President determines is necessary. Applications shall be reviewed, accepted or denied by the OHS. The OHS shall have the right to use the built-in ‘Interview’ feature to interview any suspicious accounts in their DMs. The OHS may deny an application on grounds only of:

(i) There being reason to believe that the applicant is an alt account.

(ii) There being reason to believe that the applicant is joining for nefarious purposes listed in Article 1, §1.1. of this Act, apart from simply being a new member.

(g) Pausing Direct Messages on the Discord Server.

§6. The State of Caution can be concluded at any time by the President, however if they wish to continue the State of Caution for more than a week the Senate must vote ⅔ to support such a decision.

§6.1. The State of Caution cannot continue for more than 4 weeks.

§7. At any time during the State of Caution, any Senator may introduce a motion to conclude the State of Caution, the Senate must vote to either support or oppose this motion to conclude the State of Caution as soon as possible, if a majority of the Senate votes to conclude the State of Caution then the State of Caution is to be immediately concluded.

§8. The State of Caution may be issued preemptively if any issues that may require a State of Caution are reasonably expected to be somewhat imminent.

Article 2: State of Emergency.

§1. The State of Emergency can be activated by the President of SimDemocracy if there is some event causing chaotic destabilisation for SimDemocracy that requires immediate management to ensure the stability of the community and democratic institutions of SimDemocracy.

§1.1. Reasons for the activation of the State of Emergency can be however is not limited to, a completely unmanageable increase of new users within a limited amount of time, major brigading or spamming of the discord or subreddit that cannot be effectively dealt with, reasonable suspicion of imminent major brigading or spamming of the discord or subreddit, reasonable suspicion of election fraud or imminent election fraud of significant scale that may immediately destabilise the democratic institutions of SimDemocracy.

§2. To activate the State of Emergency the President of SimDemocracy must announce the State of Emergency to both the subreddit and discord server unless there is a reasonable reason why it cannot be announced to either territory.

§3. To activate the State of Emergency requires approval from a majority of the Supreme Court of SimDemocracy.

§3.1. If the matter is particularly urgent then the President of SimDemocracy may activate the State of Emergency without initial approval from the Supreme Court however if the activation is not subsequently approved by the Supreme Court within 48 hours then the State of Emergency is automatically ended.

§4. When the State of Emergency is activated, there is to be a vote of the Senate of SimDemocracy as soon as possible to support or reject the activation of the State of Emergency, if there is not a ⅔ majority support vote of the Senate for the State of Emergency then the State of Emergency is to be immediately ended.

Repealed §5. During the State of Caution the President of SimDemocracy can authorise any or all of the following decisions:

Denying any new users the ability to join the SimDemocracy discord server for the duration of the State of Emergency by pausing and revoking the links to join the server, users that there is evidence that they have been active within SimDemocracy during the past may apply for an exemption if they want to join the discord server during the State of Emergency.

Restricting the image posting and link embedding permissions for newly arrived users to the discord server, for the duration of the State of Emergency (there may be exceptions decided via a case by case basis).

Postponing Voter Identification applications until the conclusion of the State of Emergency.

The subreddit (r/simdemocracy) may be set to private, however all elected and appointed officials must be automatically granted the ability to view and post within the subreddit, and all users that have been active before the start of the State of Emergency can request to be approved and must be accepted unless there is evidence that they intend to commit a criminal offence within SimDemocracy. If a user that has been previously active within SimDemocracy during the past and is not lawfully banned wishes to stand for election they may direct their call for candidates post directly to the Elections Supervisor if they are unable to post to the subreddit.

§5. During the State of Emergency the President of SimDemocracy can authorise any or all of the following decisions:

(a) Denying any new users the ability to join the SimDemocracy discord server for the duration of the State of Emergency by pausing and revoking the links to join the server. Users that there is evidence they have been active within SimDemocracy during the past may apply for an exemption if they want to join the discord server during the State of Emergency.

(b) Restricting the image posting and link embedding permissions for newly arrived users to the discord server, for the duration of the State of Emergency (there may be exceptions decided via a case-by-case basis).

(c) Postponing Voter Identification applications until the conclusion of the State of Emergency.

(d) The subreddit (r/simdemocracy) may be set to private. However, all elected and appointed officials must be automatically granted the ability to view and post within the subreddit. All users that have been active before the start of the State of Emergency can request to be approved and must be accepted unless there is evidence that they intend to commit a criminal offence within SimDemocracy. If a user that has been previously active within SimDemocracy during the past and is not lawfully banned wishes to stand for election, they may direct their call for candidates post directly to the Elections Supervisor if they are unable to post to the subreddit.

(e) Confining users with accounts which have been in the server for up to 4 weeks to a specific area. This can only be done if there is probable cause that the account has committed a crime or is an alternate account. This action must be certified by a court within 48 hours. The account shall only be released after a trial, if there is no certification within 48 hours, or if the state of caution ends.

(f) Enabling the discord ‘apply to join feature’ (via the Access tab in server settings) in order to filter out any potential raiders. The application may have such questions as the President determines is necessary. Applications shall be reviewed, accepted or denied by the OHS. The OHS shall have the right to use the built-in ‘Interview’ feature to interview any suspicious accounts in their DMs. The OHS may deny an application on grounds only of:

(i) There being reason to believe that the applicant is an alt account.

(ii) There being reason to believe that the applicant is joining for nefarious purposes listed in Article 1, §1.1. of this Act, apart from simply being a new member.

(g) Pausing Invites and Direct Messages on the Discord Server.

§6. The State of Emergency can be concluded at any time by the President of SimDemocracy, however if they wish to continue the State of Emergency for more than 96 hours the Senate must vote ⅔ to support such a decision.

§6.1. The Senate can only vote to continue the State of Emergency for up to an additional 96 hours once, after 192 hours since the State of Emergency was declared it is to automatically be concluded.

§6.2. The President of SimDemocracy can reduce the State of Emergence to a State of Caution, that State of Caution then has a total of a week of being activated before requiring a Senate vote of ⅔ majority support to continue.

§7. At any time during the State of Emergency, any Senator may introduce a motion to conclude the State of Emergency, the Senate must vote to either support or oppose this motion to conclude the State of Emergency as soon as possible, if a majority of the Senate votes to conclude the State of Emergency then the State of Emergency is to be immediately concluded.

§8. The State of Emergency may be issued preemptively if any issues that may require a State of Emergency are reasonably expected to be an immediate issue.