user-guidelines.txt

As a global platform for creativity and self-expression, Tumblr is deeply
committed to supporting and protecting freedom of speech. At the same time, we
draw lines around a few narrowly-defined but deeply important categories of
content and behavior that jeopardize our users, threaten our infrastructure,
and damage our community.

What Tumblr is for:

  Tumblr celebrates creativity. We want you to express yourself freely and use
  Tumblr to reflect who you are, and what you love, think, and stand for.

What Tumblr is not for:

  Terrorism. 
    
    We don't tolerate content that promotes, encourages, or incites acts of 
    terrorism. That includes content which supports or celebrates terrorist
    organizations, their leaders, or associated violent activities.

  Hate Speech. 
    
    Don't encourage violence or hatred. Don't post content for the purpose
    of promoting or inciting the hatred of, or dehumanizing, individuals or
    groups based on race, ethnic or national origin, religion, gender, 
    gender identity, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, disability or
    disease. If you encounter content that violates our hate speech policies,
    please report it.

    Keep in mind that a post might be mean, tasteless, or offensive without
    necessarily encouraging violence or hatred. In cases like that, you can
    always block the person who made the post—or, if you're up for it, you 
    can express your concerns to them directly, or use Tumblr to speak up,
    challenge ideas, raise awareness or generate discussion and debate.
    
  Harm to Minors. 
    
    Don't post or solicit content that features the abuse of a minor, that
    includes suggestive or sexual content involving a minor or anyone that 
    appears to be a minor, or that facilitates or promotes child sexual 
    abuse. "Content" may include photos of real individuals, illustrations,
    animation, or text. Posting or reblogging child sexual abuse material
    is a serious crime for which we have no tolerance. We report all such
    instances to child protection organizations and law enforcement around 
    the world, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited 
    Children.
    
  Promotion or Glorification of Self-Harm.

    Don't post content that actively promotes or glorifies self-harm. This
    includes content that urges or encourages others to: cut or injure
    themselves; embrace anorexia, bulimia, or other eating disorders; or
    commit suicide rather than, e.g., seeking counseling or treatment, or
    joining together in supportive conversation with those suffering or
    recovering from depression or other conditions. Dialogue about these
    behaviors is incredibly important and online communities can be
    extraordinarily helpful to people struggling with these difficult
    conditions. We aim for Tumblr to be a place that facilitates awareness,
    support and recovery, and we will remove only those posts or blogs that
    cross the line into active promotion or glorification of self-harm.

  Sexually Explicit Material. 
  
    Visual depictions of sexually explicit acts (or content with an overt focus on
    genitalia) are not allowed on Tumblr. That includes pictures, videos, GIFs, 
    drawings, CGI, or anything similar. Historically significant art that you may 
    find in a mainstream museum and which depicts sex acts—such as from India’s 
    Śuṅga Empire—are now allowed on Tumblr with proper labeling.

    Nudity and other kinds of adult material are generally welcome. We’re not here
    to judge your art, we just ask that you add a User Label to your mature 
    content so that people can choose to filter it out of their Dashboard if they 
    prefer.

    You have the option to add a community label when making a new post,
    reblogging a post, or editing an existing post. Depending on your content, you
    can label it as generally mature or choose a specific category such as “Sexual
    Themes” if your post contains sexually suggestive subject matter.

    Blogs which have a focus on mature content may not be eligible for certain
    Tumblr features, including monetization options. We need to consider the
    policies of our partners in the payments space, so the rules there are a bit 
    different.

    For more information about this guideline, and how to appeal decisions about
    sexually explicit material, check out our Help Center article.
    
  Violent Content and Threats, Gore and Mutilation. 
  
    Don't post content which includes violent threats toward individuals or groups
    - this includes threats of theft, property damage, or financial harm. Don't post
    violent content or gore just to be shocking. Don't showcase the mutilation or
    torture of human beings, animals (including bestiality), or their remains. 
    Don't post content that encourages or incites violence, or glorifies acts of
    violence or the perpetrators.

  Non-Genuine Social Gesture Schemes.

    Don't participate in schemes to drive up non-genuine follows, likes,
    reblogs, etc. Don't orchestrate or engage in "follow trains," where users
    are encouraged to follow lists of other users to gain more followers for
    themselves. Don't make bulk or indiscriminate use of messaging features
    like Fan Mail or Asks, to, for example, bait reblogs/follows or drive
    traffic to your blog or website. If you want people to like you, just play
    it cool and be yourself.

  Deceptive or Fraudulent Links.

    Don't post deceptive or fraudulent links in your posts. This includes
    giving links misleading descriptions, putting the wrong "source" field in a
    post, setting misleading click-through links on images, or embedding links
    to interstitial or pop-up ads.

  Misattribution or Non-Attribution.

    Make sure you always give proper attribution and include full links back to
    original sources. When you find something awesome on Tumblr, reblog it
    instead of reposting it. It's less work and more fun, anyway. When
    reblogging something, DO NOT inject a link back to your blog just to steal
    attention from the original post. If you want to report the unauthorized 
    posting of content you created or have a copyright for, please do so using 
    this form.

  Username / URL Abuse or Squatting.

    Tumblr's usernames/URLs are meant for the use and enjoyment of all of our
    users. Don't squat, hoard, amass, accumulate, accrue, stockpile, rack up,
    buy, trade, sell, launder, invest in, ingest, get drunk on, cyber with,
    grope, or jealously guard Tumblr usernames/URLs.

  Account Dormancy.

    Use Tumblr! Use Tumblr all the time! Or at the very least, use Tumblr once
    a year. If you don’t, we may mark your account as dormant. Your content won't
    go anywhere—it'll be archived exactly as you left it—but your URL(s) will be
    released for someone else to use.

  Spam.

    Don't spam people. Don't make spammy posts, don't post spammy replies,
    don't send people spammy messages. Be a regular human. Don't put tags on
    your posts that will mislead or deceive searchers. For example, don't tag a
    photo of your cat with "doctor who" unless the name of your cat is actually
    Doctor Who, and don't overload your posts with #barely #relevant #tags. Of
    course, meaningful uses of tags are always fine (for example, ironic
    "punchline" tags that add meaning or context to a post). Don't put
    dubious code in your posts, like using JavaScript to cause redirects or
    inject unwanted ads in blogs. Don't use deceptive means to generate revenue
    or traffic, or create blogs with the primary purpose of affiliate
    marketing. Spam doesn't belong on Tumblr.

  Mass Registration or Automation.

    Don't register accounts or post content automatically, systematically, or
    programmatically.
    
  Illegitimate Promotions. 
  
    Please see our Promotions Guidelines for requirements around contests, 
    sweepstakes, and giveaways.

  Themes Distributed by Third Parties.

    To ensure the safety and stability of our blog network, it's important that
    themes are distributed through tumblr.com/themes. It's easy, it's secure,
    and any interested developer can use it to host and promote their work.
    Besides the inconvenience involved in using them, third-party theme
    repositories are often used to inject nefarious code that subjects users to
    spam, ads, or phishing attacks. Don't use them. Creating blogs or
    directories that curate themes from tumblr.com/themes is a-okay.

  Copyright or Trademark Infringement.

    Respect the copyrights and trademarks of others. If you aren't allowed to
    use someone else's copyrighted or trademarked work (either by license or
    by legal exceptions and limitations such as fair use), don't post it.

    Intellectual property is a tricky issue, so now is as good a time as any
    to explain some aspects of the process we use for handling copyright and
    trademark complaints. We respond to notices of alleged copyright
    infringement as per our Terms of Service and the Digital Millennium
    Copyright Act; please see our DMCA notification form to file a copyright
    claim online. Please note that we require a valid DMCA notice before
    removing content. Parties asserting a trademark infringement claim should
    identify the allegedly infringing work and the legal basis for their
    claim, and include the registration and/or application number(s)
    pertaining to their trademark. Each claim is reviewed by a trained member
    of our Trust and Safety team.

    If we remove material in response to a copyright or trademark claim, the
    user who posted the allegedly infringing material will be provided with
    information from the complainant's notice (like identification of the
    rightsholder and the allegedly infringed work) so they can determine the
    basis of the claim.

    We always want to make sure there is room in any copyright or trademark
    complaint for both parties to make their case. With regard to copyright
    claims, the posting user can file a DMCA counter-notification with us, as
    described in our Terms of Service. Counter-notifications that we determine
    to be valid will result in restoration of the content at issue following
    the required waiting period prescribed by the DMCA. With regard to
    trademark claims, the posting user can send us an appeal explaining their
    side of the situation, along with any relevant materials we should look
    at. A successful trademark appeal will also result in restoration of the
    content at issue.

    With regard to repeat copyright infringement, we use a three-strike system
    to evaluate the standing of a user's account, where, generally, each valid
    copyright infringement notice constitutes a strike, and three strikes
    results in the termination of a user's account. When a user submits a
    valid DMCA counter-notification, we remove the associated strike from
    their record.

    Whew. It's a complex process, but one we're proud of, and that we think
    strikes all the appropriate balances.

  Impersonation and Non-Genuine Behavior

    Don't do things that may cause confusion between your blog and another
    person, organization, or company, like registering a deliberately
    confusing URL or pretending to be a celebrity or an elected official.
    Don't impersonate anyone. While you're free to ridicule, parody, or 
    marvel at the alien beauty of Benedict Cumberbatch, you can't pretend
    that you're actually Benedict Cumberbatch.

  Harassment.

    Don't engage in targeted abuse, bullying, or harassment. Don't engage
    in the unwanted sexualization or sexual harassment of others. If 
    someone is sending you unwanted messages, or reblogging your posts 
    in an abusive way, we encourage you to be proactive. Report them, and
    block the hell out of them. And if someone blocks you, don't attempt 
    to circumvent the block feature or otherwise try to communicate with 
    them.

  Privacy Violations.

    Don't use Tumblr to deceptively obtain personal information. Don't post
    content that violates anyone's privacy, especially personally identifying
    or confidential information like credit card numbers, social security
    numbers, or unlisted contact information. Do not post private messages
    without the sender's consent. And absolutely do not post unauthorized nude
    imagery—that is, private photos or videos taken or posted without the
    subject's consent.

  Disruptions, Exploits, or Resource Abuse.

    Our servers and the valiant engineers behind them work hard for you. Don't
    attempt unauthorized use, disruption, or exploitation of Tumblr.com or our
    other products and services, or otherwise abuse Tumblr's resources.

  Unlawful Uses or Content.

    Don't use Tumblr to conduct illegal behavior, like fraud or phishing.
    That should be pretty obvious to you, a decent human being. Don't use
    Tumblr for any kind of exchange of regulated drugs, substances,
    devices, goods, or weapons. Don't use Tumblr to buy them, sell them,
    trade them, or to share instructions for manufacturing them. This
    includes firearms, firearm parts, 3D-printed firearms or parts,
    explosives, ammunition, or anything else designed to hurt others.
    
  Election Integrity. 
  
    You may not use Tumblr to defraud nor impede the integrity of the
    United States Census or local, regional, or national public offic
    elections. Bottom line: do not create or promote content designed
    to suppress, intimidate, or confuse voters or U.S. census
    participants. This includes spreading false information about how
    to vote, when to vote, or where to vote.
    
  Human Trafficking and Prostitution. 
  
    Don't use Tumblr to facilitate sex trafficking, other forms of
    human trafficking, or illegal prostitution. If you see this
    activity on Tumblr, report it, and encourage victims to contact
    law enforcement or the National Human Trafficking Hotline at
    1-888-373-7888.


If we conclude that you are violating these guidelines, you may receive a
notice via email. If you don't explain or correct your behavior, we may take
action against your account. We do our best to ensure fair outcomes, but in all
cases we reserve the right to suspend accounts, or remove content, without
notice, for any reason, but particularly to protect our services,
infrastructure, users, and community. We reserve the right to enforce, or not
enforce, these guidelines in our sole discretion, and these guidelines don't
create a duty or contractual obligation for us to act in any particular manner.

You can report violations of these guidelines to us directly.

You can remove your own content whenever you want, of course. If you need help
doing that, you can find instructions over in our help docs.
https://www.tumblr.com/docs/posting#deletepost

We also reserve the right to amend these guidelines using the procedures set
forth in our Terms of Service.

If you have questions or feedback, don't hesitate to let us know.

Thanks for reading all of this, by the way. Welcome to Tumblr.

Link to Prior Versions

  You will find prior versions of our User Guidelines on GitHub, which will allow you to
  compare historical versions and see which terms have been updated:

  http://github.com/tumblr/policy/commits/master/user-guidelines.txt