Community Guidelines

Last updated: [DATE]

These guidelines describe what is and is not allowed on Sourced. They apply to posts, comments, profile content, sources cited, and any other content you publish or send through the platform.

The principles behind every rule below are: substance over noise, sources over assertions, comment authors keep their voice, and no one is silenced for criticism that is on-topic and follows the rules.

What we expect

1. Sources mean what they say

When you post in the content tier, you must cite at least one source, and the source must substantially support what you are claiming. Linking to an article that doesn't actually back your claim, or quoting it out of context to imply a different meaning, is a violation.

2. Personal posts stay personal

The social tier is for life updates, photos, and conversations with friends and family. It is not the place to push public political content, news commentary, or claims about the world that should go in the content tier with sources. Tagging substantive public claims as "personal" to avoid the source requirement is a form of evasion and we will reclassify the post.

3. Video posts must justify themselves

Any post containing video must include a public statement explaining why the video belongs on Sourced. "Because it's funny" is not enough. "Because I felt like sharing" is not enough. The statement is visible on the post; you should be willing to defend it publicly.

4. Treat people with basic decency

You can disagree, criticize, fact-check, and argue strongly — that's the platform working. You cannot harass, threaten, or dehumanize people. Strong disagreement and harassment are different things, and our moderators are trained to tell them apart.

5. Comments stay where they are

Once a comment is posted, the post author cannot remove it. This is a feature. If a comment violates these guidelines, report it. If a user repeatedly bothers you, block them — they can no longer comment on your posts going forward, but their existing comments remain.

What is never allowed

These categories will result in content removal and may result in account termination. They apply across both tiers.

Child safety

Sexual content involving minors, in any form (including drawings, AI-generated, fiction).
Content that grooms, sexualizes, or endangers a child.
Content that pressures, isolates, or manipulates a minor in any way.

We report violations to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and law enforcement.

Threats and incitement

Direct threats of violence against a specific person or group.
Incitement to imminent violence.
Doxxing — publishing someone's home address, phone number, or other private contact information without their consent, especially in conjunction with hostility.

Hate

Slurs and dehumanizing rhetoric targeting people for race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or serious medical condition.
Calling for the exclusion, harm, or deprivation of rights of any of the above groups.

Critique of ideas, religions as belief systems, or political positions is not hate speech. Critique of people in those categories on the basis of their membership is.

Sexual content involving non-consent

Non-consensual intimate imagery ("revenge porn").
Content that promotes, depicts, or organizes sexual assault.

Dangerous misinformation

Fabricated sources or sources falsified to mislead.
Content promoting deliberate, large-scale election fraud, vaccine sabotage, or comparable categories of harm where misinformation directly endangers life or democratic process.

We are aware that "misinformation" is a contested term. We try to apply this category narrowly, to material that is provably fabricated and likely to cause serious harm — not to controversial-but-defensible positions that include genuine sources. Disagreement on a sourced claim is the platform working as intended; that is what comments are for.

Spam, manipulation, and fraud

Buying, selling, or trading accounts, reactions, or comments.
Coordinated inauthentic behavior (bot networks, sockpuppets).
Click fraud, impression farming, and any scheme to inflate ad payouts.
Promotional content sold or paid for as if it were organic.
Phishing, malware, scams.

Privacy violations

Sharing another person's private content (messages, photos, documents) without their consent, except for legitimate journalism on matters of public concern.
Publishing personal data scraped or hacked from third-party services.

Illegal content

Content that is illegal in the jurisdiction in which Sourced operates, including but not limited to material protected by copyright (without permission or fair use justification), material promoting terrorism, and child sexual abuse material.

Sourced ecosystem abuse

Mass-blocking other users in patterns suggesting suppression of legitimate criticism rather than self-defense from harassment.
Bypassing the source requirement through formatting tricks, screenshots of text, or false categorization.
Falsifying the "value statement" on video posts to bypass the video gate.

Specific topics

Politics

Political content is allowed, including views across the political spectrum. The same rules apply: claims about facts require sources; criticism of public figures and institutions on matters of public concern is permitted; threats, dehumanization, and dangerous misinformation are not.

We will not remove a post solely because we disagree with it, or because it is politically controversial. We will remove posts that violate the categories above regardless of which "side" they come from.

Religion

Religions and religious figures may be discussed, critiqued, and defended. Personal hate against people for being religious (or non-religious) is not allowed.

Health and medical content

Health claims must be sourced. Posts that discourage emergency medical care, promote dangerous untested treatments, or use Sourced to sell unregulated health products will be removed.

Self-harm and suicide

Posts depicting, instructing in, or encouraging self-harm or suicide are not allowed. Content that discusses these topics in the context of recovery, journalism, advocacy, or research is allowed and is encouraged to include resources for people in crisis.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, in the US you can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. International resources: https://findahelpline.com.

Adult content

Sexual content involving consenting adults: [DECISION NEEDED — currently undecided. Sourced may choose to allow it with strict labeling, or disallow it. Discuss with counsel. This affects platform classification, payment processor policies, and audience.]

AI-generated content

Content generated by AI is allowed, but must be labeled when it is presented as something it is not (e.g., a fake photo of a real person, a fabricated quote attributed to a real person). Sourced sources that themselves rely on AI-generated content should disclose that.

Satire and parody

Satire is allowed and protected. Satire must be recognizable as satire — clearly labeled, in an account or post that signals its nature, or in a context where the parody is obvious. Satire that could be reasonably mistaken for genuine reporting must be labeled.

How moderation works

Automated review: Posts are screened by our AI moderation system on submission. Most are approved within a minute. Some are flagged for human review.
Community reports: Any user can report a post, comment, profile, or message for moderator review.
Human review: Flagged content is reviewed by Sourced moderators (or trusted volunteers, where applicable). Decisions are: approve, hide, or remove. Account-level actions (warning, suspension, termination) are taken when the violation warrants them.
Author notification: We tell you what action was taken and why, except where doing so would compromise an investigation or expose someone to harm.
Appeals: You can appeal any moderator decision through the in-app appeal process. Appeals are reviewed by a different human moderator than the one who made the original decision.
Repeat violations: We track violations across an account. Repeated minor violations escalate to more serious actions. A serious single violation (CSAM, threats of imminent violence) can result in immediate termination.

We strive for consistency. We will not always succeed; moderation at scale is genuinely difficult. We document our decisions and review patterns over time to improve.

Things we explicitly will not do

To distinguish Sourced from platforms whose moderation has earned distrust:

We will not remove a post solely because it is unflattering to a public figure or company, when the post is on-topic and includes legitimate sources.
We will not remove a post solely because it is politically controversial, when the post follows these guidelines.
We will not allow post authors to delete or hide critical comments on their own posts. Reporting and blocking are the available remedies.
We will not shadow-ban: silently hide your content while making you think it is visible. If we hide or remove something, you will be told.
We will not secretly modify the visibility of your posts beyond what these guidelines describe.

Reporting

To report content or a user, use the report button on any post, comment, or profile. For urgent situations involving imminent harm, contact local emergency services first; you can also reach us at [SAFETY EMAIL].

For DMCA / copyright complaints, see Section 9 of the Terms of Service.

Changes

We may update these guidelines as the platform grows and as new patterns of misuse emerge. Material changes will be announced in advance via email and an in-app notice.

Sourced moderators apply these guidelines as written. If you believe a moderator has misapplied them, the appeal process is your recourse.