On this page
This policy explains how we find violations, how reports are reviewed, what we can do, and how to appeal. It is part of the Terms of Service. We may depart from it whenever we judge that safety, the law or the facts of a case require it.
1. How we find violations
- Reports in the app. You can report any post, live stream, event or upcoming plan, any live chat message, and any person (Report user on their profile), with one of six reasons: Spam or scam, Nudity or sexual, Violence or danger, Hate or harassment, Self-harm, or Something else. Reports are anonymous to the person reported.
- Email. Anyone, with or without an account, can email hype.hypefindr@gmail.com (the "How to report" section of the Community Guidelines lists the subject lines).
- Our own review, rights holder notices, NCMEC, law enforcement and other trusted organizations.
2. What happens automatically
- Chat filter. Every live chat message passes through a word filter on our server. A message it catches is saved as hidden and shown only to its sender.
- Writing filter. The app checks names, usernames, bios, captions, the words on photos, plan details, live titles, crew names and notes against the same word list before saving them, and saves nothing it catches.
- Unconfirmed plans. A plan made more than a day ahead whose host does not confirm it in its last 24 hours is taken down 3 hours before it starts, and everyone coming is told. This is not a penalty against the host.
- Auto-hide. Anything reported by 3 different people while their reports are open is hidden from everyone straight away: from every feed, the map, profile grids and share pages, and, for a chat message, from every phone watching. It stays hidden until a person reviews it.
- Host removal. The host of a live can remove any chat message in it.
- Blocking. People who block each other, in either direction, stop seeing each other's content and chat.
3. How a person reviews
Every report goes into a review queue that only people who work on Hypefindr can open, each with their own staff account, and only if their role allows it. Reports about the same thing are reviewed together. We review every report within 24 hours, and faster for threats, child safety and intimate images. Anything waiting longer is shown first. The reviewer sees the reported content, who posted it, the reasons given and when, and may look at the account's history and reliable information from outside Hypefindr.
Every decision is logged with the reviewer's name, the time, the decision, an optional note, the reports it closed and how long the oldest report waited.
4. The decisions we make
| Decision | What it does |
|---|---|
| Keep | No violation. The reports are closed. If the content was auto-hidden, it shows again, and it would need 3 new reports to be auto-hidden again |
| Remove | The content is hidden from every feed, the map, profile grids and share pages |
| Suspend for 7 days | Removes the content, and the owner cannot sign in for 7 days. Any live they are running is taken off every feed and the map |
| Suspend for 30 days | The same, for 30 days |
| Ban | Removes the content, the owner can never sign in again, and all of their posts, live streams and events are hidden |
A suspended or banned person is signed out within about an hour and cannot sign back in until the suspension ends. We may lift a suspension early. Lifting a suspension does not restore content that was removed.
5. How serious each violation is
| Level | Examples | Usual decision |
|---|---|---|
| Zero tolerance | Child sexual exploitation, grooming, sextortion, credible threats, terrorism, intimate images without consent, posting home addresses, stalking or tracking through location features, fake events used to lure people, swatting and false emergency alarms, ban evasion | Ban, preservation of evidence, and a report to NCMEC or law enforcement where required or appropriate |
| Severe | Hate, nudity and sexual content, glorifying violence, dangerous acts, selling regulated goods, scams, impersonation, organizing illegal gatherings, harassment campaigns, streaming in restricted places | Remove, with a 7 or 30 day suspension, or a ban for repeat or serious cases |
| Standard | Spam, insults, a missing 21+ rating, inaccurate listings, undisclosed paid promotion | Remove. A suspension for repeat cases |
| Integrity | False check-ins, location spoofing, score manipulation, fake referrals | Voiding of check-ins, scores, titles and referrals; a suspension or ban for repeat cases |
| Copyright | Infringing posts or streams | Remove under the Content Removal Requests policy, and a ban after three valid notices in 12 months |
6. Repeat violations
We look at an account's history in our decision log. As a rule, content removed more than once in 90 days leads to a 7-day suspension, a further violation to a 30-day suspension, and another to a ban. We may skip steps, or ban on a first violation, when the harm or risk is serious.
7. Bans and other accounts
- A ban applies to you as a person, not only the account. You may not create or use any other account, and we may ban any account we believe is yours.
- Ban evasion: any new account is banned when found.
- Off-platform conduct and criminal charges: we may suspend an account while charges or credible allegations of violence or sexual misconduct are pending, and ban it if they are substantiated.
8. Notice
When we suspend or ban an account, the person is signed out and cannot sign back in until the suspension ends. If we have your email address, we may also email you. To find out why we acted, email hype.hypefindr@gmail.com with the subject "Appeal." We may not explain, or may delay explaining, if it could endanger someone, interfere with an investigation, help someone evade detection, or break the law.
9. Appeals
- How: email hype.hypefindr@gmail.com with the subject "Appeal," your username, and why you think we made a mistake. You can appeal from any email address if you cannot sign in.
- When: within 30 days of the decision.
- Who reviews: where possible, someone who did not make the original decision.
- Timing: we aim to decide within 14 days.
- Outcome: we uphold, reverse or change the decision. If we reverse it, we lift any suspension or ban and restore content where we still can.
- One appeal per decision. Our appeal decision is final for purposes of the Services. Section 28 of the Terms governs any legal claim.
An appeal does not pause a decision. Reports to NCMEC and law enforcement are not withdrawn because of an appeal.
10. Reporters
We keep the identity of people who report confidential, except where the law requires disclosure. Knowingly false reports, mass reporting and abuse of the appeal process are violations.
11. Records
We keep our decision log, including after an account is deleted, so we can enforce bans and answer appeals and legal requests. Reports are kept as described in the Privacy Policy, and we preserve content and data when the law requires it or law enforcement asks.
12. Our discretion
Enforcement decisions are made by Hypefindr in its sole discretion. Not acting on one violation does not prevent us from acting on another. We have no liability for any enforcement decision, or for any decision not to enforce, to the fullest extent the law allows. We may publish aggregated reports about our enforcement.
Related: Terms of Service · Privacy Policy · Community Guidelines · Live Streaming and Recording Policy · Events, Safety and Assumption of Risk · Child Safety Policy · Content Removal Requests · Points, Scores and Referral Program Terms · Law Enforcement Guidelines · Website and Cookie Notice