community-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:

  Malicious Speech.

    Don't encourage violence or hatred. Don’t make violent threats or statements
    that incite violence, including threatening or promoting terrorism. Especially
    don’t do so on the basis of things like race, ethnic origin, religion,
    disability, gender, gender identity, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation.
    If you encounter negative speech that doesn’t rise to the level of violence or
    threats of violence, we encourage you to dismantle negative speech through argument
    rather than censorship. That said, if you encounter anything especially heinous,
    tell us about it.

  Harm to Minors.

    Be thoughtful when posting anything involving a minor. Don't post or
    solicit anything relating to minors that is sexually suggestive or violent.
    Don't bully minors, even if you are one. Being a teenager is complicated
    enough without the anxiety, sadness, and isolation caused by bullying.

  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.

  Unmarked sensitive content.

    Tumblr is common ground for millions of people from a wide variety of locations,
    cultures, and backgrounds. Some of them are okay with seeing sensitive content
    on their dashboard, and some aren't, and that’s fine—that's what Safe Mode is for.
    While we attempt to automatically categorize content that might not be suitable for
    all viewers, you can help us respect the choices of people in the community by
    pre-emptively marking any sensitive material you post.

        If you're thinking about posting something that contains sensitive content,
        please flip the "Mark as sensitive" switch before publishing it (you'll see
        that switch in the post form). Some examples of sensitive content might include
        nudity in an artistic, educational, or photojournalistic context.

        If you regularly post sexually explicit material, we ask that you mark your
        Tumblr as "Explicit" (which you can do on your blog's settings page).

  Gore, Mutilation, Bestiality, or Necrophilia.

    Don't post gore just to be shocking. Don't showcase the mutilation or
    torture of human beings, animals, or their remains. Dick.

  Unflagged NSFW Blogs.

    Tumblr is home to millions of readers and creators from a variety of
    locations, cultures, and backgrounds who hold different points of view
    concerning adult-oriented content. If you regularly post sexual or
    adult-oriented content, respect the choices of people in our community who
    would rather not see such content by flagging your blog (which you can do
    on your blog's Settings page) as Not Suitable for Work ("NSFW"). This
    action doesn't prevent you or your readers from using any of Tumblr's
    social features, but rather screens your blog's content from Tumblr users
    who would prefer not to see NSFW material.

  Uploading Sexually Explicit Video.

    You can embed anything in a Tumblr post as long as it's lawful and it
    follows our other guidelines, but please don't use Tumblr's Upload Video
    feature to upload sexually explicit video. We're not in the business of
    hosting adult-oriented videos (it's fucking expensive).

  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.

  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.

  Unauthorized Contests, Sweepstakes, or Giveaways.

    Please follow our guidelines for 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.

  Confusion or Impersonation.

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

  Harassment.

    Don’t engage in targeted abuse or harassment. If anyone is sending you
    unwanted messages or reblogging your posts in an abusive way, we encourage
    you to be proactive 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. Just stop.

  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. Absolutely do not post non-consensual pornography—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.

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 Community 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/community-guidelines.txt