Community Guidelines

These guidelines are our acceptable use policy, so if you find content that shouldn’t be on Herd, please report it to us. We use your reports to learn and evolve our standards, and work with subject matter experts to inform and update our guidelines.

Content safety

Herd isn’t a place for antagonistic, explicit, false or misleading, harmful, hateful, or violent content or behavior. We may remove, limit, or block the distribution of such content and the accounts, individuals, groups and domains that create or spread it based on how much harm it poses. We’re committed to presenting you with clear and transparent expectations that are easy to understand and follow. If you have questions or encounter problems on Herd, please email us at contact@theherdapp.com.

Adult content

Herd isn’t a place for pornography. We limit the distribution of or remove mature and explicit content, including:

• Fetish imagery
• Vivid sexual descriptions
• Graphic depictions of sexual activity
• Images of nudity where the poses, camera angles, or props suggest pornographic intent We do our best to to differentiate between pornography and other mature content. For example, you can save content about sexual health, breastfeeding, mastectomies, art, education and well-being with adult nudity given the non-pornographic context, but we may limit its distribution so people don’t run into it accidentally.

Exploitation

Herd isn’t a place for exploitation of people or animals. We’ll remove or limit the distribution of content and accounts involved in practices that risk harm to people or animals, including sexual, physical, or financial exploitation. That includes:

• Sexualization or sexual exploitation of minors, like grooming, sexual remarks or inappropriate imagery. If we find it, we’ll report it to relevant authorities such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
• Non-consensual images, meaning images of a private or sexual nature obtained or published without consent. This includes revenge porn and up-skirt images.
• Adult sexual services that may involve sexual or physical exploitation or trafficking, like sex cams and escort services.
• Human trafficking, slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labor.
• Other illegal commercial exploitation, like trading in organs or products made from human remains or body parts.
• The sale of wild animals or protected and endangered wildlife.
• Corpses, animal parts or products derived from cat or dog parts, or protected and endangered wildlife, including ivory.
• Irresponsible and harmful animal tourism or otherwise exploitative practices like organized animal fighting.

Hateful activities

Herd isn’t a place for hateful content or the people and groups that promote hateful activities. We limit the distribution of or remove such content and accounts, including:

• Slurs or negative stereotypes, caricatures and generalizations
• Support for hate groups and people promoting hateful activities, prejudice and conspiracy theories
• Condoning or trivializing violence because of a victim’s membership in a vulnerable or protected group
• Support for white supremacy, limiting women’s rights and other discriminatory ideas
• Hate-based conspiracy theories and misinformation, like Holocaust denial
• Denial of an individual’s gender identity or sexual orientation, and support for conversion therapy and related programs
• Attacks on individuals including public figures based on their membership in a vulnerable or protected group
• Mocking or attacking the beliefs, sacred symbols, movements, or institutions of the protected or vulnerable groups identified below

Protected and vulnerable groups include: People grouped together based on their actual or perceived race, color, caste, ethnicity, immigration status, national origin, religion or faith, sex or gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition. It also includes people who are grouped together based on lower socio-economic status, age, weight or size, pregnancy or veteran status.

Misinformation

Herd isn’t a place for misinformation, disinformation, mal-information or the individuals or groups spreading or creating it. We remove or limit distribution of false or misleading content that may harm Herd members or the public’s well-being, safety or trust, including:

• Medically unsupported health claims that risk public health and safety, including the promotion of false cures, anti-vaccination advice, or misinformation about public health or safety emergencies
• False or misleading content about individuals or protected groups that promotes fear, hate or prejudice
• False or misleading content that encourages turning individuals, groups of people, places or organizations into targets of harassment or physical violence
• Conspiracy theories
• Content that originates from disinformation campaigns
• Factual information that’s published or deliberately modified to erode trust or inflict harm, such as changing or omitting of context, date or time
• Fabricated or meaningfully manipulated visual or audio content that erodes trust or causes harm

Civic participation misinformation:

• False or misleading content that impedes an election’s integrity or an individual’s or group’s civic participation, including registering to vote, voting and being counted in a census
• False or misleading information about the dates, times, locations and procedure for voting or census participation
• Content that misleads voters about how to correctly fill-out and submit a ballot, including a mail-in ballot, or census form
• False or misleading information about who can vote or participate in the census and what information must be provided to participate
• False or misleading statements about who is collecting information and/or how it will be used
• False or misleading information about public safety that is intended to deter people from exercising their right to vote or participate in a census
• Content that encourages or instructs voters or participants to misrepresent themselves or illegally participate
• Content apparently intended to delegitimize election results on the basis of false or misleading claims
• Threats against voting locations, census or voting personnel, voters or census participants, including intimidation of vulnerable or protected group voters or participants

Harassment and Criticism

Herd isn’t a place to insult, hurt or antagonize individuals or groups of people. There are good reasons to express criticism, but we may limit the distribution of or remove insulting content to keep Herd a positive, inspiring place; this includes:

• Manipulated images intended to degrade or shame
• Shaming people for their bodies or assumed sexual or romantic history
• Sexual remarks about people’s bodies and solicitations or offers of sexual acts
• Criticisms involving name-calling, profanity and other insulting language or imagery
• Mocking someone for experiencing sadness, grief, loss or outrage

Private Information

We don’t allow content that reveals personal or sensitive information. We remove:

• Personal ID and passport information
• Private contact information and addresses
• Online login information (usernames and passwords)
• Photos of private people that they don’t want posted online
• Personal financial or medical history

If you come across unwanted photos of or information about you, you can reach out to us through our support email at support@theherdapp.com.

Self-Injury and Harmful Behavior

Herd isn’t a place for content that displays, rationalizes or encourages suicide, self-injury, eating disorders or substance abuse. We’ll limit the distribution of or remove such content, including:

• Self-harm instructions
• Suicidal thinking and quotes
• Graphic or otherwise triggering imagery or descriptions of self-harm
• Promotion of self-harm
• Mocking of people who self-harm or who have attempted or died by suicide
• Images of accessories used to self-harm
• Negative self-talk and insensitive humor about self-harming behavior
• Suicide pacts, challenges and hoaxes

Graphic Violence and Threats

Herd isn’t a place for graphic violence or threatening language. We limit the distribution of or remove such content, including:

• Content that shows the use of violence
• Disturbing scenes from before or after violent events
• Threats or language that glorifies violence

In a few cases, we allow the saving of disturbing images dedicated to remembrance and advocacy, but limit distribution of such content in public parts of the platform.

Violent Actors

Herd isn’t a place for violent content, groups or individuals. We limit the distribution of or remove content and accounts that encourage, praise, promote, or provide aid to dangerous actors or groups and their activities. This includes:

• Extremists
• Terrorist organizations
• Gangs and other criminal organizations

We work with industry, government and security experts to help us identify these groups.

Dangerous goods and activities

Herd isn’t a place for trading or selling of certain regulated goods—products or substances that can cause harm when used, altered or manufactured irresponsibly—or for the display or encouragement of dangerous activities. We limit the distribution of or remove such content and accounts, including:

• Individuals and unlicensed retailers offering to sell, purchase or trade alcohol, tobacco, drugs and weapons, including firearms and accessories, firearm parts or attachments, or ammunition
• Content from or about unverified, unapproved or rogue online pharmacies
• Offers, attempts, or instructions to bypass purchasing laws and regulation
• Instructions for creating lethal or toxic substances
• Instructions for creating lethal weapons, like bombs or grenades, including 3d printed weapons
• Commercial sales of marijuana, marijuana products and paraphernalia
• Commercial sales of certain weapons and attachments
• Harmful pranks or challenges that risk imminent physical harm or extreme emotional distress, especially if showing or encouraging the participation of minors

Impersonation

We don’t allow accounts that impersonate or misrepresent their affiliation with any person or organization. If you have a fan or commentary account for a public figure or brand, make it clear through your username or Herd profile that you aren’t officially affiliated with them.

Intellectual Property and Other Rights

To respect the rights of people on and off Herd, please:

• Don’t infringe anyone’s intellectual property, privacy or other rights.
• Don’t do anything or post any content that violates laws or regulations.
• Don’t use Herd’s name, logo or trademark in a way that confuses people.

Site Security and Access

To protect the Herd platform, we ask that you please:

• Don’t access, use or tamper with our systems or our technical providers’ systems.
• Don’t break or circumvent our security measures or test the vulnerability of our systems or networks, except as part of an authorized Herd bug bounty program.
• Don’t use any undocumented or unsupported method to access, search, scrape, download or change any part of Herd.
• Don’t try to reverse engineer our software.
• Don’t try to interfere with people on Herd or our hosts or networks, like sending a virus, overloading, spamming or mail-bombing.
• Don’t collect or store personally identifiable information from Herd or people on Herd without permission.
• Don’t share your password, let anyone access your account or do anything that might put your account at risk.
• Don’t attempt to buy or sell access to your account, boards, or usernames, or otherwise transfer account features for compensation.

You can’t use Herd if it would be prohibited by US sanctions. Personal accounts and business accounts are currently not available in North Korea.

Spam

We want the inspiration and ideas on Herd to be high-quality and useful, so we remove spam when we find it. We ask that you be considerate of others’ experiences on Herd and don’t spread spam or engage in spammy behavior. Our guidelines around spam are:

• Don’t use automation that hasn’t been explicitly approved by Herd. This includes unauthorized services that automatically perform actions on your behalf. You can find information on approved partner tools on our Partners website.
• Don’t create or operate accounts that aren’t authentic, create accounts en masse, or create new accounts for the purpose of violating these guidelines.
• Don’t create or save content that is repetitive, deceptive, or irrelevant in an attempt to make money.
• In general, don’t attempt to make money from Herd members in ways that are misleading, detract from the user experience, or don’t add value for other Herd members.
• Don’t link to websites that are unsafe, deceptive, untrustworthy, unoriginal, or that facilitate or encourage spam. Websites should have original content that adds unique value for Herd members.
• Don’t send unsolicited messages or make irrelevant comments in bulk, especially when these are deceptive or commercial in nature.
• Don’t attempt to evade our anti-spam systems, for example, by using shorteners, redirects or intermediate websites to obscure a link’s final destination.