Last updated, November 2021
STATE’s mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. We are building a global community where people can create and share, discover the world around them, and connect with others across the globe. As we grow, we are committed to maintaining a supportive environment for our community. Our Community Guidelines define a set of norms and common code of conduct for STATE; they provide guidance on what is and is not allowed to make a welcoming space for everyone.
At STATE, we prioritize safety, diversity, inclusion, and authenticity. We encourage creators to celebrate what makes them unique and viewers to engage in what inspires them; and we believe that a safe environment helps everyone express themselves openly. We deeply value the global nature of our community, and we strive to take into account the breadth of cultural norms where we operate. We also aim to cultivate an environment for genuine interactions by only allowing authentic content on STATE.
Our Community Guidelines apply to everyone and to everything on STATE. We proactively enforce them using a mix of technology and human moderation before content gets reported to us. We also encourage our community members to use the tools we provide on STATE to report any content they believe violates our Community Guidelines.
We will remove any content – including video, audio, livestream, images, comments, and text – that violates our Community Guidelines. Individuals are notified of our decisions and can appeal if they believe no violation has occurred. We will suspend or ban accounts and/or devices that are involved in severe or repeated violations; we will consider information available on other platforms and offline in these decisions. When warranted, we will report the accounts to relevant legal authorities.
Our algorithms are designed with trust and safety in mind. For some content – such as spam, videos under review, or videos that could be considered upsetting or depict things that may be shocking to a general audience – we may reduce discoverability, including by redirecting search results or limiting distribution in the For You feed.
We recognize that some content that would normally be removed per our Community Guidelines could be in the public interest. Therefore, we may allow exceptions under certain circumstances, such as educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic content, satirical content, content in fictional settings, counterspeech, and content in the public interest that is newsworthy or otherwise enables individual expression on topics of social importance.
In consultation with relevant stakeholders, we update our Community Guidelines from time to time to evolve alongside new behaviors and risks, as part of our commitment to keeping STATE a safe place for creativity and joy.
Violent extremism
We take a firm stance against enabling violence on or off STATE. We do not allow people to use our platform to threaten or incite violence, or to promote dangerous individuals or organizations. When there is a threat to public safety or an account is used to promote or glorify off-platform violence, we may suspend or ban the account. When warranted, we will report threats to relevant legal authorities. To effectively protect our community, we may consider information available on other platforms and offline to identify violent and extremist individuals and organizations on our platform. If we find such individuals or organizations on STATE, we will close their accounts.
Threats and incitement to violence
We consider incitement to violence as advocating for, directing, or encouraging other people to commit violence. We do not allow threats of violence or incitement to violence on our platform that may result in serious physical harm.
Do not post, upload or share:
Dangerous individuals and organizations
We do not allow individuals or organizations on our platform who promote or are engaged in violence. We remove such individuals and organizations, including mass murderers, serial killers and rapists, hate groups, criminal organizations, terrorist organizations, and other non-state armed groups that target civilians.
Terrorist organizations
Terrorists and terrorist organizations are non-state actors that threaten violence, use violence, and/or commit serious crimes (such as crimes against humanity) against civilian populations in pursuit of political, religious, ethnic, or ideological objectives.
Organized hate
Organized hate refers to those individuals and organizations who attack people based on protected characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, or immigration status. We consider attacks to include actions that incite violence or hatred, dehumanize individuals or groups, or embrace a hateful ideology.
Criminal organizations
Criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groups that have engaged in serious crimes, including violent crimes (e.g., homicide, rape, robbery, assault), trafficking (e.g., human, organ, drug, weapons), kidnapping, financial crimes (e.g., extortion, blackmail, fraud, money laundering), or cybercrime.
Do not post, upload or share:
Hateful behavior
STATE is a diverse and inclusive community that has no tolerance for discrimination. We do not permit content that contains hate speech or involves hateful behavior and we remove it from our platform. We suspend or ban accounts that engage in hate speech violations or which are associated with hate speech off the STATE platform.
Attacks on the basis of protected attributes
We define hate speech or behavior as content that attacks, threatens, incites violence against, or otherwise dehumanizes an individual or a group on the basis of the following protected attributes:
Do not post, upload or share:
Slurs
Slurs are defined as derogatory terms that are intended to disparage an ethnicity, race, or any other protected attributes listed above. To minimize the spread of egregiously offensive terms, we remove all slurs from our platform, unless the terms are reappropriated, used self-referentially (e.g., in a song), or do not disparage.
Do not post, upload or share:
Hateful ideology
Hateful ideologies are those that demonstrate clear hostility toward people because of their protected attributes. Hateful ideologies are incompatible with the inclusive and supportive community that our platform provides and we remove content that promotes them.
Do not post, upload or share:
Illegal activities and regulated goods
We work to ensure STATE does not enable activities that violate laws or regulations. We prohibit the trade, sale, promotion, and use of certain regulated goods, as well as the depiction, promotion, or facilitation of criminal activities, including human exploitation. Content may be removed if it relates to activities or goods that are regulated or illegal in the majority of the region or world, even if the activities or goods in question are legal in the jurisdiction of posting.
Criminal activities
Criminal activities cover a wide spectrum of acts punishable by law, including theft, assault, human exploitation, counterfeiting, and other harmful behavior. To prevent such behavior from being normalized, imitated, or facilitated, we remove content that promotes or enables criminal activities.
Do not post, upload or share:
Weapons
We do not allow the depiction, promotion, or trade of firearms, ammunition, firearm accessories, or explosive weapons. We also prohibit instructions on how to manufacture those weapons. Content as part of a museum’s collection, carried by a police officer, in a military parade, or used in a safe and controlled environment such as a shooting range may be allowed.
Do not post, upload or share:
Drugs, controlled substances, alcohol, and tobacco
We do not allow the depiction, promotion, or trade of drugs or other controlled substances. The trade of tobacco and alcohol products is also prohibited on the platform.
Do not post, upload or share:
Frauds and scams
We do not permit anyone to exploit our platform to take advantage of the trust of users and bring about financial or personal harm. We remove content that deceives people in order to gain an unlawful financial or personal advantage, including schemes to defraud individuals or steal assets.
Do not post, upload or share:
Gambling
We do not allow content promoting gambling services, or that could be perceived as advertising for casinos, sports betting, or any other commercial gambling activity.
Do not post, upload or share:
Privacy, personal data, and personally identifiable information (PII)
We do not allow content that violates the confidentiality of personal data or personally identifiable information (e.g., social security information). We remove content that depicts personal data or personally identifiable information (PII) from the platform.
Do not post, upload or share:
Violent and graphic content
STATE is a platform that celebrates creativity but not shock-value or violence. We do not allow content that is gratuitously shocking, graphic, sadistic, or gruesome or that promotes, normalizes, or glorifies extreme violence or suffering on our platform. When there is a threat to public safety, we suspend or ban the account and, when warranted, we will report it to relevant legal authorities.
Do not post, upload or share:
Suicide, self-harm, and dangerous acts
We care deeply about the health and well-being of the individuals that make up our community. We do not allow content depicting, promoting, normalizing, or glorifying activities that could lead to suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders. We also do not permit users to share content depicting them partaking in, or encouraging others to partake in, dangerous activities that may lead to serious injury or death.
However, we do support members of our community sharing their personal experiences with these issues in a safe way to raise awareness and find community support. We also encourage individuals who are struggling with thoughts of self-harm or suicide, or who know someone is seriously considering suicide, to immediately contact local emergency services or a suicide prevention hotlines. In the event that our intervention could help a user who may be at risk of harming themselves, the STATE team may also alert local emergency services.
Suicide
We remove content that displays suicide, suicidal ideation, or content that might encourage participation in other self-injurious behavior. We also remove content that depicts attempted suicide or content featuring a person engaging in behavior or intending to engage in behavior that is likely to lead to self-inflicted death. We prohibit any form of content that promotes, normalizes, or glorifies suicide, provides instructions for suicide, or posts that portray a suicide as heroic or honorable.
Do not post, upload or share:
Self-harm and eating disorders
To avoid normalizing, encouraging, or triggering self-harm behavior, we do not allow imagery that depicts such behavior, regardless of the user’s intention of posting it. We remove content that may encourage or normalize acts that are likely to lead to physical self-inflicted injury. Content that promotes eating habits that are likely to cause adverse health outcomes is also not allowed on the platform.
Do not post, upload or share:
Dangerous acts
We define risky activities or other dangerous behavior as acts conducted in a non-professional context or without the necessary skills and safety precautions that may lead to serious injury or death for the user or the public. We do not allow content that depicts, promotes, normalizes, or glorifies such behavior, including amateur stunts or dangerous challenges.
Do not post, upload or share:
Harassment and bullying
We believe in an inclusive community and individualized expression without fear of abuse. We do not tolerate members of our community being shamed, bullied, or harassed. Abusive content or behavior can cause severe psychological distress and will be removed from our platform.
Abusive behavior
We remove all expressions of abuse, including threats or degrading statements intended to mock, humiliate, embarrass, intimidate, or hurt an individual. This prohibition extends to the use of STATE features. To enable expression about matters of public interest, critical comments of public figures may be allowed; however, serious abusive behavior against public figures is prohibited.
Do not post, upload or share:
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment involves unwanted or inappropriate sexual behavior directed at another individual. We do not allow content, including comments or advances, that sexually harasses others, regardless of user’s intent, as such actions can cause great distress to targeted individuals.
Do not post, upload or share:
Threats of hacking, doxxing, and blackmail
Threatening to hack or dox with an intent to harass or blackmail another individual can cause serious emotional distress and other offline harm. We define doxxing as the act of collecting and publishing personal data or personally identifiable information (PII) for malicious purposes. We consider these online behaviors as forms of abuse and do not allow them on our platform.
Do not post, upload or share:
Adult nudity and sexual activities
We strive to create a platform that feels welcoming and safe. We do not allow nudity, pornography, or sexually explicit content on our platform. We also prohibit content depicting or supporting non-consensual sexual acts, the sharing of non-consensual intimate imagery, and adult sexual solicitation.
Sexual exploitation
Sexual exploitation is defined as any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, power, or trust for sexual purposes, including profiting monetarily, socially, or politically from the sexual exploitation of another. We do not permit sexually exploitative content.
Do not post, upload or share:
Nudity and sexual activity involving adults
Nudity and sexual activity include content that is overtly revealing of breasts, genitals, anus, or buttocks, or behaviors that mimic, imply, or display sex acts. We do not allow depictions, including digitally created or manipulated content, of nudity or sexual activity. We are mindful of content that may be offensive or culturally inappropriate in certain regions or may not be suitable for users of all ages.
Do not post, upload or share:
Minor safety
We are deeply committed to ensuring the safety of minors on our platform. We do not tolerate activities that perpetuate the abuse, harm, endangerment, or exploitation of minors on STATE. Any content, including animation or digitally created or manipulated media, that depicts abuse, exploitation, or nudity of minors is a violation on our platform and will be removed when detected. When warranted, we report violative content to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and/or other relevant legal authorities. STATE considers a minor any person under the age of 18.
Users must meet the minimum age requirements to use STATE, as stipulated in our Terms of Service. When underage account holders are identified, we will remove those accounts. Our platform is designed with the safety of minors in mind and some of our features are age restricted. Account holders who are under the age of 16 cannot use direct messaging or host a livestream and their content is not eligible to appear in the For You feed; the age thresholds may be higher in some regions. Account holders who are under the age of 18 cannot send or receive gifts via our virtual gifting features.
Sexual exploitation of minors
Sexual exploitation of minors is defined as any abuse of a position of power or trust for sexual purposes, including profiting financially, socially, sexually, or politically from the exploitation of a minor. Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) is defined as any visual depiction of sexually explicit nudity or conduct, whether captured by predatory adults, peers, or self-generated by minors. STATE will take action on any content or accounts involving sexual interactions and advances between an adult and a minor, or between minors with a significant age difference.
Do not post, upload, stream, or share:
Grooming behavior
Grooming behaviors are those in which an adult builds an emotional relationship with a minor in order to gain the minor’s trust for the purposes of future or ongoing sexual contact, sexual abuse, trafficking, or other exploitation. These behaviors include: flattery, requests for contact on or off platform, requests for personal information, solicitation of minor sexual abuse material, sexual solicitations or comments, and gift-giving.
Do not post, upload or share:
Nudity and sexual activity involving minors
Nudity and sexual activity involving minors include content that is overtly revealing of breasts, genitals, anus, or buttocks, or behaviors that mimic, imply, or display sex acts involving minors. We do not allow the depiction, including digitally created or manipulated content, of nudity or sexual activity.
Do not post, upload or share:
Harmful activities by minors
Harmful minor activities include the possession or consumption of substances prohibited for minors, the misuse of legal substances, engagement in illegal activities, participation in activities, physical challenges, or dares that may threaten the well-being of minors. We remove any such content from our platform.
Do not post, upload or share:
Physical and psychological harm of minors
Behaviors that place minors at risk of physical or psychological harm include physical abuse, neglect, endangerment, and psychological disparagement. We remove any such content from our platform.
Do not post, upload or share:
Crimes against children
We do not allow users who have been convicted of crimes against children to have an account on our platform. These crimes include: sexual assault, molestation, murder, physical abuse or neglect, abduction, international parental kidnapping, trafficking, exploitation of minors for prostitution, live online sexual abuse of a minor, sexual exploitation of minors in the context of travel and tourism, attempts to obtain or distribute child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and the production, possession, or distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). If we discover any such users, we ban the account. Any self-disclosed user information that states the account holder is a pedophile or minor sex offender will be taken at face value and the account may be deleted.
Integrity and authenticity
We believe that trust forms the foundation of our community. We do not allow activities that may undermine the integrity of our platform or the authenticity of our users. We remove content or accounts that involve spam or fake engagement, impersonation, misleading information that causes harm, or that violate any intellectual property rights.
Spam and fake engagement
Fake engagement includes any content or activity that seeks to artificially inflate popularity on the platform. We prohibit any attempts to manipulate the platform to increase interaction metrics.
Do not:
Impersonation
We do not allow accounts that pose as another person or entity in a deceptive manner. When we confirm a report of impersonation, we will ask the user to revise the profile or suspend or ban the account. We do allow parody, commentary, or fan accounts, as long as the user indicates in the bio and username that it is fan, commentary, or parody and not affiliated with the subject of the account.
Do not:
Misinformation
Misinformation is defined as content that is inaccurate or false. While we encourage our community to have respectful conversations about subjects that matter to them, we do not permit misinformation that causes harm to individuals, our community, or the larger public regardless of intent.
Do not post, upload or share:
Do not:
Intellectual property violations
Copyright is a legal right that protects original works of authorship (e.g., music, videos) and original expression of an idea (e.g., the specific way a video or music is expressed or created), although does not protect underlying ideas or facts. A trademark is a word, symbol, slogan, design that identifies and distinguishes the source of a product or service. We encourage everyone to create and share original content. Content that infringes someone else’s intellectual property rights is prohibited on our platform and will be removed if we become aware of it. The use of copyrighted work under certain circumstance, such as the fair use doctrine or other applicable laws, or the use of a trademark to reference, lawfully comment, criticize, parody, make a fan page, or review a product or service may not be considered a violation of our policies.
Do not post, upload or share:
Platform security
Our policies prohibit any activities that undermine the security and reliability of the STATE service:
Thank you for being a part of our vibrant global community and working with us to maintain a welcoming space for all users. If you come across content or accounts that you believe may violate our Community Guidelines, please let us know so we can review and take appropriate action.