Surfaced Social exists so people can discover content from every perspective. These guidelines keep the platform open, honest, and safe. They apply to everything on Surfaced Social: posts, articles, links, Stories, comments, profiles, and usernames.
Core principles
- Every perspective is welcome; abuse is not. We host viewpoints from across the spectrum and enforce these guidelines consistently regardless of ideology.
- Transparency over silence. If we act on your content or account, you will know what happened and why.
- People over engagement. We do not reward outrage, and we do not bury quality.
What we encourage
- Sharing news, analysis, and original writing with sources
- Genuine conversation, including respectful disagreement
- Reading and sharing viewpoints different from your own
- Crediting creators and publications when you share their work
- Reporting content that breaks these rules
What is not allowed
Illegal content and activity
Content that violates applicable law, facilitates crime, or promotes illegal goods and services.
Violence and dangerous behavior
Threats, incitement, glorification of violence, or instructions for causing serious harm.
Harassment and bullying
Targeted abuse, intimidation, doxxing, or encouraging others to pile on. Criticism of ideas is fine; campaigns against people are not.
Hate speech
Attacks on people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, caste, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or serious disease.
Sexual content and minors
Sexually explicit content is not permitted. Any content that sexualizes or endangers minors results in immediate removal, permanent ban, and a report to relevant authorities. See our Child Safety Standards.
Spam and platform manipulation
Repetitive posting, deceptive links, fake engagement, bulk account creation, and scams.
Harmful misinformation
Content that is demonstrably false and likely to cause real-world harm, such as dangerous health misinformation or content designed to interfere with civic processes. Being wrong is not a violation; deliberate, harmful deception is.
Impersonation
Pretending to be another person, brand, or publication in a misleading way. Parody and commentary accounts must be clearly labeled.
How enforcement works
Enforcement is proportionate and transparent. Depending on severity and history, we may:
- Remove content and notify you with the specific rule violated
- Issue a warning recorded on your account
- Temporarily restrict posting or commenting
- Suspend your account for a defined period
- Permanently ban accounts for severe or repeated violations
No shadow bans. If your post breaks the rules, you'll know. If it doesn't, it stays up. We never silently reduce your reach.
Human review: major enforcement decisions such as suspensions and bans are reviewed by human moderators, not just algorithms. We enforce these guidelines consistently regardless of ideology.
Appeals
You can appeal any enforcement decision from the notification you receive or from Settings. Appeals are reviewed by a person who was not involved in the original decision, and we aim to respond within 7 days. If we got it wrong, we restore your content and clear the record.
How to report
- Tap the three-dot menu on any post, comment, or profile
- Choose Report and select the reason
- Add context if you can; it helps our reviewers
For urgent safety issues, email info@surfacedsocial.com. Reports are confidential; the person you report is not told who reported them.
Your controls
- Set your account to private
- Block and mute accounts
- Mute words and phrases
- Control who can comment on your posts
Our commitments to you
- We tell you why content appears in your feed
- We notify you of any action taken on your content or account
- We publish rules in plain language and apply them evenly
- We never optimize your feed for outrage or doomscrolling
Changes to these guidelines
We may update these Community Guidelines from time to time. When we make significant changes we will post a notice on Surfaced Social, email registered users, update the effective date at the top, and highlight what changed. Your continued use of Surfaced Social after changes take effect means you accept the updated guidelines.
Contact our Trust and Safety team
Use in-app reporting
These guidelines work together with our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.