How Guidelines are Enforced

Please realize that Swaray is a diverse community and, while you may not necessarily agree with someone’s point of view, it may not be a violation of our Community Guidelines. That said, when you see a page on Swaray that you feel violates our community guidelines, please take the time to report them via our reporting tool. You can read more about how to report a Content Creator, Live Event, Event Chat, DM or a post here. A member of the Trust & Safety team will review the report and if our Community Guidelines have been violated, the case manager will contact the Content Creator to let them know that they are outside these guidelines.

This is a commitment to Content Creators. We know this is your livelihood. We invest heavily in making these decisions as fair and transparent as possible. We always want Content Creators to feel like they have an open line of communication. So how does this translate to moderation? Our first reflex is always to try to educate Content Creators to help them understand how a rule has been broken and how to remedy the issue. In cases where the violation is particularly bad or intentional we may take further action such as suspending or removing their account. In the most extreme cases we may ban a Content Creator from using Swaray.

Because you are raising funds on Swaray, we may be held accountable for what you do with those funds, so we may also look at what you do with your membership off our platform. As a result when we talk about “On Swaray,” it means the creations you are funding on and through Swaray. When reviewing a page, we look at how creations are shared, where the page is linked to and where the traffic comes from. No matter what happens, we always give Content Creators the opportunity to appeal a decision by contacting us and sending any relevant information they believe was not considered. We may not change our minds, but we will always listen.

Be safe, be respectful, make stuff

These Community Guidelines exist to shape and guide Swaray and the growing number of Content Creators and communities using it. This is not about building an arbitrary framework of “right” or “wrong.” It’s about making Swaray a place where diverse Content Creators and their communities feel excited, supported, and happy to exist, while still allowing for different—and sometimes even conflicting—points of view.

These guidelines summarize a thorough, thoughtful, and living internal policy that we spent time thinking about and defining with guidance from community and safety experts. We’re proud of these guidelines because we believe they will help Content Creators build a safe and supportive environment in which they can continue to create, share and build intimate and lasting relationships with their Fans and Followers.

Authenticity

Swaray is for Content Creators who put something original out into the world. As a Content Creator, you may not post creations that infringe on others’ intellectual property rights.

• You can’t create fake pages or collect money for things you’re not actually doing. For example, you cannot create a fan page for someone else.
• You cannot pretend to be or impersonate someone else by using the name, brand or works of another to deceive Users. We will review satire and comedy in a different way as we believe these subgenres are original creations.
• You also can’t use Swaray as a prank or to fund non-activity. For example, a Content Creator cannot collect funds for *not doing* something, such as, “I will stop tweeting videos of playing the harmonica badly if I reach $200 per month.”

Bullying, harassment, and threats

We don’t allow bullying or harassment because we want Swaray to feel like a safe place for our various communities. At the same time, we want people to be able to express themselves, be critical, and discuss controversial issues.

We recognize that discussing celebrities, media or other public figures can sometimes involve harsh criticism, and we believe that is an appropriate part of free debate. However, we draw the line when it comes to harassing private figures, or taking any action that might affect people’s physical safety, regardless of whether these people are private or public figures.

As much as we want you to be able to express yourself, we want all of our users to have the right to express their opinion without feeling intimidated. Even the most difficult conversations should take place in the most respectful way. Here is how we define these behaviors.

Bullying and harassment:

You cannot attempt to intimidate anyone, either directly or by using your influence over others. We treat real-life interactions more seriously than online interactions when analyzing whether a line has been crossed because it can be more threatening and lead to physical violence. When both sides engage in similar behavior, such as feuds between public figures, we are less likely to take action.

Threats:

Anyone on Swaray should be able to express their opinion in a way that doesn’t threaten another person. In this respect, we take threats of violence very seriously. Any User or Content Creator threatening the well-being of an individual or group of people will be removed. This includes threatening behavior such as stalking or inciting others to commit violent acts.

If you are a victim of this behavior and feel that your personal safety is at risk, we suggest you contact your local law enforcement, in addition to reporting the behavior to us.

Hate speech

Swaray connects Content Creators with their Fans and Followers all over the world. We are a global platform built on promoting creativity, which makes us a very inclusive group. Therefore, there is no room on Swaray for projects funding hate speech, such as calling for violence, exclusion, or segregation. This includes serious attacks on people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, serious medical conditions, caste, or immigration status.

When reviewing an account for a potential hate speech violation, we consider some of the following questions:

• Is there a call for violence against someone based on a characteristic like those listed above?
• Does the Content Creator use dehumanizing language when talking about people based on one of the above characteristics?
• Is the Content Creator using racial slurs or negative depictions of someone based on a characteristic like those listed above?
• Does the Content Creator mock or deny the experience of victims of hate crimes such as the Holocaust?
• Is the Content Creator targeting people based on their immigration status in a discriminatory way or simply discussing immigration policy?
• Is the statement legitimate criticism of a State, institution, or belief or does the context make it clear that the user is using code words or proxies to attack people based on the above characteristics?

This list is not exhaustive, but we want to be transparent about how we work in the gray areas between speech and action. There can be a fine line between political comments and hate speech. If you come across what you believe to be hate speech on Swaray, please take the time to report it.

18+ creations and mature themes

As we strive to create a community that is inclusive and diverse, we want to consider the different ages and sensitivities within our base of Users and Fans. We are not trying to create or reinforce arbitrary frameworks of “right” or “wrong,” but rather want to give people the choice of whether or not to view adult creations. 

To help Users make these decisions, we distinguish adult content (content containing mature themes) from all-audience content by applying an 18+ flag to the former. We define “mature themes” as any audio, visual, or audiovisual creations depicting explicit sexual situations, including nudity in sexual contexts (more on nudity below). We ask Content Creators to flag themselves as 18+ if their creations may be considered inappropriate for people under 18 years of age. We realize the exact age threshold may vary depending on where you are, but most places require a certain level of maturity to view these creations and engage in these activities. Below is a brief, non-exhaustive breakdown for guidance.

Examples of content we view as containing mature themes: 

• Works depicting real people in the nude in sexual contexts
• Animations or illustrations depicting nudity in sexual contexts, and animations or illustrations featuring sexual interactions
• Audio content that features simulated sexual interactions

Examples of content we won’t view as mature:

• Works featuring nudity that is not designed to be sexually gratifying, such as photos of sculptures or paintings
• Works featuring nudity or sexual situations that are designed for educational purposes
• A standup comedy set featuring profanity or “adult” language

We ask that all Content Creators keep the public spaces on their Swaray pages (meaning profile pictures, membership tier descriptions, page banners, etc.) appropriate for all audiences. Content depicting mature themes must be reserved for Membership-only posts.

Nudity:

As mentioned above, you can post nude creations on Swaray of both real and fictional subjects. Just be sure to mark posts with mature themes as “Membership Only” and ensure your page is flagged as 18+ if your content will feature such themes.As a reminder, you should never post or share nude creations of any individual under the age of 18, including yourself. As a strong commitment to child safety, we will work with law enforcement whenever we come across child exploitation material. You can read more about our pornography policy in the next section.Lastly, we understand that you may make a mix of 18+ creations and other types of creations, and that is okay with us too. We will always review your work within its context. However, if you have concerns, please let us know and we will provide you with guidance on how to maintain a dual presence.

Pornography and sexual services:

We don’t allow pornographic material or sexual services on Swaray, which we define as “real people engaging in sexual acts such as masturbation or sexual intercourse on camera.” If you want to learn more, please make sure to also consult our Benefit Guidelines.

Offensive and graphic creations:

We understand that artists sometimes have to push boundaries to create thought-provoking art, so we don’t review offensive and graphic creations with strict black and white guidelines. We instead review creations in the context of the whole Content Creator page.

However, we have zero tolerance when it comes to the glorification of sexual violence which includes bestiality, rape, and child exploitation (i.e., sexualized depiction of minors). This is true for illustrated, animated, or any other type of creations. Swaray reserves the right to review and remove accounts that may violate this guideline.

We also do not allow other fringe sexual fetish creations, such as incest, necrophilia, or fetish creations that are hard to distinguish from non-consensual sex.

We understand that some topics on this list such as incest or rape are a little bit more complicated because these situations are, unfortunately, part of real life. As a result, when reviewing these types of creations, the Trust and Safety team will take into consideration context including personal, historical or educational narrative. For example, survivor stories or fiction such as Lolita are allowed on Swaray.

Doxing

We take a strong stance against doxing, which is sharing an individual’s private information or aggregating their public information for the purpose of intimidating them through harassment.

We take this strong stance against doxing because it is used to silence or intimidate people with different viewpoints on the internet. It can cause extensive emotional trauma, and can put the victim’s physical safety at risk.

The most classic form of doxing is when an individual’s private personal information is shared. This could be information such as a phone number or home address. The definition of private personal information can vary and may mean that it is simply very difficult to find.

We also consider it to be doxing when an individual’s non-private information is aggregated. For example, we would consider it doxing if someone’s profile picture was combined with their real name, all of their known social media accounts, and the city they lived in.

No matter the specific information shared, we also evaluate the context around why it was shared. If it looks like this information is being shared for the purpose of making it easier for a large group to harass that individual, we are likely to consider it doxing.

When doxing takes place, we lose the ability to have conversations. Doxing isn’t speech countering speech, it is speech shutting down others’ ability to speak. It removes our ability to discuss ideas, grow as individuals and have a safe space for disagreement.

People who can’t use Swaray

Because Swaray empowers people financially, we restrict both the types of media and projects that can be funded on Swaray, and also which people can and cannot receive funds through Swaray. After creating a Swaray page, any Content Creator caught in the act or convicted of making credible violent threats, committing violent crimes, malicious doxing, coordinating nonviolent harm (such as fraud, money laundering and gambling), or encouraging others to do any of these activities may be banned from using Swaray.

Politicians:

You cannot use Swaray to fund your run for office or to fund the political campaigns of others.

Criminal or Harmful Past:

Individuals who have fulfilled the terms of their sentence for past offenses may share their works on Swaray. Any Content Creator observed committing, or convicted of, making credible violent threats or acts, child abuse, malicious doxing, coordinating nonviolent harm (such as fraud, money laundering, and gambling), or encouraging others to do any of these activities, may be banned from using Swaray.

Violent, Criminal, and Hateful Organizations

People or projects affiliated with dangerous, hateful or violent groups, espousing their related ideologies and conspiracy theories, or using their codewords and slogans may be restricted from using Swaray. Members of those groups and people who praise or support the actions of those groups may also be restricted. The groups include (but aren’t limited to) terrorist organizations; organized criminal groups such as drug cartels or criminal hackers; and hate organizations such as fascist, white supremacist and white nationalist groups, anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic organizations, as well as any group dedicated to attacking LGBTQI+ people. Content Creators may discuss these groups in their content for educational, reporting, or debunking purposes. However, actively supporting or praising these groups or their members through content shared or funded through Swaray may result in account removal. 

We understand people’s thoughts and affiliations can change over time. We’ll always listen when an individual leaves a dangerous or hateful organization and wants to fund a guidelines-abiding creative project through Swaray. We’ll consider renouncements of past actions and affiliations on a case-by-case basis. Under consideration will be the time past since an individual’s renouncement, whether they’ve renounced both the group and its ideology and, lastly, what they plan to fund on Swaray.

If you have questions about a group’s suitability for Swaray, please reach out to Swaray’s Trust & Safety team at guidelines@Swaray.com.

Harmful and illegal activities

We don’t allow funds to be collected for anything that facilitates harmful or illegal activities. You cannot fund creations that advocate, threaten, or show you causing harm to yourself, other people or animals. In the same way, you cannot promote illegal activities such as property crime, distribution of illegal weapons, or drug manufacturing.

Self-harm:

We don’t allow any page that promotes or glorifies self-harm, such as pages that encourage self-injury, suicide, or an eating disorder. Examples include pages that glorify self-scarification or a pro-anorexia campaign. If we believe there’s a credible risk the Content Creator will harm themselves, we will work with law enforcement when needed.

However, we allow creations that promote awareness such as self-harm survival stories, especially if they have educational value.

If you or someone close to you might be in danger of hurting themselves, please contact local authorities or seek help: http://www.suicide.org/suicide-hotlines.html

Illegal activity:

We don’t allow pages that collect money for an illegal purpose, or that encourage others to break the law. Content Creators may not promote illegal weapons, drug manufacturing techniques or distribution, or property crime. With that said, we review each case individually. For example, although we don’t allow creations that help organize or encourage vandalism, we do allow street art.

Dangerous activities:

We ask those Content Creators who are posting dangerous stunts to include a clear disclaimer. We also require that these types of posts be marked as “Membership Only” if they are too graphic or dangerous for a general audience.

Teen safety:

Swaray has zero tolerance for behaviors that exploit minors such as grooming. Users actively facilitating exploitation or attempting to exploit minors in this way will be removed from Swaray. We will report all users engaging in such activity to legal authorities upon removal.

Disinformation:

Swaray will not help fund creations that engage in medical misinformation related to Covid-19, and disinformation related to propagating QAnon or Pizzagate conspiracy theories.

Spam

While it can be hard to grow a Fan/Follower/User base, no one likes being spammed. Be creative and original, don’t post repetitive comments or send unwanted private messages to other members of the community.

These are some of the actions we consider to be spamming, which is prohibited on Swaray:

• Don’t create pledging schemes; don’t contact other Content Creators to have a pledge-for-a-pledge kind of trade deal.
• Don’t use Swaray to release or link to malware or phishing schemes.
• Don’t make misleading posts to grow your Fan-base.
• Don’t post comments on other Content Creators’ pages promoting your own page.
• Don’t send a large number of unsolicited private messages asking for support.
• Don’t use incorrect tagging in order to drive more search results.
• Don’t post multiple paid posts per day if you are a per-post Content Creator.

When reviewing reports about spam, we will distinguish between commercial spam and friendly abuse such as legitimate Content Creators spamming other Content Creators’ pages. If we determine the spam is friendly abuse, the account will be flagged; repeat offenses will lead to full removal of the Content Creator or Fan Page. Commercial spamming by an account that is not a legitimate Content Creator will be removed from Swaray. In other words, be creative and original because nobody likes Spam (not the canned type).

Fan and Fan Page Accounts

The philosophy behind these Community Guidelines applies to Content Creators and Fans alike. While we empower Content Creators to manage their Fan Pages and Live Events, there are some instances when the Trust and Safety team will review reports for Users’ behavior.

The Trust and Safety team reviews reports around hate speech, harassment and solicitation very carefully, and we will take action against a User account if it violates these guidelines. Content Creators can report User’s posts directly in the Swaray Application or by visiting our Support Page. Please know we keep these reviews confidential. Most importantly, if you feel unsafe because a User is stalking or harassing you, you should always try to seek the help of your local law enforcement and contact the closest cyber crime unit as they will have the most tools and means to help. Swaray will work closely with law enforcement when there is an investigation and if a law enforcement agency sends us a subpoena.

Financial advice content:

Because Swaray values Content Creator and User safety alike, we encourage financial advice content consumers to consult with licensed financial professionals before making investment decisions.

Chargebacks:

Chargebacks are initiated when individuals, or in Swaray’s case Users, reach out to their financial institutions to dispute a transaction. To protect Content Creators, Swaray will review excessive and potentially fraudulent chargebacks and may prevent Users from subscribing to additional Content Creators during that review. If a User’s chargebacks are found to be fraudulent, Swaray reserves the right to suspend or remove their account.

All of these policies are part of Swaray’s Terms of Use. For more information, contact Swarat at info@swaraylabs.com.

Illegal Drug Use

Illegal drug use will not be tolerated on Swaray. We aren’t going to argue state vs. federal laws and we’re based in California, so we aren’t going to police the use marijuana, but we have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to all other illegal drugs. If you use them on camera, your party will be broken up and you will be kicked out of Swaray. Forever.

Trolling and Impersonation

Swaray doesn’t tolerate users attempting to deliberately mislead others by using false names or usernames. There is no one else like you, so just be you.

Threats

Predatory behavior, stalking, threats, harassment, intimidation, invading privacy, revealing other people’s personal information, and inciting others to commit violent acts or to violate the Terms of Use are taken very seriously. Threatening behavior has no place on Swaray, and will result in getting kicked out of the party. For life. We report any sexually predatory behavior to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s (NCMEC) CyberTipline.

Pornography and Nudity

Swaray prohibits users from distributing sexually explicit content or engaging in sexually explicit acts while on the Swaray app. Any user reported for sexually explicit content will be asked to leave the party.

Respect Fellow Users

We want to foster a positive, diverse community. It’s never OK to encourage violence or attack anyone based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, disabilities, or diseases. Serious threats of harm to public and personal safety aren’t allowed. This includes specific threats of physical harm as well as threats of theft, vandalism, and other financial harm. We carefully review reports of threats.

Help Us Keep the Community Strong

If you see something that you think may violate our guidelines, please help us by using our reporting tool or email us at info@swaraylabs.com. If you see something, say something.

If you meet someone you don’t like, but doesn’t violate the Community Guidelines, you can un-friend or block the person with a simple tap.

FYI, if you block someone else, they might know you blocked them. We may work with law enforcement, including when we believe that there’s risk of physical harm or threat to public safety.

For more information, check out our Terms of Use.