Community Guidelines

Why these rules exist

Sincerus exists to host posts written by real, verified people. The rules below are the line between what is welcome on the platform and what gets removed. Every Sincerus user, free or premium, is responsible for following them. We do not moderate opinion, political viewpoint, or lawful speech; we moderate conduct that puts other users at risk or that we are required to act on by law.

Sincerus has no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users; we remove such content and suspend such accounts.

Zero-tolerance categories (immediate permanent ban)

1. Child sexual abuse material and child exploitation

Any content that sexualizes, exploits, or endangers a minor results in immediate permanent ban and a report to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline as required by 18 U.S.C. § 2258A and the REPORT Act. This includes text that solicits, grooms, or attempts to arrange contact with a minor.

2. Human trafficking and sexual exploitation

We ban content that facilitates, promotes, or glorifies human trafficking, including sex trafficking and labor trafficking. This mirrors the FOSTA-SESTA carve-out from Section 230 immunity.

3. Terrorism and violent extremism

Content that provides material support to, recruits for, or glorifies violence on behalf of a U.S. Department of State designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, or any domestic entity designated by U.S. law enforcement as a violent extremist group, is banned.

4. Credible threats and incitement of imminent violence

Direct, credible threats against a specific person or group, and incitement of imminent lawless action, are banned. Hyperbolic political speech that does not rise to the Brandenburg standard is not banned, but repeat-offender accounts may still be restricted.

5. Non-consensual intimate imagery

Sharing non-consensual intimate imagery, and text or photos that link to, describe, or otherwise facilitate its distribution, are banned.

Nudity, sexual content and violence (zero tolerance)

Posts, replies and quotes can have up to 2 photos. Nudity or sexual content and graphic violence or gore are not allowed anywhere on Sincerus: not in posts or photos, and not in avatars, banners or group photos.

Every photo is checked automatically before it is posted, and a photo that might break this rule is not accepted. A photo that breaks it is removed, and the account is frozen on the first confirmed violation. You can appeal from the app's login screen.

Restricted categories (content removal + escalating account actions)

6. Harassment and targeted abuse

Repeated unwanted contact, coordinated pile-ons, sexually explicit unwanted messages, and stalking of a specific individual are banned. The first violation results in content removal and a warning; the second in a 7-day suspension; the third in permanent ban.

7. Hate speech

Direct attacks on a person because of race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, caste, sex, gender, gender identity, or serious disability are banned. Context matters: quoting hateful speech to denounce it, academic discussion, and self-reference are not violations.

8. Self-harm and suicide

Content that promotes, glorifies, or instructs on suicide or self-harm is removed. Users sharing their own experiences are not in violation. When our moderators see a user in apparent crisis, we surface a link to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

9. Impersonation and fraudulent identity

Pretending to be another real person, company, or organization is banned. Parody accounts are allowed when clearly labeled as parody. Sincerus reserves the right to require identity verification for high-profile accounts.

10. Spam, platform manipulation, and deceptive content

Repeated duplicate posts, coordinated inauthentic behavior, follower-farming, engagement bait, fake giveaways, and deceptive links are removed. Accounts that continue after warning are restricted or banned.

11. Intellectual property infringement

Do not copy another person's work and pass it off as your own. Copyright owners can file DMCA notices via our DMCA policy. Repeat infringers are terminated (three valid takedowns within a rolling 12-month window).

12. Unsafe links and malware

Links to phishing, malware distribution, cryptojacking, or scams are removed and posting accounts restricted.

13. Money and markets

Promises of guaranteed returns, paid signals or VIP groups, wallet or seed-phrase requests and Telegram, WhatsApp or Discord invites in posts about money are removed and can't be published. No undisclosed paid promotion, no investment offers in messages and no coordinated pumping: don't post false or misleading claims to move a price, or hide that you are paid to promote an asset. If a company pays you to promote its stock or token, turn on Paid partnership and say in the post who paid and how much. Posts about markets are personal opinions, not advice.

14. Political propaganda and election interference

Debating politics is welcome; running propaganda operations is not. We remove accounts and posts that pretend to be ordinary people while posting for a government, party, campaign or other organization without saying so, networks of accounts that push the same political message in a coordinated way, state-backed propaganda that hides who is behind it, and paid political content that hides that it is paid. We also remove false information about when, where or how to vote or register, threats or intimidation aimed at voters or election workers, and calls to disrupt an election. Propaganda for terrorist or violent extremist organizations falls under rule 3.

Political content

You can post about politics, government and elections. Like Threads and Instagram, Sincerus doesn't suggest political posts in For You or Trending from accounts you don't follow, unless you turn on Settings › Feed › Suggest political posts. You still see political posts from people you follow, on profiles, in search and in the Politics topic.

Give posts about politics the Politics topic. The app suggests it while you write; our moderators correct the topic when a post is labeled wrongly. Political posts can't be promoted as ads.

Human-only content rule

Sincerus exists so that every post comes from a human. Using AI to write posts, replies, or your bio, or using any automated tool to bypass Face ID, Touch ID, or App Attest, is not allowed. The app sends signals about how a post was typed (speed, corrections, and pauses, never the text), and the same text posted from several accounts is caught automatically. These signals never block a post: a post that looks AI-written or copied is still published and goes to our moderation team, together with user reports, for review by a human within 24 hours. Posts found to be AI-written are removed and excluded from any future opt-in language-corpus export, and repeated violations lead to the account being closed.

Using AI to check your own spelling or grammar is fine. Using AI to write the post is not.

Post photos you took or made yourself. Images made with AI aren't allowed; touching up your own photo with AI, like removing something in the background, is fine. A photo whose file says it was generated with AI (in its IPTC or C2PA metadata) is refused when it is uploaded. Photos without that marker can be reported with the “Written or made by AI” reason.

What you can do, even if someone doesn't like it

Sincerus protects lawful speech. We do not remove content simply because it is offensive, unpopular, or strongly critical of a public figure, product, company, or government. We do not moderate for “misinformation” on matters of contested public interest; when a specific post is reported as misinformation we apply the harassment, hate-speech, and incitement rules rather than a truth test. False information about when, where or how to vote is the exception (rule 14).

How moderation works

You can report any post, profile, or direct message by tapping the three-dot menu and choosing Report, and you can block or mute any account from its profile. Every report is sent to our moderation team the moment it is filed and is reviewed and acted on by a human within 24 hours. Child-safety reports are reviewed immediately and escalated to NCMEC.

When we take action against your content or account, we notify you with the reason and the rule cited. If your account has been frozen, you can submit an appeal directly from the app's login screen; you can also reply to the notification email. Appeals are reviewed within 14 days.

Enforcement ladder

• Soft warning: content removed, no account restriction.
• Restriction: limited reach, a messaging restriction or a profile edit lock for a set time, or a frozen account until a moderator lifts it or an appeal succeeds, depending on severity.
• Permanent ban: for zero-tolerance categories, repeated serious violations (including repeated AI-written posts), or evasion of prior bans.
• Legal action: we may take legal action over violations that break the law or harm Sincerus or others, and refer conduct that may be a crime under US federal or state law or Turkish law to the authorities.

Questions

If you have a question about these guidelines or want to challenge an enforcement action, email safety@sincerus.app.