The Giraf Rules

We believe that everyone should have the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers. In order to protect the experience and safety of people who use Giraf, there are some limitations on the type of content and behavior that we allow. These limitations are set forth in the Giraf Rules below.

The Giraf Rules (along with all incorporated policies), Privacy Policy, and Terms of Service collectively make up the "Giraf User Agreement" that governs a user's access to and use of Giraf's services.

All individuals accessing or using Giraf’s services must adhere to the policies set forth in the Giraf Rules. Failure to do so may result in Giraf taking one or more of the following enforcement actions:

• requiring you to remove prohibited content before you can again create new posts or other content and interact with other Giraf users;
• temporarily limiting your ability to create posts or other content, or to interact with other Giraf users;
• asking you to verify account ownership with a phone number or email address; or
• permanently suspending your account(s).

If you attempt to evade a permanent suspension by creating new accounts, we will suspend your new accounts.

Please note that we may need to change these Rules from time to time and reserve the right to do so. The most current version is always available at: https://giraf.app/rules.

The policies set forth in these Giraf Rules govern content on our platform.

Content Boundaries and Use of Giraf

Intellectual property

Trademark: We reserve the right to suspend accounts or take other appropriate action when someone’s brand or trademark, including business name and/or logo, is used in a manner that may mislead or confuse others about your brand affiliation.

Copyright: We will respond to clear and complete notices of alleged copyright infringement. Our copyright procedures are set forth in our Terms of Service.

Graphic violence and adult content

We consider graphic violence to be any form of gory media related to death, serious injury, violence, or surgical procedures. We consider adult content to be any media that is pornographic and/or may be intended to cause sexual arousal. 

Giraf allows some forms of graphic violence and/or adult content in Tweets marked as containing sensitive media. However, you may not use such content in live video, your profile, or header images. Additionally, Giraf may sometimes require you to remove excessively graphic violence.

Media depicting deceased individuals:We may require you to remove media that depicts the death of an identifiable individual if we receive a request from their family or an authorized representative.

Unlawful use

You may not use our service for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities. By using Giraf, you agree to comply with all applicable laws governing your online conduct and content.

Distribution of hacked materials

We do not permit the use of our services to directly distribute content obtained through hacking that contains personally identifiable information, may put people in imminent harm or danger, or contains trade secrets. Direct distribution of hacked materials includes posting hacked content on Giraf (for instance, in the text of a post, or in an image), or directly linking to hacked content hosted on other websites.

We may suspend accounts which directly distribute hacked materials where the account has made a claim of responsibility for a hack, or where Giraf is able to reliably attribute a hack to the account distributing that content.

Trends

At times, we may prevent certain content from trending. This includes content that violates the Giraf Rules, as well as content that may attempt to manipulate trends.

Third-party advertising in video content

You may not submit, post, or display any video content on or through our services that includes third-party advertising, such as pre-roll video ads or sponsorship graphics, without our prior consent.

Misuse of Giraf badges

You may not use badges unless provided by Giraf. Accounts using unauthorized badges as part of their profile photos, header photos, display names, or in any way that falsely implies affiliation with Giraf or authorization from Giraf to display these badges, may be suspended.

Misuse of usernames

Selling usernames: You may not buy or sell Giraf usernames.

Username squatting: You may not engage in username squatting. Some of the factors we take into consideration when determining whether conduct is username squatting include:

• the number of accounts created;
• the creation of accounts for the purpose of preventing others from using those account names;
• the creation of accounts for the purpose of selling those accounts; and
• the use of third-party content feeds to update and maintain accounts under the names of those third parties.

Please note that Giraf may also remove accounts that are inactive for more than six months.

Abusive Behavior

We believe in freedom of expression and open dialogue, but that means little as an underlying philosophy if voices are silenced because people are afraid to speak up. In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs, we prohibit behavior that crosses the line into abuse, including behavior that harasses, intimidates, or uses fear to silence another user’s voice.

Context matters when evaluating for abusive behavior and determining appropriate enforcement actions. Factors we may take into consideration include, but are not limited to whether:

• the behavior is targeted at an individual or group of people;
• the report has been filed by the target of the abuse or a bystander;
• the behavior is newsworthy and in the legitimate public interest.

Violence and physical harm

Violence: You may not make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people. This includes, but is not limited to, threatening or promoting terrorism. You also may not affiliate with organizations that — whether by their own statements or activity both on and off the platform — use or promote violence against civilians to further their causes.

Suicide or self-harm: You may not promote or encourage suicide or self-harm.

Child sexual exploitation: You may not promote child sexual exploitation.

Abuse and hateful conduct

Abuse: You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. We consider abusive behavior an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else’s voice.

Unwanted sexual advances: You may not direct abuse at someone by sending unwanted sexual content, objectifying them in a sexually explicit manner, or otherwise engaging in sexual misconduct.

Hateful conduct: You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.

Hateful imagery and display names: You may not use hateful images or symbols in your profile image or profile header. You also may not use your username, display name, or profile bio to engage in abusive behavior, such as targeted harassment or expressing hate towards a person, group, or protected category. 

Private information and intimate media

Private information: You may not publish or post other people's private information without their express authorization and permission. Definitions of private information may vary depending on local laws.

Intimate media: You may not post or share intimate photos or videos of someone that were produced or distributed without their consent. Media depicting sexual violence and/or assault is also not permitted.

Threats to expose / hack: You may not threaten to expose someone’s private information or intimate media. You also may not threaten to hack or break into someone’s digital information or attempt to incentivize others to do so (e.g., through setting a bounty or reward on such actions).

Impersonation

You may not impersonate individuals, groups, or organizations in a manner that is intended to or does mislead, confuse, or deceive others. While you may maintain parody, fan, commentary, or newsfeed accounts, you may not do so if the intent of the account is to engage in spamming or abusive behavior.

Spam and Security

We strive to protect people on Giraf from technical abuse and spam.

To promote a stable and secure environment on Giraf, you may not do, or attempt to do, any of the following while accessing or using Giraf:

• Access, tamper with, or use non-public areas of Giraf, Giraf’s computer systems, or the technical delivery systems of Giraf’s providers.
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any system or network, or breach or circumvent any security or authentication measures.
• Access or search, or attempt to access or search, Giraf by any means (automated or otherwise) other than through our currently available, published interfaces that are provided by Giraf (and only pursuant to the applicable terms and conditions), unless you have been specifically allowed to do so in a separate agreement with Giraf. Note that crawling Giraf is permissible if done in accordance with the provisions of the robots.txt file; however, scraping Giraf without our prior consent is expressly prohibited.
• Forge any TCP/IP packet header or any part of the header information in any email or posting, or in any way use Giraf to send altered, deceptive, or false source-identifying information.
• Interfere with or disrupt the access of any user, host or network, including, without limitation, sending a virus, overloading, flooding, spamming, mail-bombing Giraf’s services, or by scripting the creation of content in such a manner as to interfere with or create an undue burden on Giraf.

Any accounts engaging in the following activities may be temporarily locked or subject to permanent suspension:

• Malware/Phishing: You may not publish or link to malicious content intended to damage or disrupt another person’s browser or computer or to compromise a person’s privacy. 
• Fake accounts: You may not register or create fake and misleading accounts. While you may use Giraf pseudonymously or as a parody, commentary, or fan account, you may not use misleading account information in order to engage in spamming, abusive, or disruptive behavior, including attempts to manipulate the conversations on Giraf. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining whether an account is fake include:
  • Use of stock or stolen avatar photos
  • Use of stolen or copied profile bios
  • Use of intentionally misleading profile information, including profile location
• Spam: You may not use Giraf’s services for the purpose of spamming anyone. Spam is generally defined on Giraf as bulk or aggressive activity that attempts to manipulate or disrupt Giraf or the experience of users on Giraf to drive traffic or attention to unrelated accounts, products, services, or initiatives. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming include:
  • if you have followed and/or unfollowed a large number of of accounts in a short time period, particularly by automated means (aggressive following or follower churn);
  • if your posts or other content consist mainly of links shared without commentary;
  • if a large number of people have blocked you in response to high volumes of untargeted, unsolicited, or duplicative content or engagements from your account;
  • if a large number of spam complaints have been filed against you;
  • if you submit duplicative or substantially similar content, replies, or mentions over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate items on one account, or create duplicate or substantially similar accounts;
  • if you submit multiple updates to a trending or popular topic with an intent to subvert or manipulate the topic to drive traffic or attention to unrelated accounts, products, services, or initiatives;
  • if you send large numbers of unsolicited replies or mentions;
  • if you add users to lists in a bulk or aggressive manner;
  • if you are randomly or aggressively engaging with content or users to drive traffic or attention to unrelated accounts, products, services, or initiatives;
  • if you repeatedly submit other people’s account information as your own (e.g., bio, posts, profile URL, etc.);
  • if you submit misleading, deceptive, or malicious links (e.g., affiliate links, links to malware/clickjacking pages, etc.);
  • if you sell, purchase, or attempt to artificially inflate account interactions (such as followers, etc.); and
  • if you use or promote third-party services or apps that claim to get you more followers or other types of engagement (such as follower trains, sites promising "more followers fast", or any other site that offers to automatically add followers or engagements to your account or posts or other content).

Accounts created to replace or mimic suspended accounts may be permanently suspended. We may also remove accounts which Giraf is able to reliably attribute to entities known to violate the Giraf Rules.

Content Visibility

Accounts under investigation or which have been detected as sharing content in violation of these Rules may have their account or content visibility limited in various parts of Giraf, including search.