📋 Community Standards

GuestCountry
Community Rules

The standards that make our platform a safe, respectful, and inspiring home for every writer and reader.

📅 Last updated: April 2026
⚖️ 3-strike enforcement system

GuestCountry is an open platform built to share ideas and perspectives from the world's most insightful writers, thinkers, and storytellers. We welcome thoughtful and civil discussion from a broad spectrum of viewpoints.

To maintain a safe, respectful, and welcoming environment for a wide range of people to engage in meaningful conversations, we prohibit certain conduct. In deciding whether there has been a violation of the rules, we will take into consideration things like newsworthiness, the context and nature of the posted information, the likelihood and severity of actual or potential harms, account history, and applicable laws.

GuestCountry has the sole authority and final decision as to whether content or behaviour violates our rules. Violations may result in account restrictions, content suspension, or permanent removal.

⚠️

Violations Have Real Consequences

Our rules are enforced with a 3-strike system. A first violation results in a 15-day suspension. A second violation leads to a 30-day suspension. A third violation means permanent account removal. All strikes are issued only after a content review by our trust team.

📖 Table of Contents

⚖️ The Rules

What's Not Allowed

Read each rule carefully. Ignorance of the rules is not a defence. Every GuestCountry user is responsible for the content they publish.

Rule 01
🚫
Threats of Violence & Incitement

We do not allow content or actions that threaten, encourage, or incite violence against anyone, directly or indirectly. This includes:

  • Direct or indirect threats against individuals or groups
  • Content that calls for or glorifies violent acts
  • Material likely to inspire violence even without explicit calls
  • Posting or sharing manifestos from violent actors
Rule 02
🤐
Hateful Content

We do not allow content that promotes violence, harassment, or hatred based on characteristics like race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, age, gender, or sexual orientation. This includes:

  • Glorifying or trivialising violence or abuse of groups
  • Dehumanising language, slurs, or harmful stereotypes
  • Calls for exclusion or segregation based on protected characteristics
  • Intentional misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals
  • Hateful text, images, or symbols anywhere in posts or profiles
Rule 03
🤝
Harassment

GuestCountry exists to share and discuss ideas. We do not tolerate harassment of any kind:

  • Bullying, threatening, mocking, or shaming another person
  • Repetitive or targeted harassment campaigns against a person or group
  • Using derogatory language or racial slurs to attack someone
  • Misusing features (responses, mentions, follows) to annoy or harass
  • Encouraging others to harass a specific person or group
Rule 04
🔒
Privacy & Reputation

We take privacy seriously. The following are strictly prohibited:

  • Sharing private communications without consent of all parties
  • Doxing — sharing addresses, phone numbers, or personal data
  • Posting intimate images without the subject's express consent
  • Sharing sensitive data like credit card or social security numbers
  • Aggregating public information to target or endanger someone
Rule 05
🔞
Graphic & Adult Content

GuestCountry is a professional publishing platform. We do not allow:

  • Pornographic images or videos of any kind
  • Gratuitously graphic or disturbing media, regardless of subject matter
  • Content sexualising real or fictional individuals
  • Links to or promotion of adult or pornographic platforms

Be mindful that your content may reach a wide range of readers.

Rule 06
🚸
Exploitation of Minors

We take a zero-tolerance stance on any content that harms or endangers children:

  • Sexual content involving or directed at minors (real or fictional)
  • Violent exploitation or abuse of children in any form
  • Content that normalises or trivialises harm to minors
  • Grooming-type content or instructions targeting young people

Any such content results in immediate permanent removal and may be reported to authorities.

Rule 07
💔
Promotion of Self-Harm

We do not allow content that encourages, promotes, or glorifies acts of self-harm, including:

  • Content promoting eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia
  • Encouragement of cutting, self-injury, or similar behaviours
  • Content romanticising or glorifying suicide
  • Detailed methods or instructions for self-harm

If you encounter users in crisis, please report it immediately.

Rule 08
Spam & Duplicate Content

All spam is removed immediately without notification. Prohibited behaviours include:

  • Posting duplicate content from single or multiple accounts
  • Publishing content primarily to drive traffic to external sites
  • Scraping and reposting others' content for personal gain
  • Stories clipped to force readers to visit an external website
  • Content templates with slight modifications across multiple posts
  • Automated or bulk interactions (follows, claps, responses)
Rule 10
Deceptive Conduct

We do not allow deceptive conduct of any kind:

  • Impersonating a person or organisation in a misleading way
  • Using misleading titles, tags, or metadata to trick readers
  • Phishing, fraud, or embedding malicious code in posts
  • Using deception to generate revenue or traffic
  • Failing to disclose goods or services received related to a post

Parody and satire are allowed — but must be clearly labelled as such.

Rule 11
💰
Ads, Promotions & Marketing

Honest promotion is welcome. Deceptive promotion is not:

  • Allowed: Promoting your own business, website, or mailing list
  • Allowed: Affiliate links with a clear FTC-compliant disclosure
  • Not allowed: Third-party advertising or brand sponsorships without disclosure
  • Not allowed: Paid promotions that are not clearly labelled
  • Not allowed: Buying or selling account interactions
Rule 12
🧠
Harmful Misinformation

We do not allow content that threatens public health, safety, or democratic integrity:

  • Pseudoscience or dangerous health claims that could cause harm
  • Disinformation designed to mislead or deceive the public
  • Content that dehumanises groups using false science
  • Election disinformation or interference with democratic processes
Rule 13
🤖
Non-Genuine Interactions

Our platform depends on real, organic user behaviour to surface the best content. We prohibit:

  • Buying, selling, or trading accounts or engagement metrics
  • Using third-party services to inflate your views, follows, or claps
  • Registering accounts or posting content automatically/programmatically
  • Participating in brigades to artificially boost posts or accounts
  • Follow spam or using interactions as bulk promotional tools

If You Break the Rules

We strive to be fair, but we enforce our rules firmly to protect every member of our community.

Strike 1
⚠️
15 Days
Account suspended. Violating content removed. Warning issued after content review.
Strike 2
🚫
30 Days
Extended suspension. Final warning before permanent action is taken.
Strike 3
🔴
Permanent
Account permanently removed. No restoration. No appeal for copyright violations.

📬 Think it's a mistake?

If you believe your content or account has been restricted in error, or there is relevant context we were not aware of, email us at [email protected]. We consider all good-faith appeals carefully and will respond within 5 business days.

How to Report a Violation

If you find content that violates these rules, please report it. Our trust team reviews every report received.

🔍

Report In-Platform

The easiest way to report is through the 3-dot menu (⋯) on every post, response, and profile page. Select "Report" and follow the prompts — it goes directly to our trust team for review.

✉️

Email Our Trust Team

For complex reports, off-platform conduct, or situations needing more detail, email us directly. Include links, screenshots, and a description of the issue for the fastest response.

[email protected]
🛡️

Block & Protect Yourself

If you're in conflict with another user, you can block them immediately — they won't be able to see or interact with your content. You can also mute them so they don't appear in your feeds.

🔕

Manage Your Responses

You have full control over who can respond to your stories. Remove specific responses, turn off all responses, or report individual users directly from your story's comment section.

🌍

Open to All Viewpoints

We welcome diverse perspectives and thoughtful debate. Our rules are not about silencing disagreement — they're about keeping discourse civil and honest for everyone.

🔄

Rules Evolve With the Community

We may update these rules at any time. We track all changes so the community can see how our policies evolve and why those changes are made.

📣

We'll Notify You

Upon investigating or disabling content linked to your account, we will notify you — unless we believe the account is automated or notification would cause harm to another user.

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