Community Guidelines

01Zero tolerance

There is no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users. We remove it and restrict or ban the account, often with no warning. Never post, send or link to:

• anything that sexualizes, exploits or endangers a child. We report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and keep what the law requires;
• intimate images of anyone without their consent, real or fake;
• terrorist or violent extremist content, or support for it;
• threats of violence, or calls for violence;
• harassment, bullying, or hate against people for who they are;
• pornography or sexually explicit content;
• gore for its own sake;
• doxxing: someone's home address, phone number, email, ID number, or where a private person is;
• encouragement of self-harm or suicide;
• illegal goods, services or activity; scams, spam or malware;
• impersonation of a person, government, organization or SITREP.

02Be a good source

• Say how you know. Eyewitness, a named outlet, an official statement, a video you geolocated: say which. Link to the original, not a copy.
• Say what you don't know. "Unconfirmed", "reports of" and "one source" are fine. Certainty you don't have is not.
• No fabrication. Don't post fake, edited or AI-generated media as if it were real. Don't recycle old footage as new. If you post a manipulated image to discuss it, say so.
• Correct yourself. If you got it wrong, edit (within the first 10 minutes), reply with the correction, or delete.
• No mirror links or link shorteners. Link to original sources. Links to known social media mirror sites and link shorteners are refused.
• No coordinated campaigns. No fake accounts, vote rings or covert promotion for any government, party or company.
• Likes, reposts and shares. There is one reaction: Like. You can also repost, quote or share a post, and share a public SITREP alert into a message, a channel or the feed. The app doesn't show like, repost, quote or reply counts. Share because it helps people, not to chase numbers. A shared alert is still SITREP reporting; what you write around it is Community Content and follows these guidelines.

03OPSEC: no live positions

People can die because of what gets posted during a conflict. On SITREP:

• Never post where troops, units, equipment or security forces are now, are moving, or will be. That includes coordinates, grid references, map links, "just passed the bridge", photos that show it, and pins.
• Never help someone target shelters, evacuation routes, air defense sites or critical infrastructure.
• Old and historical is different. Analyzing a verified event after the fact is fine. Real-time tracking is not.
• Expect holds. Posts that look like they contain a position, and posts about conflict areas we list, may be held for SITREP staff or published after a short delay. You can edit or delete while you wait. A hold is not an accusation.
• Safety instructions come from officials. During an emergency, don't post evacuation or "all clear" instructions as fact. Point to the official source.
• Verification marks don't exempt anyone.

04Incident reports

• Incident reports unlock at Established trust. New and low-trust accounts can't post them.
• Pin the incident. Never pin yourself, and never pin anyone's home. Keep "Approximate my pin" on unless you have a reason not to.
• Pins more precise than 200 m are held. SITREP staff review them before anyone sees them.
• Never name or target a person. An incident report is about what happened, not about someone. Reports that name or target a person are refused.
• Report what you saw or heard, when, and how you know. Pick the closest category.
• No military positions. There is no military category. Reports of troops, equipment or positions are held and removed.
• Reports in conflict areas we list are checked by staff before anyone sees them. Strike reports there are not shown until well after the event, and only on a coarse map.
• Confirm only what you know. "I can confirm this" means you have real knowledge, not that it sounds right.
• During launch periods, SITREP staff may take part in confirming. A confirmation is still not SITREP reporting.
• Community reports are not SITREP reporting and are not official warnings. In an emergency, call your local emergency services.

05Geolocation etiquette

• Show your work: say what matched (skyline, road layout, signs, shadows) and link to or attach the reference imagery.
• Choose an honest radius. Don't claim 25 m when you know 1 km.
• Never locate a private person, a private home, or a live military position. Proposals about military positions are held by staff and never appear on the map.
• Confirm or dispute on the evidence, not on who proposed it. Don't confirm your friends' proposals as a favor. People who are connected to each other are kept out of each other's votes for a reason.
• "Confirmed by the community" is the community's conclusion, not SITREP's. During launch periods, SITREP staff may take part in confirming. A confirmation is still not SITREP reporting.

06Images

• Share images you have the right to share. Credit the source.
• We remove all metadata (including GPS location) from images before anyone else sees them, but the picture itself can still give away a location. Check backgrounds, windows, faces and signs.
• New accounts can't post images. Images from newer accounts are blurred until staff review them. At launch, staff review every image in posts, replies and channels.
• Graphic but newsworthy images may be allowed behind a "Graphic content" blur. Gore for its own sake is removed.
• Blur or avoid the faces of victims, children and bystanders when you can.
• No sexual content, ever. No images of children in any sexualized or exploitative context, ever.

07Messages

• People who don't follow you get a request: one text message, with no links or images, until they accept. Don't spam requests.
• Messages are encrypted at rest, not end-to-end. SITREP staff don't read your messages unless someone reports them (the report includes recent messages the reporter could see), an automated safety rule holds them, or the law requires it.
• Automated rules (not AI) check message text and links: blocked or shortened links, child-safety terms, contact details in requests, possible live positions in group chats, and the same message sent to many conversations.
• In group chats, SITREP asks you to confirm before sending something that looks like a live position. Think before you confirm.
• Images in messages are blurred until the recipient taps them.
• Block and report anyone who harasses you. Blocking is private.
• The same rules apply in messages as everywhere else.

08Channels

• Anyone who meets the requirements shown in the app can start a community or private channel. Official country and topic channels are run by SITREP.
• Owners and moderators: keep your channel within these guidelines, use your tools fairly, and don't use them to settle scores. You can hide posts in your channel, slow it down, pin posts, and remove members for up to 30 days. Only SITREP staff can remove content or ban accounts.
• Don't name a channel to look official. Community channel names that include a country name need staff approval.
• Reports in private channels go to SITREP staff only.

09Community moderation

Members on Plus or above who meet the eligibility rules (account age, trust, a short quiz on these guidelines, and a clean record) can review reported public posts.

• You can: vote keep, limit or hide, with a reason, and propose or rate context notes.
• You can't: remove posts or ban people. That is for staff only. Content about OPSEC, doxxing, child safety, terrorism, violent threats and graphic material never reaches you; staff handle it.
• Be fair. Judge the post against these guidelines, not whether you agree with it. You won't see cases involving people you follow, have blocked or have argued with, or posts you reported.
• Keep it in the queue. Don't share or screenshot what you review, and don't try to find out who is behind a handle.
• Staff check a sample of community decisions. Moderators who vote in bad faith lose moderation rights.

10What happens when rules are broken

We match the response to the harm. Typical steps:

1. Hold or delay (automatic, before anyone sees it).
2. Limit (collapsed, not promoted) or hide (by community vote, a channel moderator or staff).
3. Remove (staff only).
4. Temporary restriction on posting, messaging or images: 1, 7 or 30 days.
5. Community ban (you can still read) or account termination.

Child sexual exploitation, terrorism, credible threats and doxxing are removed and usually lead to a ban. Every action tells you what happened, why, who decided and how to appeal, except where the law, a request from authorities, or an investigation into child exploitation or another serious harm requires otherwise. There are no shadow bans.

You can appeal any action: in the app within 14 days (one appeal per decision), or by email to hello@artorias.com with the subject "Appeal" within 6 months. SITREP staff decide appeals.

Restrictions follow your account, not your handle. SCATTER, a new username or a new account won't reset them, and ban evasion is itself a violation.

11Child safety standards

SITREP prohibits child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) in every form, including grooming, sextortion, trafficking, and sexualized images of minors, real or synthetic. We act on reports made in the app and sent to hello@artorias.com (subject "Child safety"). We remove the content, ban the account, preserve evidence as the law requires, and report to NCMEC's CyberTipline. Our child safety point of contact can be reached at hello@artorias.com.

12Law enforcement and your privacy

• Handles are anonymous to other users, not to SITREP. We keep account records (including handle history) so that rules can be enforced.
• We disclose user data to authorities only as set out in our Law Enforcement Guidelines (artorias.com/legal/sitrep/law-enforcement): in response to valid legal process, or in an emergency involving risk of death or serious injury. We tell users about requests for their data unless the law or an emergency prevents it.
• We report child sexual exploitation to NCMEC, as US law requires.

13Reporting

Tap Report on any post, profile, image, message, geolocation, incident report or channel. Choose the closest reason. Reports are confidential: the person you report isn't told who reported them. Filing false reports on purpose is a violation.

Not on SITREP? Email hello@artorias.com with one of these subject lines: "Illegal content notice", "Copyright notice" (see our Copyright (DMCA) Policy), or "Intimate image removal request".

Intimate images shared without consent. If an intimate image of you (real, edited or fake) is on SITREP without your consent, report it in the app (reason: sexual content) or email hello@artorias.com with the subject "Intimate image removal request". You, or someone acting for you, need to give: your signature (typing your full name in an email is enough); which image and where it is (the handle, the alert, channel or conversation, and roughly when); a short statement that you believe in good faith it was shared without your consent; and how to contact you. We remove it within 48 hours of a valid request and make reasonable efforts to find and remove identical copies. The full process is in section 19.3 of the Terms of Service.

14If you're struggling

If you or someone you see here is at risk, contact your local emergency services. In the US, call or text 988. Veterans and service members: dial 988, then press 1. More free support, in the US and elsewhere, is on our Safety and Crisis Resources page (artorias.com/legal/sitrep/safety).