Ko-fi Content Guidelines

Ko-fi reports CSEA/CSAM to the relevant authority/law enforcement

We treat CSEA/CSAM very seriously. If we find evidence of such content/activity on or associated with a Ko-fi page, this will result in an account ban and escalation to the authorities. This includes purchasing, requesting, or otherwise enquiring about CSAM.

We will also ban and report related activities such as grooming minors; sexting minors; and impersonation of minors including the use of images/videos of them to solicit payments.

Due to the seriousness of this area, where we have determined a potential risk based on the indicators present, we reserve the right to ban an individual on account of suspected activity.

For fictional variants of CSAM (e.g. loli/shota illustrations, 3D renders, AI-generated content), as well as any content that whatsoever sexualises children, it is important to recognise that these, too, are illegal in some countries. While we prioritise reporting CSAM/CSEA content that affects real children, we will still ban Ko-fi accounts if we find that fictional variants are posted on, linked to/from, and/or are being sold via our platform.

• Terrorist and violent extremist content. This extends to support, promotion, glorification, or praise of terrorist groups, acts or ideology; raising financial support for terrorist groups; grooming and recruitment; incitement to violence; planning or threatening to, or joking about, committing an act of terrorism/extreme violence
  
• Hate speech/offences - See section 3.3 for more information
• Aiding or promoting self-harm or suicide
• Threats to kill
• Controlling or coercive behaviour
• Public order offences, harassment, stalking, abuse, and fear or provocation of violence - See section 3.6 for more information on sexual harassment, specifically
• Unlawful supply or offer to supply drugs, psychoactive substances and/or articles on how to these. This extends to purchase, attempted purchase or enquiry about purchasing
• Firearms and other weapons - Selling, buying, or stating intent to sell or buy real weapons, along with their parts, accessories or ammunition
• Assisting/involvement in unlawful immigration or human trafficking (in the context of Ko-fi, this includes fundraising for that purpose)
• Foreign interference
• Sexual exploitation of adults (causing or inciting prostitution for gain)
• Possession of extreme pornography
• Disclosing, or threatening to disclose, private sexual images and films with intent to cause distress
• Proceeds of crime (i.e. use of illegal funds/assets). This includes hiding, getting, using, holding, or helping someone get these assets
• Fraud - See section 3.8 for more information
• Financial services violations (e.g. trading when not allowed; falsely saying you're allowed to trade; not following rules about promoting financial services; making misleading statements or claims in finance)
• Any involvement in planning or trying to do any of the illegal acts listed above. This includes planning or trying to commit these acts; urging, helping, or telling someone else to do them; supporting, advising, or getting involved in these acts in any way
• Animal abuse/cruelty (note: this does not include circumstances where existing material is being used by organisations advocating against abuse/cruelty)
• Swatting i.e. false reporting of a serious crime, resulting in a raid

As stated, Ko-fi believes in freedom of expression but also respects the dignity of all individuals. Our hate speech policy is designed to create a balance between these principles and ensure Ko-fi remains a platform where everyone feels welcome.

What is hate speech?

We define hate speech as any form of communication or content that threatens, insults, or discriminates groups or individuals based on any of the following:

• Race, ethnicity, national origin, or skin colour
• Religion, caste, or immigration status
• Sex, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity
• Disability, serious conditions, diseases, or mental health disorders

Areas of hate speech:

• Stereotyping and harmful generalisations
  Generalisations and promotion of stereotypes intended to harm a group’s reputation and/or promote prejudice against them. For example, blaming an entire group for one person’s actions simply because of that person’s characteristics
  
  
• Offensive language or visual representations
  Language that offends, insults, or discriminates, including racial, religious, sexist, anti-LGBTQIA+ slurs, and culturally insensitive language, is prohibited. Degrading or mocking a person or group based on their characteristics through memes, artwork, photo alteration, and other media is also not allowed
  
  
• Dehumanising speech
  Content that dehumanises an individual or group, or suggests that they are inferior or unworthy of respect, is not allowed. This includes comparisons, generalisations, or statements that diminish their humanity (e.g. comparing a specific group to a plague)
  
  
• Violent speech
  We do not allow content that includes threats or promotes violence against individuals or groups
  
  
• Segregation and exclusion We do not permit calls for segregation or exclusion based on protected characteristics

Educational and awareness content
We allow content that raises awareness or educates about hate speech, provided it does not promote or condone such speech.

We understand that everyone has their views on political and religious matters. However, we believe in maintaining a safe, respectful environment for all users. As such, we strictly prohibit political or religious radicalism and other extreme views, especially in the following scenarios:

• Incitement to violence, vigilantism or vandalism
• Calling for insurrection, rebellion, or any form of violent uprising against governments or institutions
• Encouraging the doxing, harassment, or abuse of a specific individual or group
• Plotting, glorifying, or advocating acts of terrorism or propagating terrorist ideology
• Hate speech (this includes any form of hate speech directed towards individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or any other characteristic) - See section 3.3 for a more detailed explanation of our hate speech policy
• Promotion of extremist ideologies
• Fundraising or soliciting payments for extremist activities
• Use of symbols, images, or language associated with extremist ideologies or groups
• Harmful misinformation and conspiracy theories - See section 3.5 for more information

We recognise the dangers of harmful misinformation and prohibit it on or in connection with Ko-fi; this extends to any form of activity that seeks to promote or profit from this.

• Political conspiracy theories with racist undertones or that stoke hatred/condemnation of a specific group (e.g. an ethnic or minority group)
• Content that undermines regional stability, incites violence, glorifies ongoing acts of aggression, or promotes/supports state-sponsored violence
• Denying the existence of a genocidal event, including the Holocaust
• Anti-vaccine conspiracies and other medical falsehoods - note: participating in mainstream media discussion about the possible origins of COVID-19 is allowed. Claims about the vaccine that public health authorities have debunked and that may cause people harm due to their belief in them (e.g. refusing to get vaccinated) are not allowed
• Promotion of harmful health practices that could pose a health risk
• Potentially harmful claims about public figures or entities
• Spreading false information about public safety events (e.g., natural disasters, terrorist attacks) that can cause panic or hinder emergency response efforts
• Content that spreads false information about voting methods, election results, or the integrity of electoral processes
• Deepfake content or other manipulated media intended to mislead or harm individuals or the public

All forms of sexual harassment are prohibited on Ko-fi, including:

• Cyberstalking
• Non-consensual upskirt photography or groping content
• Cyberflashing
• Uninvited sexual remarks, advances or adult content-related requests
• Sexist insults

Content that glorifies, encourages, or instructs on self-harm or suicide is prohibited. This includes content that promotes or encourages eating disorders.

We do make allowances for Creators to responsibly explore and depict this subject matter and related themes in their fictional artwork. We also take into consideration mainstream images from movies and other creative contexts that do not fall foul of the above.

In the event of real, non-fictional content, if we have reason to believe that the content involves the individual who has uploaded it, we will proactively remove this content to protect other users and reach out to that person with resources that may be of help to them. In severe cases, we may have to temporarily unpublish the person’s Ko-fi page for safety reasons.

Assisting someone to take their life is an illegal act - See section 3.2.

This includes:

• Money laundering or activity that violates any money laundering regulation
• Using stolen cards to send money through Ko-fi
• Chargeback fraud and ‘attacks’
• Impersonating another person to solicit donations
• Scamming e.g. collecting financial aid for stories of plight that have been proven false
• Intentionally misleading Supporters about a service or content in exchange for donations

Where there is sufficient evidence with regard to suspected fraudulent activity or there are signs of irregular financial activity, your page may be temporarily unpublished until we verify this with you.

These include:

• Coercion
• Blackmail, including emotional blackmail
• Threatening harm to oneself or others in exchange for money
• Funding a ransom, human trafficking or exploitation, vigilantism, bribes or bounties
• Transactions for the sale of items, goods or services including digital downloads with the purpose of avoiding paying taxes
• Funding legal cases and challenges of any kind
• Gambling-related activities including raffles, lotteries, giveaways or games of chance where a fee is paid to enter and winners are selected at random
• Using payments as a form of harassment - if a payment is unwanted and has been refunded by the creator and/or they have blocked the sender, we will accept their report of harassment on these grounds
• Impersonating an individual or organisation for financial gain

Deliberate doxing i.e. sharing another person’s private details, such as their full name and address, contact info, private social media handle(s), and/or an aggregation of non-private information such as their name, photograph and city/town of residence, with the intention of harming their reputation and/or publicly exposing them is prohibited on Ko-fi.

Please respect everyone’s privacy, including that of Ko-fi staff.

This refers to products or services that directly infringe or facilitate infringement upon the trademark, patent, copyright, trade secrets, or proprietary or privacy rights of any third party e.g. unofficial translations and/or circulation of written, audio or video works.

For details on how to submit a valid copyright infringement claim, and to understand more about Ko-fi’s role in copyright matters, please head to our Copyright Guidelines.

We have different approaches for different forms of spamming.

• Commercial spamming i.e. using the Ko-fi platform to boost the SEO ranking of a company or product unrelated to content creation and/or advertise on behalf of a client. For example, linking to or directly promoting gambling, spa, dentistry, medical, retail, and other third-party services. We do not allow SEO abuse and, particularly where our automated systems have identified efforts to mass-create Ko-fi accounts for this purpose, this will result in an immediate ban. Note that advertised services such as boosting (as defined in the context of online gaming), while loosely related to content creation, are also forbidden due to the potential compromise of users' external accounts; being largely prohibited across the relevant industry; and potentially undermining the efforts of other creators e.g. gamers who stream in connection with Ko-fi.

• Spam comments such as repeatedly posting comments on a user’s Ko-fi page that have been reported to us as unwanted by that user.
  • Concerning comments etiquette in the comments section of posts published by our official Ko-fi page, we will treat the following as spam:
    1. Promotion of personal Ko-fi pages unless on topic. One-off comments will be deleted; repeated comments will result in that user being blocked by our official page.
    2. One-word, offtopic comments (e.g. ‘hello’, etc.) - these will be deleted.
    3. Promoting links to entirely unrelated products/services will result in temporary suspension (if found to be SEO abuse upon further investigation, this will instead result in a ban).

Real-life extreme violence and/or gore, including violence-related illegal content, are not allowed on or in connection with Ko-fi (i.e. receiving payments for such content that is located elsewhere online).

Ko-fi allows moderate fictional gore and violence in most circumstances but prohibits convincingly real and/or gratuitously detailed content such as fake snuff footage and graphic depictions of torture.

For a more extensive list of examples of what is versus what isn’t allowed, see our NSFW Tag article. If you’re still unsure, contact us.

Ko-fi offers an NSFW Tag option, but using this doesn’t mean that all kinds of NSFW content is allowed. Read more about using the tag here to see when it does/doesn’t apply.

Here is a list of adult-related content, services, and activities that we do not allow:

• Sexual services (e.g. prostitution, escorts, pay-per-view, striptease/stripping, masturbation, adult chat/sexting, genital ratings, taking and fulfilling requests relating to any prohibited adult content in this list, etc.) For the avoidance of doubt, sexting includes euphemisms, visual and textual
  
• Pornography, depictions of rape, incest, bestiality, and any other explicit adult or obscene content of a similar nature including implied, emulated, censored, and cropped versions across all content categories (e.g. illustrative, videos, literature, audio, etc.)
• Sexualised nudity (i.e. genitalia and areolae exposed in a way intended to be sexually provocative or arousing) including partial (i.e. partial exposure of genitalia and/or areolae). We recognise that nudity is also expressed non-sexually in cultural, medical, educational and/or artistic contexts and also consider the difference in risk and intent between fictional and real content. For detailed examples of what is versus what isn’t allowed, see our NSFW Tag article. If you’re still unsure, contact us
• Offering uncensored versions of sexualised nudity or other prohibited adult content in this list to subscribers or at third-party sites or links in connection with Ko-fi. If we find evidence that money has been received for such content despite an absence of direct URL link(s) to/from Ko-fi, we may still take action in this context
• Select uses of covering or censoring sexualised nudity and other prohibited adult content in this list. We consider various factors such as the extent to which the content is covered/censored; the severity of the content being covered/censored; and/or if the content is fictional artwork or real-life adult content creation. See our NSFW Tag article for detailed examples of what is versus what isn’t allowed. If you’re still unsure, contact us
• High-risk fetish and paraphilia content, including findom (financial domination) themes. Factors we consider to distinguish between high-risk and low-to-no risk include how sexually explicit the content is, if at all; if the content is real or fictional; what harm it may pose to the health of participants and/or viewers; and/or whether the content has any basis in reality. See our NSFW Tag article for detailed examples of what is versus what isn’t allowed. If you’re still unsure, contact us
• Providing, or activity related to the production of, sex simulators and other games solely or mainly focused on explicit adult content
• Sale of other sexually explicit material, including physical items (e.g. sex toys, etc.).

As a safety precaution, we prohibit certain content, events or activities involving minors or realistic AI visuals closely resembling minors which risk the sexualisation or exploitation of minors.

In particular, this includes child nudity even in non-sexual, non-abuse circumstances.

Factors we take into account are context, perceived intent, and if there is a risk that individuals with malicious intent may be drawn to and exploit the featured content/event/activity.

If you are underage, your account will be unpublished until you turn 18 years of age and verify this with us through our verification steps. To do this, you should provide a well-lit, unobstructed photo of yourself holding legible government-issued ID and a slip of paper with your Ko-fi page name.

Successful verification will result in your account being republished.

However, in cases where the use of an account is further incompatible with our guidelines (e.g. connected to illegal content/activity), the account will remain unpublished and turning 18 years old will not change this outcome.

The unlawful sale, offer or provision of drugs, psychoactive substances, and/or guidance on administering drugs/psychoactive substances is illegal - See Section 3.2.

We also do not permit the sale or purchase of drug paraphernalia or alcohol on Ko-fi. For content depicting, discussing or promoting drugs or alcohol, we take into account whether the content is real or fictional; the level of harm that the content may pose; and the type of drugs involved.

Please see our NSFW Tag article for detailed examples of what is versus what isn’t allowed. If you’re still unsure, contact us.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• Content that slanders, libels, misinforms about or otherwise intentionally harms the reputation of Ko-fi, its affiliates, and other third parties
• Fake reviews or intentionally misleading testimonials posted on your or someone else's Ko-fi page about creators' products or services.
• Spreading spyware, malware, viruses or linking to malicious websites containing such links, software or bots
• Attempting to compromise the Ko-fi platform or individual accounts/pages on Ko-fi, or offering to compromise private accounts/profiles elsewhere online as a service provided via or in connection with Ko-fi
• Exposing log in details for Ko-fi accounts/pages
• Scraping data from the Ko-fi platform
• Re-selling or recirculating private content that has been purchased from another Creator/Supporter
• Intentional misuse of Ko-fi's reporting processes, including:
  - Submitting patently unfounded/false reports about another Ko-fi user
  - Encouraging or arranging mass reporting of another Ko-fi user
  - Knowingly using Ko-fi's illegal content/activity report form for unrelated matters

Content/activity found to be illegal/criminal may be reported to the relevant authority.

Using AI-generated content for any illegal purposes (e.g. creation of CSAM; identity theft; etc.) will result in an account ban and may be reported.

It is also against Ko-fi's Terms to scrape content from the Ko-fi platform - this includes scraping to train AI models.

The following uses concerning AI-generated content are also prohibited:

• AI models that have been trained to for prohibited adult content purposes
• AI-generated content that uses the likeness of known individuals (e.g. celebrities) for NSFW purposes
• AI-generated content which can be proven to have directly infringed on an artist’s copyrighted work