Snap Values
Policy Centre

Community Guidelines

At Snap, we empower people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world and have fun together. We created these Community Guidelines, in line with our commitment to respecting human rights, to encourage self-expression while helping Snapchatters stay safe. We want these guidelines to be clear and easy to understand. As noted in our Terms of Service, these guidelines are part of a Snapchatter's contract with Snap. If you violate these guidelines, we may take action against your account. Please see our Terms of Service and check your local laws to make sure you are old enough to join our community. 


Note About Severe Harm

While we prohibit all content or behaviour that violates our Community Guidelines, we are especially concerned with violations that pose a risk of severe harm to Snapchatters. Severe harms include child sexual exploitation, terrorism, and violent extremism, as well as other illegal content and conduct. When we identify accounts engaging in severe harm on Snapchat, we disable those accounts. Guidance about how we reduce the time that this content is visible on Snapchat and how we take action against it can be found in the Severe Harm explainer and relevant explainers linked throughout these guidelines.


Community Guidelines apply to all users and all content

These guidelines apply to all content and all Snapchatters. This includes usernames and display names, Bitmojis, text, images, videos, generative AI, links or attachments, emojis, stickers, Lenses and other creative tools, and all behaviour on Snapchat. 

Snap offers generative AI features through our services. We implement safeguards designed to help keep generative AI content in line with our Community Guidelines. We also expect Snapchatters to use AI responsibly. We reserve the right to take appropriate enforcement action against accounts that use AI to violate our Community Guidelines or abuse our AI products. This can include termination of an account.

Additional policies may apply

In addition to our Community Guidelines, we have additional policies for users who wish to reach a broader audience or monetise their content. In order to be eligible for algorithmic recommendation beyond the creator's friends or followers, content must comply with our Guidelines for Recommendation Eligibility. Advertisers must comply with our Advertising Policies, which require that they are honest about their products, services, and content. Sponsored content, or organic promotion of products or services must adhere to our Commercial Content Policy. Please note that some regulated goods and activities may only be promoted by eligible accounts through approved advertising or sponsored content channels. Creators who wish to participate in monetisation programmes must follow our Monetisation Policy. Media partners must comply with our Content Partner Terms, which requires their content to be accurate and, where appropriate, fact-checked. Developers are also subject to Developer Terms.

We've outlined here and in our Terms of Service specific rules for content that is prohibited on Snapchat. We work to ensure these rules are applied consistently. When applying them, we take into account the nature of the content, including whether it is newsworthy, factual, and relates to a matter of political, social, or educational value. Additional context about how we moderate content and enforce our policies is available in our Moderation explainer. We also provide links to more detailed information about our Community Guidelines in each of the sections below.

We want Snapchat to be a safe and positive experience for everyone. We reserve the right to decide, at our sole discretion, what content or behaviour violates the spirit of our rules. While we have the right to review, moderate, or remove any content from our platform, we do not proactively review all of it. We cannot guarantee that other users will comply with our Community Guidelines or that our platform will be free of violating content. We strongly encourage Snapchatters to report any content that may be violating so that our teams can review and take appropriate action.

Community Guidelines

apply to all content and behaviour on Snapchat's platform and products, and cover the following topics:

Sexual Content
  • We prohibit any activity that involves sexual exploitation or abuse of a minor, including sharing child sexual exploitation or abuse imagery, grooming or sexual extortion (sextortion), or the sexualisation of children. We report all identified instances of child sexual exploitation to authorities, including attempts to engage in such conduct. Never post, save, send, forward, distribute or ask for nude or sexually explicit content involving anyone under the age of 18 (this includes sending or saving such images of yourself). 

  • We prohibit promoting, distributing or sharing pornographic content, as well as commercial activities that relate to pornography or sexual interactions (whether online or offline). 

  • Breastfeeding and other depictions of nudity in non-sexual contexts are generally permitted.

Threats, Violence & Harm
  • Encouraging or engaging in violent or dangerous behaviour is prohibited. Never intimidate or threaten to harm a person, a group of people or someone’s property.

  • Snaps of gratuitous or graphic violence, including animal abuse, are not allowed.

  • We don’t allow the glorification of self-harm, including the promotion of self-injury, suicide or eating disorders.

Hateful Content, Terrorism and Violent Extremism
  • Terrorist organisations, violent extremists and hate groups are prohibited from using our platform. We have no tolerance for content that advocates or advances terrorism or violent extremism.

  • Hate speech or content that demeans, defames or promotes discrimination or violence on the basis of race, colour, caste, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability or veteran status, immigration status, socio-economic status, age, weight or pregnancy status is prohibited.

Harassment and Bullying
  • We prohibit bullying or harassment of any kind. If someone blocks you, you may not contact them from another Snapchat account.

  • Sharing images of a person in a private space – like a bathroom, bedroom, locker room or medical facility – without their knowledge and consent is prohibited, as is sharing another person’s private information without their knowledge and consent or for the purpose of harassment (i.e. “doxxing”).

  • If someone is depicted in your Snap and asks you to remove it, please do! Respect the privacy rights of others. 

  • Please also do not harass another Snapchatter by abusing our reporting mechanisms, such as intentionally reporting content that is permissible.

Illegal or Regulated Activities
  • Don’t use Snapchat to send or post content that’s illegal in your jurisdiction, or for any illegal activity. This includes promoting, facilitating, or participating in criminal activity, such as buying, selling, exchanging, or facilitating sales of illegal or regulated drugs, contraband or weapons. It also includes promoting or facilitating any form of exploitation, including sex trafficking, labour trafficking or other human trafficking.

  • We prohibit the illegal promotion of regulated goods or industries, including unauthorised promotion of gambling, tobacco or vape products and alcohol.

Harmful False or Deceptive Practices
  • We prohibit spreading false information that causes harm or is malicious, such as denying the existence of tragic events, unsubstantiated medical claims, undermining the integrity of civic processes or manipulating content for false or misleading purposes (whether through generative AI or through deceptive editing).

  • We prohibit pretending to be someone (or something) that you're not, or attempting to deceive people about who you are. This includes impersonating your friends, celebrities, public figures, brands or other people or organisations for harmful, non-satirical purposes.

  • We prohibit spam, including pay-for-follower promotions or other follower-growth schemes, the promotion of spam applications, or the promotion of multilevel marketing or pyramid schemes.

  • We prohibit fraud and other deceptive practices, including undisclosed paid or sponsored content, the promotion of fraudulent goods or services or get-rich-quick schemes, or imitating Snapchat or Snap Inc.

Information and Q&A

Question mark
How can I report something?

You can always submit a report to our safety teams using our in-app reporting features or by completing this form, which allows you to report a concern whether you have a Snapchat account or not. We review these reports to determine violations of these guidelines.

What happens if I violate the Community Guidelines?

If you violate these Community Guidelines, we may remove the offending content, terminate or limit the visibility of your account and/or notify law enforcement. Our policy is to refer information to law enforcement, potentially including relevant content and other account data, when we believe activity poses an imminent threat to human life. If your account is disabled for violating these guidelines, you are not allowed to use Snapchat again without our permission.

Do you consider off-platform behaviour?

Snap reserves the right to remove or restrict account access for users whom we have reason to believe, in our sole discretion, pose a danger to others, on or off of Snapchat. Examples include convicted sex offenders, leaders of terrorist organisations, individuals who incite violence or perpetrate severe harms against others, or behaviour that we believe poses a threat to human life. In evaluating such behaviour, we may consider guidance from other sources, such as subject matter experts or law enforcement, in determining whether to remove or restrict account access.

Where can I find more information?

Please visit our Safety Centre for more information about safety and well-being on Snapchat. There, you'll find detailed instructions on managing your Snapchat experience, including taking actions like updating your privacy settings, choosing who can see your content and blocking other users.