For individuals, small nonprofits, small businesses, or hobby groups the legal requirements to set up a forum or other social media community without using larger services or big tech companies can be tricky. There are regulations to comply with and the fear of dealing with problem users and trolls who make legal threats. For individuals setting up these sorts of community sites can be overwhelming, and may dissuade some, while pushing others to simply ignore the legal aspects until something bad happens. Yet, with a bit of understanding and a small effort you can provide a reasonable amount of legal protection for one’s forum or other social media community, such as a Mastodon instance.
The first step to protecting yourself and your community is a functional Terms of Service document, a contract between your users and you. Below I’ve written up a sample Terms of Service that could work for most smaller sites with social media elements. It’s meant for informational purposes, and makes various assumptions and generalizations about the kind of website that might use it, so it’s not good fit for everyone and of course isn’t legal advice, but I’ve written it as clearly as I can and avoided much of the legal language that can make sample contracts confusing. I also intend to update this first draft from time to time and to provide in-depth explanations of its clauses. Any links in the Terms of Service are links to these explanations.
NOTE: THESE TERMS ARE DESIGNED FOR SMALL BUSINESS OR NONPROFIT WEBSITES SUCH AS HOBBY FORUMS AND MASTODON/FEDIVERSE INSTANCES THAT:
A) HAVE LESS THAN 50 EMPLOYEES
B) HAVE LESS THAN 10 MILLION EUROS A YEAR IN TURNOVER.
ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE LARGER THEN THIS MAY HAVE HIGHER LEGAL REQUIREMENTS, INCLUDING ANNUAL REPORTING ON SPECIAL CONTENT REMOVAL POLICIES, UNDER VARIOUS LEGAL REGIMES – SPECIFICALLY THE EU’S “DIGITAL SERVICES ACT” AND/OR CALIFORNIA’S PRIVACY LAWS.
SAMPLE TERMS OF SERVICE
Please read the Terms of Service, or “Terms” below, they will help you know what to expect and avoid misunderstandings on how you can use [NAME OF WEBSITE].
1. WHEN YOU USE THIS WEBSITE YOU AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING.
These Terms are the rules that tell you, as a “User”, what you need to do to access [NAME OF WEBSITE], how we are governed, and what the relationship is between us and our Users. When we use the words “we”, “us” and “our” we mean [NAME OF WEBSITE] (the “Website”), which also includes its owners, employees, administrators, mediators, and any related services it provides. The Terms exist so that you and other users can be safe on and enjoy our Website, to keep the Website functional, and to meet our legal requirements.
When you use [NAME OF WEBSITE] you accept these Terms and agree to follow them. If you choose not to accept any of the Terms here you may not use the Service or site. It’s your sole responsibility to read, understand and review these Terms from time to time as we may change them from time to time.
2. WHO CAN USE THIS WEBSITE.
To use the Website you must be at least thirteen (13) years old. If you are over 13 but not legally an adult in your country, its laws may still require the permission of your parent or guardian for you to access this Website. When using this website you, and your parent or guardian if applicable, are responsible for complying with the laws of your country or state and these Terms.
To use this Website your county or State must not have imposed online verification laws for age or identity that require us to collect information. This Website does not provide a means of verifying age and identity through the use of information we collect either through user submitted documentation or automatic verification.
To use the Website you must be legally allowed to. If you are prohibited from accessing any aspect of our Website under the laws of your country or your name is on an applicable denied party list you may not use our Website.
To use the Website you must not have previously had an account on [NAME OF WEBSITE] removed for the violation of any law or for the violation of our policies.
To use this website you must not be in violation of any laws specific to your country or state. Depending on your country of residence you may also be subject to local laws and regulations that are not covered by these Terms.
If you are accessing the Website through or with another site or application, it may also have its own terms of use that you will also have to follow.
It is your responsibility to follow these Terms, your local laws, and any other agreements while using the Website. Our Terms of Service here do not supersede or replace your responsibility to follow other terms of service, your local laws, and any other agreements you have made while using the Website.
3. WHAT YOU CAN’T USE THIS WEBSITE FOR.
You may not use this Website to harass others, including us, other Users or anyone else. Harassment is a broad term that encompasses both legal and illegal activities, and includes any activity aimed at harming, threatening, abusing, stalking, intimidating, or maliciously embarrassing others. It also includes encouraging, coordinating, or planning to engage in harassment.
You may not share or post the personal or private information of others on this Website without their permission. Examples of such information can include: home and employment addresses, sexuality, gender assigned at birth, government identification numbers, financial information, or medical information.
You may not use the Website to access (or attempt to access) another User’s account or any non-public portions of the Website. This includes the computer systems or networks connected to or used together with the Website.
You may not use this Website for illegal purposes or activities. This includes fraud, deception, threats of violence or terrorism, promotion of proscribed materials, the impersonation of others, distribution of illegal or protected Content, and planning or coordinating to commit crimes.
You may not use this Website to promote or encourage suicide, or to post, store, share or send extreme depictions of gore, violence, and torture. This includes written, audio and visual content in both public and private messages or postings.
You may not use this Website to post, store, share, or send pornography or any other inappropriate sexual Content. This includes written and audio content as well as imagery in both public and private messages or postings.
You may not use this Website in ways that interfere with its intended operation. Some examples of this are efforts to: copy, translate, modify, reverse engineer, or create derivative works of this Website. It also includes efforts to circumvent our moderation decisions, auto-messaging, transmitting malicious code or viruses on the Website, and collecting information from this website using automated tools, such as those designed to create train data for large language models.
You cannot use this Website for many Commercial Purposes. You may not post advertising or commercial offers for the sale of goods or services on our Website or charge others for access to our Website. Additionally, you cannot use our trademarks, name, or logos for your commercial purposes or to imply ownership of this Website, and you may not sell, buy, or license your account or any information you have obtained from our Website.
4. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT YOU DO ON THIS WEBSITE.
We are not responsible for your behavior on this Website or for its consequences. Any consequences to you or others from your use or misuse of this Website are your sole responsibility. You understand and accept that behaving in an offensive or abusive manner on this Website can have a negative impact on your reputation, and that doing so causes reputational harm with significant monetary losses to the Website. You acknowledge that the Website’s efforts to moderate and ban offending Users is essential to remedy the reputational and financial damages that such users can cause.
You are responsible for any lawsuit brought by others because of your behavior on the Website, and you agree that the Website is not responsible for such lawsuits. Your responsibility includes any losses, including reasonable attorney fees caused by such a lawsuit or claim. Additionally you agree to hold us harmless and to indemnify us and this Website from any claims, disputes, damages, losses, costs, and expenses, including, without limitation, reasonable legal and other fees that involved or arose from your use of our Website, your User Content, or your violation of these Terms. We may assume full and exclusive control of the defense against any lawsuit covered by this term, and that if we do so you will cooperate with this defense.
You are responsible for storing and maintaining your Content. We are not a remote storage provider, and do not guarantee that any Content you publish on our Website will remain available to you or the public. We may delete Content on our Website at any time, for any reason, and you agree to hold us harmless for any damages you suffer from usage interruptions, corruption of content, and downtime for maintenance.
This Website cannot guarantee that it will always work or meet your needs. You accept that it is solely your decision to use this website and that any damages you suffer from doing so are not the fault of the Website. You agree that we are not responsible or liable for the posts of other Users on the Website or for any links to other sites that they may include. You acknowledge that by using this Website you may be exposed to User Content that is deceptive, defamatory, inaccurate, untrue, incomplete, offensive, inappropriate for children, or otherwise unsuited to your purposes.
THIS WEBSITE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, AND TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, WE MAKE NO WARRANTIES ABOUT THE WEBSITE. WE DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES INCLUDING THOSE OF MERCHANTABILITY, COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE OF TRADE, AND FITNESS FOR A SPECIFIC PURPOSE. WE MAKE NO WARRANTIES THAT THE WEBSITE WILL MEET YOUR NEEDS OR BE AVAILABLE ON AN UNINTERRUPTED, SECURE, OR ERROR-FREE BASIS.
5. OUR APPROACH TO PRIVACY.
When we provide you access to our Website we will collect some necessary information from you. We seek to minimize the amount of information we collect, but require information such as user names and IP addresses for the basic operation of our Website. We may also require or allow you to provide additional information to register or create a profile when you use the Website. We do not sell User information, but the information you provide us will be retained, and may be transferred to others as part of our regular operation.
Details and specifics regarding the information we collect, how we use it, and why we require it are governed by our Privacy Policy, which can be found here:
[LINK TO PRIVACY POLICY – or replace this subsection with GDPR compliant details including what data you collect, how and why you collect it]
6. HOW WE TREAT CONTENT ON THIS WEBSITE.
The Website is designed so you can share, post, upload, and submit information (“Content”). Information you share publicly, including the information you place in your public profile can be accessed by anyone using the site, and may be copied. You do not have to share Content with us, but when you do, it is at your own risk. It is your responsibility alone to make sure that you may share your Content legally. You must have the legal rights to share your Content and the Content you share must itself be legal.
When you provide Content to us, such as writing a message on, uploading an image to, or creating a profile on [Name of Website], you still own it. However, you acknowledge that by placing it on the Website, your Content has been publicly shared and that we are not responsible if it is copied, reposted, or used by others. Additionally, when you place your Content on the Website you have granted us certain legal permissions, to use your Content in certain ways that enable it to be posted on our Website (a “License”). This may include reformatting it to display on various devices, and storing it, including on others’ cloud service providers or as part of a distributed social media network.
The License you grant us to use your Content is a royalty-free, non-exclusive, worldwide, transferable, sub-licensable, license to: host, use, distribute, modify, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your Content. Our license will end when you delete your Content from our Website, except when we are legally required to retain your Content, or do so to document or investigate illegal activity or violations of these Terms.
If you believe that your rights to your Content have been violated you can send a Notice of Infringement to us, and we will take appropriate action. To do so provide us a description of the infringing Content and where it is located along with your contact information, and a declaration signed by a person with authority to act on behalf of the Content’s right owner that the use of the Content has not been authorized by them.
Likewise if you believe Content you have seen is otherwise illegal you may report it to us. To report Content you suspect is illegal please send us a description of the Content and its location.
We will suspend or terminate the accounts of Users who post copyrighted or illegal content and delete such content.
7. WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU MISUSE THIS WEBSITE
We reserve the right to review, screen, edit, monitor and delete your Content, though we don’t review all User Content at the time it is provided to us. If we believe it’s necessary or that Content violates these Terms we may, at our sole discretion, delete or remove your Content at any time and for any reason, including our decision that your Content is likely to create liability for us or damage the reputation of the Website.
We may terminate or suspend your account, delete all of your User Content, and ban future access to the Website. We may take such steps in response to what we consider serious or repeated violations of these Terms, when we have received a legal order or there is a regulatory requirement to do so, or when allowing you access to the Website or hosting your Content creates liability or risk to us or to others.
7. THIS AGREEMENT AND WHAT HAPPENS IF WE DISAGREE
These Terms are the sole and complete agreement between you and the Website, and include any linked privacy policy or terms of use for additional services we offer related to the use of the Website.
If we fail to enforce any of these Terms it will not be a waiver. Any amendment to or waivers of these Terms must be in writing and signed by us.
If a court or regulator determines that any part of these Terms is unenforceable the rest of them shall remain in effect. For the legal purposes all titles in these terms (numbered title sections) are for information only and have no legal effect.
You cannot transfer any rights or obligations under these Terms to another party without our consent. We must retain the right to transfer or assign our rights and duties for business and legal reasons, such as if we declare bankruptcy or are our company is acquired by someone else.
If you have any claim or dispute with us or we have any claim or dispute with you it shall be resolved in the jurisdiction where we are incorporated or located as listed below. If for any reason this jurisdiction cannot not apply, the dispute or claim shall be resolved using the laws of that jurisdiction.
7. HOW TO CONTACT US
These Terms are a contract between you and us. You may contact us, [NAME OF WEBSITE], at:
[WEBSITE COMPANY NAME]
incorporated and operating under the laws of [NATION OF INCORPORATION OR RESIDENCE]
(Registration Number: [XXXXXX]/VAT Number: [XXXXXXX])
[ADDRESS LINE 1]
[ADDRESS LINE 2]
[ADDRESS LINE 3]
You may also contact us at the following email address:
[WEBSITE SUPPORT EMAIL]
These addresses should be used for all contact with us, including making suggestions and reporting illegal or infringing Content. We may use any suggestions you offer us without any obligation to compensate you for them, and we are under no obligation to keep such suggestions confidential.
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