The rules
Version 2 — 15 October 2026. These are the rules a person at Stillowe applies when something is reported. They are short on purpose. Where these rules and the law disagree, the law wins; where these rules are stricter than the law, the rules win.
Three things first
- We act on violations, not taste. Ugly, boring, badly shot, not to our liking — none of that is a violation. We may not recommend it; we will not remove it.
- Declared performance is creation; undeclared performance is deception. A skit, a bit, cosplay, a scene — say it is one and it is one. Stage your life and pass it off as real to draw a crowd, and it is a fake, and it goes.
- Anything we do to a person is written down, and cannot be unwritten. Who acted, when, on whom, under which rule, and why. If we were wrong, we add a line saying so; the first line stays.
What gets removed, and what happens to the account
| What we do | |
|---|---|
| Sexualising minors, in any form | Content deleted. Posting ended permanently. Reported to the authorities, as the law requires. |
| Real violence, abuse, or the glorifying of it | Content deleted. Posting ended permanently. |
| Encouraging self-harm — methods, dares, contests | Content deleted. Posting suspended 30 days; permanently the second time. |
| Fraud — fake investments, fake shops, prizes, luring people into private messages to take their money | Content deleted. Posting ended permanently. |
| Staged content presented as real | Content taken down. Posting suspended 7 days; 30 the second time; permanently the third. |
| Advertising without our agreement — however soft | Content taken down. Posting suspended 7 days; permanently the second time. |
| Impersonating a person, an organisation, or us | Posting ended permanently. |
| Doxxing, harassment, threats | Content deleted. Posting suspended 30 days; permanently the second time. |
| Copyright infringement, on a valid notice | Content taken down. Posting ended permanently for repeat infringers. |
| Anything the law forbids | Posting ended permanently, and whatever the law requires of us. |
"Taken down" means it leaves the community; you can still see it yourself. "Deleted" means it is gone, media included.
"Posting ended" means you can no longer post, comment or message. You can still sign in, read, export what is yours, and delete your account. We do not delete your account for you, and we do not refund a subscription — Apple collects it, and Apple's rules govern refunds.
What does not get removed
- A performance you said was a performance.
- A life that looks bad on camera. The messy room, the failed dinner, the day you caught nothing. This is what the place is for.
- Low effort. Blurry, empty, "so many fish". We might not recommend it. We will not touch it.
- Disagreement, arguing, swearing — short of harassment or threats.
- Being reported a lot. Reports are not evidence. We look at the content.
- Anything we merely dislike.
How reports work
Anyone can report a post, a comment, a message or an account from inside the app. A person reads every report. We do not tell you what we decided about someone else's account, and we do not tell the person you reported who reported them.
For friend, Circle and stranger-message reports, your phone sends up to the last twenty eligible messages currently displayed, with senders, text and times; the window is not anchored on the reported message. Original message attachments are not copied automatically, but screenshots you choose to attach are included. For encrypted chats we cannot read those messages otherwise. That copy exists for the report and is deleted on the schedule the privacy policy gives.
What you are told
If we act against you, you get a notice inside the app that says what content, under which rule above, and for how long. It does not say who reported you.
Appeals
Write to ops@stillowe.com, say which decision and why you think it was wrong. A person reviews it within seven days, and the outcome is added to the record. Permanent decisions are made only by the founder, never by anyone else on the team.
Your Orb
Conversations with your Orb are private in the way the privacy policy describes. They come under these rules in one case only: if a message seeks sexual content involving minors, plans violence against someone, attempts fraud, or breaks the law, it is flagged with your account and reviewed by a person. Confirmed, it ends posting permanently and, where the law requires, is reported. A message about your own pain is never this; that is a crisis flag, and the privacy policy explains that it never attaches to you.
Where the law comes in
Two rows above carry a legal duty. Sexual content involving minors is reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A credible, specific and imminent threat to another person may be reported to the relevant authorities; that judgement is made by a person reading the words. We do not contact anyone — not you, not your family, not the police — because a crisis flag fired.