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Community Guidelines

Last updated August 3, 2026

Effective date: July 10, 2026
Last updated: August 3, 2026

These Community Guidelines are incorporated into the Orby Terms of Service and apply to everyone on Orby and to every part of the platform — posts, comments, Communities, channels, group chats, DMs, voice, profiles, usernames, Community names, tags, and anything else you create or do here. Communities may add their own rules on top of these Guidelines, but no Community rule can override them.

Orby exists so people can build communities around what they care about and talk in real time with the people who share it. That only works if the platform is safe, authentic, and worth trusting. These Guidelines describe what is never allowed, what is allowed only in the right context, and what happens when the rules are broken.

Two principles sit above everything else:

1. We enforce these rules based on behavior and content — never on viewpoint. Orby does not take sides in political, religious, or social debates, and our ranking and enforcement systems are built and audited to be viewpoint-neutral. You can be wrong, unpopular, or offensive to someone on Orby. You cannot be abusive, dangerous, or fake.

2. Severity drives response. Some violations get content removed and a warning. Others — child sexual exploitation, credible threats of violence — end your account immediately and get reported to authorities. The enforcement ladder is described at the end of this document.

A note on private spaces: these Guidelines apply in private Communities, group chats, and DMs. The text of DMs is end-to-end encrypted and unreadable by Orby — though every DM passes an automated send-time safety screen, whose plain-text copy is discarded unless the message fails and is then held encrypted for up to 48 hours for safety analysis (see the Privacy Policy), recipients can always report messages to us, and DM attachments are scanned for the most serious harms. Violations in private spaces are enforced the same as anywhere else.

RULE 1 — NEVER INVOLVE MINORS IN ANYTHING SEXUAL, AND NEVER ENDANGER THEM.

This is the rule with zero tolerance, zero context exceptions, and immediate escalation.

Never allowed, anywhere on Orby:

What we do: content is removed, accounts are permanently banned on the first offense, and we report CSAM and grooming to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), which works with law enforcement worldwide. Our child-safety detection is built to fail closed: if a safety system errors, the content is held for review — never waved through.

RULE 2 — NO VIOLENCE: NO THREATS, NO INCITEMENT, NO VIOLENT EXTREMISM.

Never allowed:

Context that is allowed: news reporting, documentary, education, satire, fiction clearly presented as fiction, and discussion that condemns violence — provided the content itself does not cross into glorification, instruction, or threat.

RULE 3 — NO HATEFUL CONDUCT.

Orby is for everyone. We do not allow content or behavior that attacks, dehumanizes, or promotes violence, hatred, or discrimination against people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, serious disease, immigration status, or veteran status.

This includes slurs used to attack, hateful stereotypes and dehumanizing comparisons, hate symbols and imagery used to promote hatred, denial or celebration of well-documented atrocities and mass tragedies targeting protected groups, and Communities dedicated to any of the above.

What this rule is not: it is not a civility code and not a viewpoint filter. Criticism of ideas, religions-as-ideas, governments, institutions, and public figures is allowed. Debate about policy — including immigration, gender, and religion — is allowed, however heated. The line is attacking people for who they are versus arguing about what anyone believes or does.

RULE 4 — NO HARASSMENT OR BULLYING.

Everyone on Orby should be able to participate without being made a target.

Never allowed:

Disagreement, criticism, and even mockery of public figures' public conduct are not harassment by themselves. Persistence, targeting, and coordination are what turn conflict into harassment.

RULE 5 — RESPECT PRIVACY. NO DOXXING, NO NON-CONSENSUAL INTIMATE MEDIA, NO SURVEILLANCE.

Never allowed:

What we do: removal, bans scaled to severity (immediate and permanent for non-consensual intimate media and sextortion), and prioritized review of privacy reports.

RULE 6 — BE AUTHENTIC. NO IMPERSONATION, NO MANIPULATION, NO SPAM.

Orby runs on genuine communities and genuine votes. Attacking that authenticity is attacking the platform itself.

Never allowed:

RULE 7 — NO ILLEGAL OR DANGEROUS GOODS, SERVICES, OR ACTIVITIES.

Never allowed:

Discussion, journalism, harm-reduction information, and legal-context education about these topics are generally allowed; the line is facilitation and instruction versus discussion.

RULE 8 — DON'T PROMOTE SELF-HARM. SUPPORT IS WELCOME; ENCOURAGEMENT IS NOT.

If you see content suggesting someone is at immediate risk, report it — those reports are prioritized, and contacting local emergency services is always the right call when someone is in danger.

RULE 9 — LABEL MATURE CONTENT AND KEEP IT WHERE IT BELONGS.

Adult content involving consenting adults is allowed on Orby only in spaces designated for it.

RULE 10 — DON'T BREAK ORBY.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF COMMUNITIES AND MODERATORS

Communities are run by their Moderators, and healthy Communities are Orby's backbone. With Moderator tools comes responsibility. Moderators must follow the moderator responsibilities in the Terms of Service, and at minimum:

Being banned from a single Community by its Moderators is a Community decision, not an Orby enforcement action — other Communities remain open to you, and each Community's rules are posted within it.

HOW ENFORCEMENT WORKS

Detection. We enforce these Guidelines through user and Moderator reports, automated systems (including hash-matching for known CSAM, and classifiers for spam, scams, and abuse), human review, and trusted flaggers. Automated enforcement is tuned by severity: the most serious harms are actioned proactively; contextual judgments get human eyes.

Actions. Depending on severity, context, and history, we may: remove or age-gate content; apply warnings or interstitials; reduce distribution of violating or borderline content; restrict features (posting, chat, DMs); issue account warnings; temporarily suspend accounts; quarantine, restrict, or ban Communities; permanently ban accounts; block associated devices and payment instruments; and report to law enforcement where appropriate. Severe violations — Rules 1 and 2 above all — skip the ladder entirely.

Notice and appeals. When we action your content or account, we tell you what rule was violated and how to appeal, except where the law prevents it or where notice would compromise safety or an investigation (for example, spam networks and CSAM). Appeals receive a fresh review, with human review where the law or the situation requires it, and additional review rights exist in some jurisdictions (see the Terms of Service). Enforcement mistakes happen at scale; appeals exist because we'd rather fix them than defend them.

Reporting. Every post, comment, message, profile, and Community has a report option. Reports are confidential — the reported user is not told who reported them. In supported jurisdictions, a separate channel exists for reporting content you believe is illegal. Emergencies involving imminent danger to life should always go to local emergency services first.

These Guidelines evolve as Orby and the world change. Material changes will be announced before they take effect, and the current version is always available in the app (Settings → Terms & Policies) and on our website.