BFF Community Guidelines

We value self-expression and diversity within our community and encourage our members to share profile photos that celebrate bodies of all shapes and sizes. 

However, we don’t allow profile photos or the sharing of links on profiles that depict:

• People where the following is shown, even if covered or partially covered by emojis, hair or transparent clothing:
  • Genitals or pubic regions
  • Bare buttocks
  • Women’s nipples and areolas

• Visible explicit outlines of genitals
• People in lingerie or underwear
• Sexual acts of any kind, even if not explicitly visible
• Digitally-created or drawn imagery (e.g. cartoons, memes, anime, drawings) that depicts any of the above. This imagery doesn’t necessarily have to include human beings

We also don’t allow BFF to be used for any commercial exchange of sexual or romantic acts of any kind. This includes, but isn’t limited to, the following:

• Any attempts to sell, advertise, or buy sexual acts in exchange for money or something of value (e.g. sex work, escort services)
• Any attempts to sell, advertise, or buy adult sexual content (e.g. pornography, sexual live streams/webcamming). This includes using the platform to promote or re-route members to adult content websites
• Any behavior seeking or offering a romantic or sexual arrangement in exchange for money, financial support, or gifts (e.g. seeking a “sugar daddy” or “sugar baby”)

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

We aim to create an experience which is free from behavior that makes any individual or group feel harassed, bullied, or targeted.

Members may not:

• Engage in any bullying, belittling, insulting, mocking, trolling, intimidating, dehumanizing, or degrading behavior
• Make harmful unsolicited comments about someone’s body or appearance (e.g. body shaming)
• Wish, encourage, or praise acts of violence, or threatening acts of violence that would result in non-serious bodily injury
• Engage in emotional abuse and/or manipulation
• Repeat unwanted online contact of any kind
• Blame, shame, or target someone based on their status as a survivor/victim of sexual assault, sexual exploitation, sexual harassment, or domestic abuse
• Release a person’s private contact information, photos, or other personally identifying information without their consent
• Blackmail a member to reveal embarrassing, compromising or otherwise private information (not including sexual or intimate content)
• Create a profile with malicious intent to publish defamatory content about a person
• Share content that is disrespectful toward victims, survivors, or families impacted by suicide, self-injury, or eating disorders

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

We don’t allow content that sexualizes or endangers children, real or fictional (e.g. anime, digital images, media, text, illustrations). This includes any visual depictions, sharing third party links, or discussions of sexually explicit conduct involving a child. It’s prohibited to upload, store, produce, share, or entice anyone to share child sexual abuse material (CSAM), even if the intent is to express outrage or raise awareness about this issue.

We understand that members might want to talk about and share images of their children with their connections. Any discussions about children must remain appropriate, relevant, and lawful. In addition, if you decide to include photos of children in your profile, they must be completely clothed and they cannot appear alone in the image. This includes any photos from your childhood.

Any violation of this policy will result in a member being removed from BFF and reported to the authorities. In compliance with U.S. law, if we become aware of apparent child sexual exploitation, child grooming, or child abuse, we will report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). NCMEC may make the report available to relevant local and global law enforcement authorities.

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

BFF is not a marketplace, and using the platform for unsolicited commercial or promotional purposes is not allowed.

For example, the following behaviors aren’t allowed on any BFF surfaces:

• Attempted advertising or sale of dangerous goods (like firearms or other weapons)
• Any group sales recruitment or promotion of a group sales product (multi-level marketing or pyramid schemes)
• Sharing financial account information, links, or usernames to money transfer apps in profiles

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

We don’t allow members to use our platforms to buy, sell, supply, distribute or directly facilitate the purchase, sale, supply or distribution of illegal drugs and/or the misuse of controlled goods and substances.

Controlled goods and substances include, but aren’t limited to: e-cigarettes, marijuana, drug paraphernalia, or the misuse of legal substances like prescription drugs, tobacco, or alcohol.

This includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Content that depicts the use of illegal drugs, or misuse of other controlled goods and substances
• The purchase, sale, trade, or solicitation of drugs or other controlled substances
• Content that provides information on how to buy, sell, or illegally obtain drugs or controlled goods and substances
• Content providing instructions on how to manufacture illegal drugs or controlled goods and substances

In private messages or group chats, we may also allow discussion or imagery of drugs if shared explicitly for educational or health-related purposes. However, it’s important to make your intentions clear in sharing this content, or it may be removed and/or action may be taken against your account.

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

This includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Expressions of support for designated (or known) terrorist and violent extremist groups, as well as support and promotion of their ideologies, activities, manuals, manifestos, publications, and propaganda.
• Dissemination of terrorist-related content, including gestures, imagery, symbols, flags, or slogans of terrorist or violent extremist groups, or individuals or groups that represent or are affiliated with them.
• Conspiring with, recruiting, or inciting a person or group to participate, commit, or contribute to terrorist or violent extremist activities or criminal acts on or off-platform.
• Glorification of violence and positive portrayals/depictions (including filming and livestreaming) of terrorist acts or perpetrators, threats of attacks, online fundraising, or facilitation of training or material support to terrorist or violent extremist organizations.
• Support for or affiliation with terrorist, organized groups, or criminal organizations that promote or use intimidation, violent extremism, and other criminal acts against civilians to further their causes (including political aims), either on or off the platform.

We understand that members might discuss or share content about terrorism or violent extremism for purposes of awareness, education, or condemnation. While we may allow this in private messages and group chats, it's important to make your intentions clear when sharing this content and not to share any graphic content. Otherwise, it may lead to your content being removed, action being taken against your account, and/or reporting to appropriate authorities.

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

We aim to foster a diverse and inclusive community on BFF. This means you should be respectful of other people’s beliefs, interests, and identities. We take a strong stance against identity-based hate.

We consider identity-based hate to be any content or conduct that promotes or condones any form of hate, dehumanization, degradation, or contempt against marginalized or minoritized communities based on the following protected attributes: race/ethnicity, national origin/nationality/immigration status, caste, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability or serious health condition, or religion/belief.

This includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Expressing threats, praises, or wishes of violence, death, or serious harm referencing protected attributes
• Using identity-based slurs or epithets to cause harm
• Supporting or glorifying known hate groups or sharing content, symbols, gestures, or imagery associated with hate groups
• Insulting, expressing contempt, advocating harm, using degrading or disparaging language (including harmful stereotypes, expressions of superiority, inferiority, or dismissal), mocking, or taunting others based on a protected attribute
• Denying the concept or severity of hate crimes or historical events
• Misgendering (i.e. intentionally using someone’s wrong pronouns or gender) or dead-naming (i.e. intentionally calling someone by a name they no longer identify with)
• Intentionally reporting members to BFF for no reason other than their gender identity or other protected attributes

This also includes identity-based hate against public figures and people who aren’t members of our community.

While you may express the protected attributes of matches or group members that you are looking for on your profile or in your group’s description, we don’t allow you to express protected attributes of matches or group members that you aren’t interested in. For example: You may state “I’m looking for fellow Muslim friends,” but you may not state “No Jews or Christians.” You may create groups centered around an identity and limit membership to a protected attribute (for example, a women’s running club or a Christian Bible Study group), so long as you don’t state it in terms of what is excluded. We don’t allow any preferences around someone’s caste to be shared on profiles or groups.

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

BFF celebrates authenticity, and we expect all our members to represent themselves accurately on their profile.

Members are allowed to use initials, abbreviations, contracted/shortened versions of their name or middle name as long as these names are a variation of their authentic name.

We don’t allow impersonation or misrepresentation on our platform. We consider these, and similar behaviors, as inauthentic behavior. This includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Catfishing (i.e. creating an online persona that isn’t you)
• Using someone else’s photos, artificially-generated photos, or enhanced photos to deceive others
• Misrepresenting, misleading or falsely stating facts about yourself (including name, gender, age, and permanent location)
• Pretending to be another person, including a celebrity or other public figure
• Allowing someone else to have access to -or control of- an account that does not represent them
• Sharing content that may infringe on someone else’s copyright, trademark, name, likeness, image, other intellectual property, or privacy.
• Using profile photos that contain a QR code or URL

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

Misinformation is false or misleading content that can quickly escalate into serious risks to individuals, communities, and institutions. Because of this, we don’t allow the sharing of demonstrably false or substantially misleading content that’s likely to cause serious harm or negatively impact individual or public safety.

This includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Content that directly contradicts information and guidance from leading and reputable global health organizations and public health authorities that could result in injury or harm to the public, for example about COVID-19, monkeypox, or any other communicable disease or illness
• Any proposed cures for COVID-19 or any other illnesses not widely recognized as effective by leading and reputable global health organizations and public health authorities
• Demonstrably false or substantially misleading information regarding abortion care that is likely to cause serious harm. This does not prohibit members from voicing personal opinions or policy perspectives on the issue, as long as the information doesn’t intend to harm, mislead, or contradict leading and reputable public health authorities and the discussion remains respectful and doesn’t violate our Bullying and Abusive Conduct policy
• False claims or misleading information on any civic process (e.g. elections, voting systems, census, referendums, etc.)
• Dangerous and unproven conspiracy-type theories that may lead to individual or public safety concerns
• Content from or links to third party sites that are known to produce or contain misinformation
• Content that denies the concept or severity of hate crimes or historical events (See Identity-Based Hate)
• Any type of misinformation relating to political affairs aiming to influence political outcomes, or manipulate historical fact.
• Content that has been intentionally manipulated or taken out of context to spread false or misleading information.

Sharing any of the above content may lead to your content being removed and/or action being taken against your account.

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

We don’t tolerate any content, imagery or behavior that commits or threatens credible acts of physical or sexual violence.

This includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Threatening or committing any type of physical harm to another person
• Threatening or committing sexual assault of any kind, which we define as any unwanted physical contact or attempted physical contact that is sexual in nature. These behaviors can range from:
  • Unwanted sexual touching or kissing of any body part, or attempts to do so
  • The unwanted removal of another’s clothes
  • Stealthing (i.e. the non-consensual removal of barrier contraceptives)
  • Non-consensual sexual penetration or attempts to do so, which include but aren’t limited to: rape, non-consensual oral sex, sexual acts while one party is unconscious or unable to consent to sexual activity, or sexual acts induced by coercion or a substance

• Expressing credible threats of violence that would result in serious bodily injury or death
• Physical stalking (i.e. surveilling or showing up at someone’s location in order to intimidate or initiate unwanted contact)
• Using our platform to facilitate exploitation or human trafficking. We define human trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of adults through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit.” (UN Office on Drugs and Crime)

We strongly encourage our members to report this type of behavior if it occurs on the platform, in person between members, or elsewhere outside of the BFF platform. Our specialized safety team can provide external resources for support. Since this behavior may also be criminal in nature, reporting to a local law enforcement authority may also be an option. If we become aware of any of the above conduct, we may take action against offending member accounts, and may also cooperate with law enforcement in any resulting criminal investigations.

For more information about how you can remain safe while meeting a match in-person, you can visit the BFF Help Center.

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

BFF strictly prohibits any scam, fraud, or theft activity intended to defraud or manipulate members out of financial or material resources. We define scams as members making dishonest or false representations that aim to manipulate or defraud victims for financial gain or cause them loss.

This includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Asking other members for financial support in the form of money, loans, investments, or donations
• Lying about your intentions for financial gain
• Misrepresenting or faking romantic intentions to manipulate or deceive members out of financial or material resources
• Misrepresenting or falsely stating facts about yourself (including name, gender, age, and permanent location) for financial gain (See Inauthentic Profiles and Photos)
• Physically taking someone’s property or assets without their knowledge or permission

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

We consider sexual harassment to be any non-physical, unwanted, and unwelcome sexual behaviors between members.

This includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Cyberflashing (i.e. sharing unsolicited sexually explicit images)
• Committing in-person indecent exposure (i.e. unwanted flashing on a date)
• Obtaining, sharing, or threatening to share sexual images, videos, or screenshots of sexual conversations on any website or platform, without the consent of the person involved or depicted (commonly known as “revenge porn” or “non-consensual intimate image sharing”)
• Making unwanted sexual comments, questions, and advancements, including sexualized comments about someone’s body
• Fetishizing a member without their consent
• Sending unwanted sexualized imagery including memes, animations, drawings, etc., as well as unwanted pornographic imagery or links

Remember, your off-platform behavior matters too. To protect victims and survivors, we may take action against your account for engaging in any of the above sexual harassment behaviors in person, on another platform, or over text.

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

Spam is any kind of unwanted or irrelevant content usually sent in bulk or high frequency.

We don’t allow:

• Content that’s designed to deceive or mislead members in order to increase views or followers
• Misleading or misdirecting links including links to websites that pretend to be of a reputable brand or service
• Sharing contact details, private messaging details or sensitive self-identifying information in your profile or profile photo
• Unsolicited promotion of your social media or website in private messages to other members (see also Commercial and Promotional Activity)
• Images containing links or QR codes
• Creating an excessive number of accounts causing disruption to other members
• Multiple active profiles on our platform to engage in unwanted interactions

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

We care deeply about our members and understand that some may struggle with mental health, self-injury, suicidal thoughts, substance use, or eating disorders. While we do permit members to share their personal experiences with these issues in a safe way, we do not allow any content that depicts, promotes, glorifies, or assists in activities that could lead to suicide, self-injury, or disordered eating or body image.

We don’t allow:

• Encouraging, promoting, glorifying, or providing instructions for suicide or self-injury
• Depicting, promoting, normalizing, glorifying, or providing instructions for disordered eating, dieting, or body image.
• Graphic imagery depicting self-injury or suicide (See Violent or Graphic Content)
• Content that’s disrespectful toward victims, survivors, or families impacted by suicide, self-injury, or eating disorders (See Bullying and Abusive Conduct)
• Dangerous amateur acts or viral “challenges” that can cause serious bodily harm

In response to content that may describe a suicidal or self-injurious plan, intent, or thought, we may remove the content and send the member local supportive resources such as suicide prevention hotlines. If we have reason to believe a member is an imminent danger to themselves, we may contact local emergency authorities for intervention, which could include emergency services providing a welfare visit.

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.

We don’t permit violent, graphic, or gory content.

This includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Imagery containing real or realistic-appearing blood, bodily fluids, violence, or injury. This includes:
  • Excessive blood that appears to be real
  • Graphic injuries or wounds, including those of self-injury (See Suicide and Self Injury), hunting, or food preparation
  • Human bones or internal organs
  • Fetal remains or miscarriages
  • Graphic imagery of medical procedures

• Imagery that shows the violent, shocking, or graphic death or injury of a person or animal
• Imagery containing human remains or corpses
• Images depicting guns of any kind (except on a uniformed member of law enforcement or military personnel)
• General references or descriptions of violence in usernames or profile content
• General description of violence or physical injuries in graphic detail including references to dangerous organizations and individuals

“Trophy” hunting photos of animals are not allowed unless the image depicts the following animals: bison, deer, duck, fish, elk, goose, moose, pheasants, rabbit, turkey, wild boar. However, trophy hunting photos depicting the permitted animals above will not be allowed if the photo depicts a gun or visible injuries to the animal.

Learn about our enforcement philosophy against the guidelines on this page. And, if you believe we’ve made a mistake in taking action on your account or content, you can always contact us.