Medium Rules
Tags: Medium, Rules, Terms

Threats of violence and incitement

We do not allow content or actions that threaten, encourage, or incite violence against anyone, directly or indirectly.

Hate speech

We do not allow content that promotes violence or hatred against people based on characteristics like race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, disease, age, sexual orientation, gender, or gender identity.

We do not allow posts or accounts that glorify, celebrate, downplay, or trivialize violence, suffering, abuse, or deaths of individuals or groups. This includes the use of scientific or pseudoscientific claims to pathologize, dehumanize, or disempower others. We do not allow calls for intolerance, exclusion, or segregation based on protected characteristics, nor do we allow the glorification of groups which do any of the above.

We do not allow hateful text, images, symbols, or other content in your username, profile, or bio.

Harassment

Medium exists to share and discuss ideas. We don’t tolerate harassment, which includes:

Bullying, threatening, or shaming someone, or posting things likely to encourage others to do so

Using Medium features like responses, private notes, mentions, follows, story requests, or writer requests in a way intended to annoy or harass someone

Reviewing businesses or products in a gratuitously harmful or abusive manner

Privacy and Reputation

We do not allow the following:

Posting copies of private communications between private individuals without the explicit consent of all parties to the communication

Doxing, which includes not only private or obscure personal information but also the aggregation of publicly available information to target, shame, blackmail, harass, intimidate, threaten, or endanger

Posting intimate or explicit images taken or posted without the subject’s express consent

Content that violates others’ privacy, including sensitive or confidential information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, non-public phone numbers, physical addresses, email addresses, or other non-public information

Restricted categories

We do not allow posts or accounts that engage in the following restricted categories of activity:

Promotion of harmful conspiracies

Facilitation of gambling or betting

Facilitation of buying or selling social media interactions, including off-platform

Facilitation of illegal sexual services

Facilitation of copyright violation

Related conduct

We do not allow posts or accounts that engage in on-platform, off-platform, or cross-platform campaigns of targeting, harassment, hate speech, violence, or disinformation. We may consider off-platform actions in assessing a Medium account, and restrict access or availability to that account.

Duplicate Content

We do not allow posting duplicate content, whether from a single account or across multiple accounts, either publicly or as an unlisted story.

Spam

We do not allow spam on Medium. All spam will be immediately removed from Medium, without notification. While it is hard to define this content with precision or completeness, here are some representative behaviors we look for that are characteristic of spam:

Posting content primarily to drive traffic to, or increase the search rankings of, an external site, product, or service

Scraping and reposting content from other sources for the primary purpose of generating revenue or other personal gains

Posting duplicate content, whether from a single account or across multiple accounts

Stories where the content is clipped with the sole purpose of linking to the rest of the article on a different website

Performing a disproportionately large number of interactions, particularly by automated means. This includes bulk, indiscriminate interactions, such as following of other accounts (follow spam) clapping, highlighting, or leaving notes

Repeatedly using responses or other interactions as a method of promotion

Participating in bounty campaigns or brigades to artificially inflate rankings for posts, accounts, businesses, or products

Use or re-use content templates with slight modifications across multiple posts and accounts

For each of these behaviors, when we talk about “content,” we mean not only posts but also any other feature that allows you to add your own text or media. When we talk about “interactions,” we mean any feature that allows one user to interact with another, or with a post.

Paid, automatic, bulk, or non-genuine interactions

Medium depends on various user behaviors — like follows and claps — to determine what content to feature and make the site work well for everyone. So, we don’t allow artificial behaviors that skew this system and as a result degrade or distort other users’ experiences. This includes:

Buying, selling, or trading in accounts or account interactions — including follows, claps, highlights, responses or other traffic

Using services, apps, or arrangements that offer you more follows, claps, or other interactions on your Medium account or content

Registering accounts, posting content, or interacting with users or content automatically, systematically, or programmatically

Copyright and trademark infringement

Respect the copyrights and trademarks of others. Unless you’re authorized to use someone else’s copyrighted work or trademark (either expressly or by legal exceptions and limitations like fair use), don’t do it. We respond to notices of alleged infringement as described in our Terms of Service, Copyright and DMCA Policy, and Trademark Policy.

Deceptive conduct

We do not allow deceptive conduct on Medium. This includes:

Posting content or impersonating a person or organization in a way likely to deceive people. Parody and satire are fine, but make clear that is what you’re doing. Our Username Policy has specific requirements for parody accounts

Using Medium for phishing or fraud. Don’t use tags, links, titles, or other metadata in a misleading way. Don’t link to or embed malicious or harmful code or software in your posts

Don’t use deception to generate revenue or traffic

If you have received compensation, free goods/services or anything of value in connection with the topic of a post, you must make this clear

Ads, Promotions, and Marketing

Third-party advertising and sponsorships are not allowed. You may not advertise or promote third-party products, services, or brands through Medium posts, publications, or letters. This includes images that indicate brand sponsorship in a post or letter, or as part of a publication name or logo.

Images functioning as third-party ads are not allowed. Inline images or embeds that link out and function as banner ads for third-party brands are not allowed.

You must disclose affiliate links or payment for a post. Affiliate links, such as link out to Amazon with your code, or any other link out where you will receive a commission or other value, are allowed in posts. But, you must disclose somewhere in the post that it includes affiliate links. If you have received payment, goods or services, or something else of value in exchange for writing a post, you must still disclose this fact in writing within your post (as per FTC Rules and Guides).

Multi-level marketing content is not allowed.

Embedded Content

In ongoing compliance with the European GDPR, we are restricting the behavior of certain embedded content:

Embeds that directly collect data through form fields are not allowed. This includes embeds that facilitate the submission of email addresses and other personally identifying information through forms and the submission of credit card information. If you want to collect information from your readers, you will need to link out from your post on Medium to a form hosted elsewhere that makes it clear to a user that they are no longer in the Medium network

Cryptocurrency Accounts, Posts, and Publications

Posts and accounts that focus on cryptocurrencies which do not meet the following requirements may be considered spam and are subject to suspension, depending on context. Medium does not endorse or verify any coin, token, or similar announcement.

To prevent fraud and abuse, you must:

Include a link to your active project domain in your user account bio.

Use an email address from that domain as your verified Medium account email, and maintain that email account actively.

Link at least one consistently-branded social media account (Facebook or Twitter) to your Medium account. That social account should also link out prominently to the same domain as is included in your Medium user bio.

Include a prominent about page with up-to-date contact information on your project website.

You may not:

Use an anonymous email address which is not linked to your project domain. (e.g., gmail, protonmail, mail.ru, etc.)

Advertise or participate in bounty campaigns, pump and dumps, reviewing for reward, or other forms of brigading or inauthentic activity.

Include shortened URLs in your posts.

Graphic content

We do not allow pornographic images or videos. We do allow erotic writing and non-graphic erotic images.

We do not allow gratuitously graphic or disturbing media, even if it’s not pornographic.

Exploitation of minors

We do not allow content promoting the sexual or violent exploitation of minors, including the sexualization of fictional minors.

Promotion and glorification of self-harm

We do not allow activities that encourage, promote or glorify acts of self-harm, such as cutting, eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia, and suicide. If you encounter users contemplating or threatening self-harm, please report it to us via the form or email address linked below.