Heard Community Guidelines

Document key: heard-community-guidelines
Version: 1.0.0
Last updated: September 5, 2026
Effective date: September 5, 2026
Canonical URL: https://discoverheard.com/community-guidelines

Heard is built for listening to people's stories and ideas—including work made with accurately disclosed AI or synthetic production—not for exploiting or impersonating people. These Community Guidelines apply to every account, profile, recording, title, description, report, and interaction on Heard.

The rules are part of the Terms of Service. They apply to public content, private submissions awaiting review, and attempts to use Heard's systems. Examples help explain the rules but are not exhaustive.

1. Adult-only service

Heard is only for people age 18 or older located in the United States. A person under 18 may not create or use an account, submit content, or participate through another person's account.

Do not use Heard to contact, recruit, groom, sexualize, exploit, or endanger a minor. See the Child Safety Standards for reporting instructions.

Heard has no mature-content lane. Adult eligibility does not allow sexual, pornographic, graphically violent, or otherwise prohibited content.

Public v1 does not accept a recording intentionally featuring a minor's voice or a minor's identifying, location, schedule, contact, health, sexual, or other sensitive information. Any possibly matching submission remains private unless Heard later approves a separate guardian-consent and child-safety process. This rule is separate from legally required child-safety reporting.

2. Respect consent, privacy, and the law

Do not record or publish a person's private communication, voice, identity, or personal information unless you have every consent and legal right required where the recording was made and where it is shared.

Prohibited conduct includes:

• secret or unlawful recording;
• sharing confidential communications or private information;
• doxxing, including publishing a home address, precise live location, private phone number, government identifier, credentials, financial information, or other information likely to enable harm;
• nonconsensual use of another person's name, voice, likeness, or private story;
• encouraging others to find, confront, monitor, or harm a person; and
• coercing someone to speak, perform, disclose information, or participate in content.

Publicly available information can still violate this rule when it is assembled or shared to threaten, harass, expose, or facilitate harm.

3. No child sexual exploitation or abuse

Heard has zero tolerance for child sexual abuse and exploitation. Never create, request, possess through, upload, link to, describe for sexual gratification, promote, trade, or threaten to distribute:

• child sexual abuse material or content that sexualizes a minor;
• grooming, sextortion, enticement, trafficking, or sexual solicitation involving a minor;
• instructions for accessing or concealing child sexual abuse material;
• sexualized role-play involving a person presented as under 18; or
• content that identifies, shames, or further victimizes a child survivor.

Heard may immediately restrict access, preserve relevant evidence, remove content, disable accounts, and report apparent violations to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children or law enforcement as required by law.

Do not download, copy, forward, or attach suspected child sexual abuse material to a report. Use the child-safety reporting instructions instead.

4. No sexual exploitation or explicit sexual content

Do not post:

• pornography, explicit sexual audio, sexualized nudity descriptions intended for arousal, or sexual services;
• nonconsensual intimate content or threats to share it;
• sexual solicitation, fetish content, or explicit erotic role-play;
• sexual violence, coercion, exploitation, or trafficking;
• content that sexualizes a person without consent; or
• links or instructions directing people to prohibited sexual content.

Educational, documentary, or survivor-support context does not automatically make graphic or identifying material appropriate. Heard may keep uncertain content private or remove it to protect people and the Service.

5. No threats, violence, or dangerous conduct

Do not make credible threats, celebrate or coordinate violence, encourage attacks, or provide instructions intended to facilitate serious harm.

This includes:

• threats against a person, group, school, workplace, public place, or infrastructure;
• praise, recruitment, propaganda, or operational support for violent extremist or terrorist activity;
• graphic descriptions whose primary purpose is shock, sadism, or glorification;
• instructions to make or use weapons, explosives, poisons, or other dangerous tools to harm people;
• hoaxes or false emergency claims likely to cause panic or dangerous response; and
• encouragement of dangerous challenges or reckless acts likely to cause serious injury.

Discussion of violence in news, history, fiction, education, or recovery may be allowed when it is not graphic, celebratory, instructional for harm, or threatening.

6. No hate or dehumanizing abuse

Do not attack, dehumanize, exclude, threaten, or promote violence against people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, religion, disability, serious disease, age, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or another characteristic protected by applicable law.

Slurs, stereotypes, symbols, or quotations may be evaluated in context. Counterspeech, education, news, and condemnation may be allowed; targeting or normalizing hate is not.

7. No harassment or bullying

Do not use Heard to shame, intimidate, threaten, stalk, dogpile, or repeatedly target a person. Prohibited behavior includes:

• wishing death, serious disease, sexual violence, or physical harm on someone;
• degrading attacks focused on a person's body, trauma, disability, identity, or private life;
• repeated unwanted contact or calls for coordinated harassment;
• maliciously exposing a person to ridicule or professional, family, or physical danger;
• manipulating recordings to humiliate or frame someone; and
• evading a block or account restriction to continue contact.

Criticism of ideas, institutions, public acts, or creative work can be allowed. Context, power imbalance, repetition, targeting, and likely harm matter.

8. No self-harm encouragement

Do not encourage, glorify, instruct, challenge, or pressure someone to engage in suicide, self-injury, disordered eating, or another form of serious self-harm. Do not target a vulnerable person with methods, comparisons, or coercive messages.

Supportive discussion, recovery experiences, and help-seeking may be allowed when they avoid graphic methods and do not present harmful conduct as desirable. Heard is not an emergency service. In the United States, call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline; call 911 for immediate danger.

9. Be authentic; do not deceive or impersonate

Do not impersonate another person or organization, misrepresent an affiliation, or use manipulated audio to deceive people about who spoke or what happened.

Prohibited conduct includes:

• voice cloning or synthetic impersonation without clear authorization, or any deceptive impersonation;
• fabricated or altered communication presented as an authentic statement by a real person, organization, or public authority;
• scams, phishing, fraudulent fundraising, or false offers;
• inauthentic accounts used to evade enforcement or manipulate discovery; and
• materially misleading edits presented as an authentic recording.

AI-generated, AI-assisted, imported, and synthetic-voice content is allowed when it is accurately identified and the creator has all required rights and permissions. Content that clones or imitates an identifiable real person's voice requires that person's authorization. Do not present generated or altered content in a way that deceives a reasonable listener about who spoke or what occurred.

The person whose voice is cloned or materially imitated, an authorized agent, or a parent or legal guardian acting for a minor may submit a voice or likeness complaint to support@discoverheard.com. A credible complaint involving fraud, sexual content, child safety, or imminent harm receives urgent owner review; other complete complaints receive human review. Heard requests only the evidence reasonably necessary to verify identity and authority and restricts access to that evidence. Creator publication remains disabled until this process is operationally tested.

The creator flow supports Human, AI-generated, and AI-assisted declarations for recordings made in Heard or selected through the operating system's document picker. It requires confirmation that the source choice is accurate and that the creator owns or has permission to use the audio and any identifiable person's voice. Do not label AI or synthetic content as human. A creator declaration does not prevent Heard from requesting restricted authorization evidence when a genuine dispute arises.

Parody or satire may be allowed when a reasonable listener is unlikely to mistake it for an authentic statement and it does not violate another rule.

10. Respect intellectual-property rights

Post only material you own or are authorized to use. A subscription to a music or streaming service does not usually give you the right to republish that music on Heard.

You must have rights for every included sound recording, composition, script, performance, broadcast, clip, trademark, and other protected material. Do not upload bootlegs, copied podcasts, audiobooks, radio, television, music, or another creator's recording without permission or a valid legal basis.

See the Copyright Policy for notices and counter-notices.

11. No illegal or regulated transactions

Do not use Heard to facilitate unlawful conduct or the sale, purchase, transfer, or evasion of controls for:

• illegal drugs or controlled substances;
• firearms, explosives, or regulated weapons;
• stolen goods, credentials, financial accounts, or personal data;
• human trafficking or sexual services;
• counterfeit documents or goods;
• fraudulent financial schemes; or
• other goods or services whose transaction is illegal in the relevant jurisdiction.

Neutral news, education, recovery, or policy discussion may be allowed when it does not facilitate a prohibited transaction or dangerous act.

12. No dangerous deception

Do not spread demonstrably false or deceptively altered claims when doing so is likely to create a substantial risk of physical harm, unlawfully interfere with voting or civic participation, impersonate an emergency or public authority, or enable medical or financial fraud.

Heard is not a general arbiter of truth. We focus this rule on deception tied to concrete harm, unlawful conduct, impersonation, or manipulation of the Service.

13. No spam, manipulation, or technical abuse

Do not:

• flood Heard with repetitive, irrelevant, or mass-produced content;
• manipulate ranking, playback, search, reports, or identity with bots or coordinated inauthentic activity;
• buy, sell, or transfer accounts or engagement;
• scrape or harvest accounts, audio, or metadata without authorization;
• send malware, phishing links, or malicious code;
• probe, disrupt, overload, or bypass Heard's systems; or
• abuse upload, report, deletion, or support processes.

14. Submission and publication

In the initial release, creator submissions must be in English, use a supported Heard recording or system-picker import flow, and comply with these rules. Before upload, the creator must accept the current policies and confirm required rights, participant and recording consent, copyright compliance, a truthful Human, AI-generated, or AI-assisted source choice, permission for any identifiable person's voice, and the absence of mature or prohibited content. Missing or misleading confirmation, unconsented voice cloning or imitation, and prohibited content remain ineligible. Technical acceptance of an audio file does not mean that its content complies with these Guidelines.

A submission may remain private while review is unavailable or pending, after approval but before a separate publication decision, or while a decision is reopened. Heard may use automated transcription and moderation to assist review. Automated systems may miss context or produce incorrect results, and uncertain, flagged, unsupported, or failed results remain private for human review. Heard does not promise publication, reach, ranking, promotion, or permanent hosting. Creator publication remains disabled until the complete review and response operation is approved and active.

15. Reporting and personal controls

Use the authenticated in-app control to report an audio post or creator when that control is available. A report receipt does not promise removal and a report does not automatically change visibility. Creator publication remains disabled until reporting, alerting, trained-review, enforcement, and escalation are tested and staffed.

You may also report a non-emergency concern to support@discoverheard.com. Include the Heard handle, content title or identifier, approximate time, rule involved, and a concise explanation. Do not send passwords, unnecessary private information, or illegal material.

Blocking and muting do different things:

• Block removes each signed-in account from the other's authenticated profile, search, feed, and content surfaces. Because published posts and audio URLs are public, it cannot prevent access while signed out, through an anonymous endpoint or direct URL, or to copies already made.
• Mute removes a creator from your feed but does not hide their profile or search result.

Neither action files a report, removes the other person's content for everyone, or protects you outside Heard.

For immediate danger, call 911 or the appropriate local emergency service. Heard's support channel is not an emergency line and must not be described as monitored 24 hours a day unless that operation is actually staffed and verified.

16. Enforcement

Heard may keep a submission private, reject or remove content, limit distribution or features, restrict uploads, suspend or terminate accounts, preserve evidence, or make legally required reports. We may act without advance notice when needed for safety, security, legal compliance, or prevention of further harm.

We consider the content and its context, severity and likelihood of harm, intent, target vulnerability, public-interest value, prior behavior, and legal requirements. Enforcement may apply to attempts, threats, links, coded language, off-platform evidence relevant to on-platform safety, and coordinated behavior.

We do not guarantee that every violation will be detected or that every report will produce the outcome requested. Technical inspection is not content moderation, and automated moderation may miss context or produce false flags. Heard will use human review for reports and uncertain automated results when the public operation is active. New creator content cannot be promoted publicly until human moderation, reporting, appeals, rights, emergency response, account enforcement, and publication operations are approved and active.

17. Appeals

An eligible rejected private submission may offer an in-app appeal route. An appeal does not itself restore or publish content. Any approved restoration remains private until it passes a new publication decision, and a removed public URL will not be revived. You may contact support@discoverheard.com if the in-app route is unavailable.

An appeal does not guarantee restoration. Heard may decline repeated, abusive, untimely, or legally barred requests. Urgent safety and valid legal-preservation duties may delay or prevent restoration.

18. Changes

We may update these Guidelines as Heard, its risks, or applicable requirements change. The version and effective date will appear at the top. Material changes may require creators to accept a new policy set before uploading again.

19. Contact

Policy and safety contact:

Justin Lauinger, current individual publisher of Heard
Email: support@discoverheard.com
Website: Heard Support

Justin Lauinger is Heard's sole public-v1 moderation and escalation operator. The operation is not staffed 24 hours a day, and creator publication must remain paused whenever required review or escalation coverage is unavailable.