Policy updates from the first quarter of 2024

In Patreon’s 2023 end-of-year policy update, the team asked creators for feedback and ideas on two items in particular: a facelift for Patreon’s Community Guidelines and the company’s first-ever Transparency Report. Both initiatives are now live — read on for the key updates.

Guidelines Facelift

Patreon recently released a whole slew of new features, from community chats to online shops. With these new features came a need for updated Community Guidelines to help keep the platform safe. Here are the key improvements, deeply influenced by creator feedback:

• Easier navigation. The Community Guidelines’ categories and subcategories have been reorganized to be more intuitive.
  • “Teen Safety” and “Illegal Activity” are now categories of their own and no longer subcategorized under “Harmful Acts.”
  • “Authenticity,” “Deepfakes,” and “Spam” are now bundled under a broader category called “Inauthentic Behavior”
  • The “Bullying, Harassment, and Threats” category has been renamed “Harassment” and includes “Bullying,” “Dogpiling,” “Doxxing,” “Non-consensual intimate imagery,” “Swatting,” and “Threats and inciting violence.”
• Language consistency. The Community Guidelines have been rewritten to be clearer and more uniform in terminology, tense, and tone. Trust & Safety moderators have also been equipped with new support language to ensure that their interactions with creators are more educational.
• Clarity on where we draw “the line.” The Community Guidelines now offer more clarity on the types of work that are and are not permitted on Patreon. For example, the “Violent and Graphic content” category now groups prohibited works into three sub-categories (“Glorification of Violence,” “Human abuse,” and “Animal abuse,”), each with explicit examples of what is and is not permitted under Patreon’s policy.
• More specific Adult/18+ category guidance and clarity. Patreon is fully committed to supporting Adult/18+ creators and their businesses. Informed by feedback from these creators (including A. Club creators of erotic works), the category name “18+ creators and mature themes” has been changed to the less opaque “Sexually Graphic Works.” The team also detailed what is and is not permitted under subcategories such as “Bestiality,” “Sexually explicit deepfakes,” “Incest,” “Pornography and nudity,” and “Sex tourism.”
• Payment processor requirement details. The Community Guidelines now offer specific guidance around the establishment of consent between individuals or characters in Adult/18+ works; age verification and consent documentation requirements from payment processors; and descriptions of what is and is not permitted under subcategories such as “Bestiality,” “Sexually explicit deepfakes,” “Incest,” “Pornography and nudity,” and “Sex tourism”.
• Visual consistency. The Community Guidelines page now has a new look that’s more visually consistent with Patreon’s recent rebrand.

The Policy team looks forward to continued engagement with creators in both the All Audiences and Adult/18+ categories whose thoughts, critiques, and questions help sharpen Patreon’s creator-first policies.

Transparency Report

Patreon’s first annual Transparency Report includes data and context around how Patreon addressed harmful, illegal, or otherwise violative activity on the platform throughout 2023. The report, which was greatly influenced by creator requests, details Patreon’s approach to protecting user privacy and data, and features insights into how the Trust & Safety team references policies to make enforcement decisions for different types of violations.

Ultimately, the purpose of this report is to help creators and fans better understand and trust the systems in place to keep them and their fan communities safe on Patreon.

Looking ahead

The Policy team will share its next round of policy proposals and developments in the coming months. In the meantime, you can always contact the team at [email protected].