The rules should be understandable before you agree to them.
These Terms of Service govern your use of Verge. By creating an account or using Verge, you agree to these Terms and the Community Guidelines.
1. Eligibility and your account
You must be legally permitted to use Verge where you live. Verge is not intended for children under 13, and a higher minimum age applies where required by local law. You are responsible for the information submitted through your account and for keeping your login credentials secure.
2. Use Verge like a person, not a weapon
You may not use Verge to break the law, threaten or exploit people, distribute malicious software, interfere with the service, impersonate others in a deceptive way, evade enforcement, spam users, or engage in conduct prohibited by the Community Guidelines.
3. Your content belongs to you
You retain ownership of content you create and post to Verge. You are responsible for making sure you have the right to post it.
To operate Verge, you give Verge a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, distribute, and technically process your content only as reasonably necessary to provide, secure, improve, and operate the service. This license ends when the content is deleted from active systems, subject to reasonable backup, safety, legal, and enforcement retention.
4. Other people's rights
Do not post content that unlawfully infringes copyrights, trademarks, privacy rights, publicity rights, or other legal rights. Verge may remove content or restrict accounts when reasonably necessary to respond to valid legal complaints or protect the service and its users.
5. Music, audio, and copyrighted media
If you upload a video, audio track, song, recording, image, clip, or other copyrighted material, you are responsible for having the rights or permission needed to use it. The fact that Verge technically allows an upload does not mean Verge has cleared or licensed that material for you.
Verge cannot review every upload before it appears. If a rights holder makes a credible complaint, or if an upload creates a legal or platform risk, Verge may remove or disable the content while the issue is reviewed. Repeated or serious infringement may lead to feature restrictions, suspension, or termination of the account responsible for the uploads.
In plain English, if you upload music or other material you do not have the right to use and it creates a problem for Verge, Verge can take the content down and take action on the account. You are responsible for what you choose to upload.
6. Moderation and enforcement
Verge may review reports, limit distribution, remove content, restrict features, suspend accounts, or terminate accounts when there is a reasonable basis to believe these Terms or the Community Guidelines were violated. Enforcement decisions may consider context, severity, repetition, safety risk, and attempts to evade prior enforcement.
7. Beta software and changing features
Verge is still being developed. Features may change, break, move, disappear, or work differently during testing. Beta access is provided as available, and uninterrupted service is not guaranteed.
8. Free access and support
Verge is currently free to use and self-funded. Voluntary donations may be accepted to help cover hosting, infrastructure, and development. Donations do not purchase special moderation treatment, ownership, control of the platform, or a guarantee that a specific feature will be built.
9. Third-party services
Verge may rely on third-party services for hosting, authentication, storage, email, analytics, or other infrastructure. Your use of those services may also be subject to their own terms and policies.
10. Service availability
Verge is provided on an as-available basis. While reasonable efforts are made to keep the service stable and secure, Verge does not promise uninterrupted access, perfect reliability, or that every bug will be fixed immediately.
11. Limitation of liability
To the extent permitted by law, Verge and its operator will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from use of the service. Nothing in these Terms excludes rights or liabilities that cannot legally be excluded.
12. Ending use of Verge
You may stop using Verge at any time. Verge may suspend or terminate access when reasonably necessary for safety, legal compliance, platform integrity, nonpayment of any future paid service, or violations of these Terms or the Community Guidelines.
13. Changes to these Terms
These Terms may be updated as Verge grows. Material changes will be communicated in a reasonable way. Continuing to use Verge after updated Terms take effect means you accept the revised Terms to the extent allowed by law.
14. Contact
Questions about these Terms can be sent to hello.vergesocial@proton.me.