snapshot of https://github.com/zulip/zulip.git @ 48c69911c7dd4e03b20552eb3bd77ad8151c1357 (2026-09-15)

templates/corporate/policies/rules.md

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+# Zulip Rules of Use
+
+**Last updated: December 13, 2021.** View [change history][changes-rules].
+
+[changes-rules]: https://github.com/zulip/zulip/commits/main/templates/corporate/policies/rules.md
+
+Zulip is designed to help thoughtful people work on difficult problems together,
+whether they work from a shared office or from all over the world. Zulip offers
+an ideal platform for businesses, as well as communities of all types, including
+open-source projects, research collaborations, volunteer organizations, and
+other groups of people who share a common pursuit.
+
+This document lays out rules of appropriate behavior that apply to all Zulip
+organizations. Owners of Zulip organizations are expected to manage their
+organizations to help avoid problematic behavior. Open organizations are
+additionally encouraged to write a Code of Conduct and link to it from their
+[organization profile](/help/create-your-organization-profile), to provide
+further guidance on expected behavior in their communities.
+
+If you encounter a Zulip message or behavior by a Zulip user that appears to
+violate these rules, please [report it to us](/support/). We aim to be thoughtful
+and judicious in handling reported content. Depending on the severity and scope
+of the problem, our response may include issuing a warning, removing the
+content, deactivating user accounts or organizations, and/or reporting the
+behavior to law enforcement. Capitalized terms used below but not defined in
+these rules have the meaning set forth in the [Terms of Service](/policies/terms).
+
+## Safety
+
+You may not engage in, promote, organize, incite, induce, encourage, or support
+any of the following:
+
+- **Violence, including terrorism, violent extremism, animal cruelty,
+  suicide, and self-harm**.
+- **Bullying, abuse, or harassment** of any individual or group of people. This
+  includes threatening anyone or wishing or hoping that someone experiences
+  physical harm.
+- **Distribution of content that violates the privacy rights of any other
+  person.** This includes personal information about any other person that you
+  do not have permission to share (“doxxing”).
+- **Hateful content.** You may not attack, threaten, or harass any individual or
+  group on the basis of attributes such as their race, ethnicity, national
+  origin, caste, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender or gender
+  identity, age, disability, or disease.
+- **Harmful misinformation.** This includes misinformation that has the
+  potential to cause imminent physical harm, or that is defamatory. Deceptively
+  sharing synthetic or manipulated media is also prohibited.
+- **Human trafficking and exploitation, including child sexual exploitation.**
+  This includes sharing content or links which depict minors in a pornographic,
+  sexually suggestive, or violent manner, and includes illustrated or digitally
+  altered pornography that depicts minors. If we become aware of apparent child
+  exploitation, we will report it to the National Center for Missing and
+  Exploited Children (NCMEC).
+- **Sexually explicit content and pornography as well as commercial sexual
+  services.**  This includes requesting, offering, or asking for rates for
+  sexual or escort services.
+- **Fraud and deception**, including financial scams such as fake loans,
+  multi-level marketing schemes, get-rich-quick schemes, money-laundering
+  schemes, gambling scams, insurance scams, and “money mule” businesses.
+- **Distribution of content that violates the intellectual property rights,
+  privacy rights, or other rights of anyone else (including Zulip).**
+- **Cybercrime, hacking, cracking, or distribution of pirated software or stolen
+  accounts.**
+- **The sale of banned or dangerous goods** such as weapons, drugs, or other
+  illegal substances. Attempting to provide material support or resources (or to
+  conceal or disguise the nature, location, source, or ownership of material
+  support or resources) to any organization(s) designated by the United States
+  government as a foreign terrorist organization pursuant to section 219 of the
+  Immigration and Nationality Act or other laws and regulations concerning
+  national security, defense or terrorism is strictly prohibited.
+- **Any other illegal behavior.** Activities that violate any applicable law,
+  including, but not limited to, all intellectual property, data, privacy, and
+  export control laws and regulations promulgated by any government agencies,
+  including, but not limited to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,
+  and any rules of any national and other securities exchanges, are prohibited.
+
+## Security
+
+- **Do not attempt to compromise the security of other users of the Services,**
+  such as attempting to obtain the password or other security information of any
+  other user, or to gain access to their account**.**
+- **Do not attempt to compromise the security of the Services themselves.** This
+  includes violating the security of any computer network or system, cracking
+  any passwords or encrypted communications, or compromising, breaking, or
+  circumventing any of the technical processes or security measures associated
+  with the Services. Do not attempt to test for vulnerabilities in our systems
+  or networks without explicit prior consent.
+- **Do not exceed or circumvent rate limits,** run automated processes that
+  interfere with the proper working of the Services, place an unreasonable load
+  on the Services’ infrastructure, or otherwise cause excess or abusive usage.
+- **Do not permit any third party to access your account** or the authentication
+  credentials you use to access the Services. This includes selling, reselling,
+  sublicensing, or time-sharing Zulip accounts.
+- **Do not share viruses or malware**, or attempt to hack, phish, or DDoS
+  others.
+- **Do not automatically create or access accounts** for the Services (a.k.a.
+  “scraping”) by means other than our publicly supported interfaces. If you wish
+  to embed Zulip as the chat backend for your own product, you must self-host
+  your own Zulip server, rather than using Zulip Cloud.
+
+## Spam and deception
+
+- **Do not send spam**, including unsolicited communications, promotions, or
+  advertisements.
+- **Do not target other accounts with notification spam** by mentioning someone
+  or sending them direct messages that they do not want.
+- **Do not use other accounts to contact a user who has muted you** or create a
+  new account in an organization that has deactivated your account for abusive
+  behavior**.** Do not circumvent features we offer to enable users to protect
+  themselves from abusive behavior.
+- **Do not impersonate someone else** (individuals, groups, organizations, Zulip
+  staff or organization administrators, or other users) in a manner that is
+  intended to or does mislead, confuse, or deceive anyone, such as “spoofing” or
+  “phishing”.
+- **Do not submit false reports** of abusive behavior by other users.
+- **Do not contact users outside of the Services** using contact information
+  obtained from the Services (including email addresses) without their consent.
+  Do not create or distribute mailing lists or other collections of contact or
+  user profile information for use outside of the Services.
+
+## Third-party clients
+
+Zulip is 100% open-source software, and we welcome third-party clients that work
+with Zulip’s API or that allow Zulip users to connect to Zulip as well as other
+chat services from a single client. Developers of third-party clients marketed
+as working with the Zulip Cloud service are required to follow these additional
+rules to protect our users:
+
+- **Third-party clients must comply with global privacy laws**, including GDPR and
+  CCPA, in their processing of any user data, including telemetry and
+  error-reporting data.
+- **Use security best practices** to protect Zulip users who use your client. For
+  example, if your client uses the Electron browser framework, you should
+  implement the [Electron Security
+  guidelines](https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/tutorial/security).
+  Projects that are early in development and potentially not yet secure must be
+  advertised as insecure and not intended for general use.
+- **Do not sell data** collected from Zulip users to third parties.
+- **Do not sell third-party advertisements** for display within a Zulip client.
+
+If you have any questions about the Zulip Rules of Use or would like to report a
+violation, please contact us at [support@zulip.com](mailto:support@zulip.com).