Community Guidelines

In short

Followire is your family, on a wire. Be who you are, add only your own relatives, share what your family would want shared, and treat every relative, including the ones you disagree with, the way you would at a family gathering. If something is wrong, block, mute or report it from the app, and we will act.

What Followire is for

Followire connects people through real family relationships: parent, child, spouse and sibling, and the paths those links make to relatives further out. You can also follow people you are not related to, so that they see your posts; following never makes anyone family. It is a private space, not a public feed. There are no advertisers and no algorithm deciding what you see. Every person you can reach is related to you, follows you, or was let in by you.

That shapes the rules. Most social networks worry about strangers. Followire worries about the things that go wrong inside families: an old quarrel, a photo shared too widely, a relative added who did not want to be, a child's picture where it should not be.

Five expectations

1. Be yourself. Use one account. Your name, date of birth and gender are optional, but if you give them, give the true ones. You must be 18 or older. The Wire labels everyone around you from those facts, so a false entry mislabels your whole family. No accounts for businesses, groups, pets or people who have died; the dead are added as profiles, not accounts.

2. Add only your own family, honestly. Assert a relationship only when it is true. The other person must accept it, and one of their direct relatives confirms it, before it counts. Do not add someone as a relative to get into their family's space, and do not accept or confirm a relationship you know is false. When you add a relative who has passed away, or a child you are responsible for, use only their name, gender and dates; nothing else, and nothing they would object to.

3. Share with the audience the moment deserves. Every post and story lets you choose who sees it: your immediate family, a number of hops, your whole Knot, your followers, everyone on Followire, or named people. A wedding photo can go wide; a hospital update probably should not. Remember that anyone who sees a post can forward it, save it or repost it, and that a place on a post tells people where you were.

4. Ask before you share other people. Photos of relatives, especially children and elders, screenshots of conversations, news about someone's health, marriage, job or finances: if it is about another person, it is theirs to share first. Tag people only in things they would tag themselves in. Remove a tag or a photo when a relative asks.

5. Disagree like family. Families argue. Do it in a message, not in a post to the whole Knot. Do not pile on, do not drag in relatives who were not involved, and do not bring an argument from one group into another. If someone wants to stop talking, let them. Blocking and muting exist for a reason, and nobody is told when you use them.

What is not allowed

We remove the following and may suspend or close the account responsible. Items marked * are also unlawful in India, and we may be required to report them.

• Harassment, bullying, threats or intimidation of any person, on or off Followire, including repeated unwanted messages, message requests, follow requests or relationship requests after someone has declined or blocked you.
• Hate or contempt directed at a person or group on the basis of caste, religion, region, language, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age or ancestry. Family disputes over marriage across those lines are common; using Followire to shame or threaten someone over them is not allowed.
• Sexual content. No nudity or sexual content of any kind, including in photos sent to be viewed once. Any sexual content involving a child, or any content that sexualises a child, is removed and reported immediately.*
• Intimate images shared without consent, or threats to share them, including images of a spouse or former spouse.* These are removed within 24 hours of a complaint.
• Violence: threats, incitement, or glorification of violence against any person, including so-called honour violence.*
• Harm to children: any content that endangers, exploits or grooms a child, or shares a child's personal details beyond the family.*
• False relationships and impersonation: pretending to be another person, claiming a family relationship you know to be false, or accepting or confirming one you know to be false.
• False death reports: reporting a living relative as deceased.
• Deception and dangerous misinformation: content that is knowingly false and likely to cause harm, including fake emergencies, fake deaths, or false medical claims about a relative.
• Private information: posting someone's phone number, address, identity documents, bank details or passwords, even a relative's, without their permission.
• Self-harm and suicide content that encourages or instructs. If a relative is at risk, see "If someone is in danger" below.
• Spam, scams and commerce: chain messages, money requests that are not genuinely from the person, "forward to ten relatives" content, advertising, selling, or using the Wire or your followers to build a customer list.
• Illegal activity: anything that breaks the law, including infringing someone's copyright or trademark.*
• Attacks on the service: scraping, bots, automated access, attempts to read data the app does not show you, or evading a suspension or a block with a new account.

Conversations in a group are seen by every member of that group; the rules apply there exactly as they do in a post. Voice notes, documents, moods and profile fields are covered too.

Rules that are particular to Followire

Vouching for relatives. When the app asks you to confirm that someone is a relative, answer only from what you know. One direct relative's answer decides, so your "yes" lets a person into the family and your "no" keeps them out. "Not true" is the right answer when you do not know, not a rude one. Confirming a stranger into the family, or denying a relative out of spite, breaks these guidelines.

Deceased relatives. Add a relative who has died with name, gender and dates only. The profile cannot defend itself; if a family member of the deceased asks for it to be changed or removed, we will work it out with the person who created it, and we may remove it.

Reporting a death. Only a direct relative may report that a member has died. The member is told and can say they are alive, and other relatives must confirm before anything changes. Report a death only when you know it to be true; we treat a false death report as harassment.

Children on the Wire. Members must be 18 or older. Parents and guardians may add younger children as profiles they control so the Wire is complete; those profiles cannot sign in or be messaged, and the family is not asked to confirm them. Photos of children are to be shared to the narrowest audience that makes sense, and removed when a parent asks. When the child turns 18, the controlling adult may hand the profile over as their own account.

Relationship disputes. If two members disagree about a relationship, we do not decide who is right. We may remove the disputed link until both agree. Repeatedly re-asserting a declined relationship is harassment.

Following and message requests. Following a private profile sends a request; one message to someone outside your family and followers is a request too. A request declined is an answer. Do not send another through a different account.

Groups. Admins are responsible for who is in a group. Adding a relative to a group they did not ask to join, then repeatedly re-adding them after they leave, is not allowed. A removed member keeps what they saw; do not create a group to trap someone's messages.

Stories, moods and view once. A story or mood vanishes after a day for viewers, but a screenshot does not. A photo sent to be viewed once can still be captured with another phone. Do not post or send what you would not want kept.

Words we refuse. Some words and phrases cannot be posted at all: strong abuse, slurs, sexual terms, threats, and telling someone to hurt themselves, in English and in Indian languages. A post, story caption, comment, name, username, bio or group name that contains one is refused with "This contains words that break our Community Guidelines. Please change it and try again." The list is not published. Getting round it with other spellings, spaces or symbols is a breach of these guidelines, and content that passes the check can still break them. Private chats are not checked.

Screenshots. The app blocks a screenshot of another person's full-size profile picture. Everything else can be captured. Capturing and sharing a relative's private message outside the family it was sent to is a breach of these guidelines, whether or not the app stopped you.

Child safety standards

Followire has no tolerance for child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) in any form. This section is our published standard, as required by Google Play's Child Safety Standards policy, and it applies to every member, group, post, story, message and profile on Followire.

What we prohibit. Any content, conduct or communication that sexualises, exploits, endangers or grooms a child: child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in any form, sexual content involving or depicting a minor, solicitation of or sexual communication with a minor, and the sharing of a child's personal details, photos or whereabouts beyond the family that is responsible for them. These are listed under "What is not allowed" above and are unlawful in India.

What we do. When we learn of such content or behaviour, from a report or in the course of our work, we remove the content, close the account permanently at once and preserve the evidence as the law requires. After reviewing it, we report child sexual abuse material to the relevant authorities, in India under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and the Information Technology Act, 2000, and we cooperate with law enforcement requests. We do not warn the person reported.

How to report it. Use Report on the post, story, comment, profile, or photo, video or document in a chat, and choose "A child's safety", or email support@followire.com with "Child safety" in the subject line. These reports hide the item at once and are reviewed first, and reports concerning a child are acknowledged within 24 hours. If a child is in immediate danger, contact the police first.

How the app itself helps. Members must be 18 or older and confirm it at sign-up; a date of birth, if given, must show it. Children appear on the Wire only as profiles a parent or guardian controls; those profiles cannot sign in, cannot be messaged and cannot be followed. Photos of children reach only the audience the member chooses, and a parent can ask for any photo of their child to be removed.

Child safety contact. Our designated contact for child safety and CSAM prevention is reachable at support@followire.com (Excelism Techno Solutions Private Limited, Hyderabad, Telangana, India). This person can speak to our practices and to any request from an authority.

How to report

• Block or mute first if you need to. Open the person's profile and tap Block or Mute. A blocked person's messages stop reaching you, they cannot follow or request you, any follow between you is removed, neither of you sees the other's profile, posts, stories or comments, whatever audience they were shared with, and they are not told; a muted person's posts simply disappear from your view, and muting their notifications also silences the notifications for their messages to you. Shared family groups are unaffected.
• Report from the app. Posts, stories, comments and profiles, and photos, videos and documents in a chat, have Report in their menu, with reasons and room for your own words. You get a reference number and an email saying the report was received. The person reported is never told who reported them.
• Report anything else by emailing support@followire.com with the username involved and, if you can, a screenshot or the date and conversation.
• Intimate images or impersonation: choose "Private or intimate photo" or "Pretending to be me", or email us and say so in the subject line. These are removed within 24 hours of a complaint from the person affected or someone acting for them.
• Urgent danger: contact the police or an emergency service first, then report to us.

Every report is acknowledged within 24 hours and resolved within 15 days, as Indian law requires. False or malicious reports are themselves a breach of these guidelines.

What happens after a report

One of our named reviewers looks at the content, the context and the history of the account. If a report hid something while we looked and it does not break these guidelines, it comes back and its author is told it is visible again. A report a reviewer cannot decide alone goes to our management. If it breaks these guidelines we remove it, tell the person what was removed and why, and the account may receive a strike:

1. first strike: a warning;
2. second strike within 90 days: the account is suspended for 7 days;
3. third strike within 90 days: the account is suspended for 30 days;
4. fourth strike within 90 days: the account is closed.

For a child-safety breach, intimate imagery, a credible threat of violence, or a court order, we close the account at once and, after review and where the law requires, report to the authorities. A closed account's profile, posts, stories and comments are hidden from everyone. A strike stops counting 90 days after it is given. You can see what was removed, and your strikes, in Settings → Account status.

When we act on your content or your account we tell you what was removed and why, and how to appeal, unless the law prevents it or telling you would put someone at risk.

Appeal. Appeal inside the app within 30 days (Settings → Account status, or the Suspended screen), or write to the Grievance Officer at support@followire.com. We look at it again, reply within 15 days, and can reverse the decision. If you are still unhappy, you may approach the Grievance Appellate Committee established under India's Information Technology Rules, 2021.

If someone is in danger

If a relative posts something that makes you think they may harm themselves or someone else, contact them or a nearby family member directly and, if needed, emergency services. Do not rely on a report to us to reach them in time.

Contact

Reports: in the app, or support@followire.com · Support: support@followire.com or Settings → Help · Grievance Officer: the Grievance Officer of Excelism Techno Solutions Private Limited, support@followire.com, +91 70930 94135 · Company: Excelism Techno Solutions Private Limited, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.

These guidelines change as Followire grows. Material changes are announced in the app 15 days before they apply, and previous versions are available on request from support@followire.com.