Introduction to Safety on Niki Live
Community is the heart of Niki Live. From individual communities, built by streamers and their viewers, to the Niki Live Community at large, the magic of Niki Live comes from enjoying the things we love together. But before you can do what you do best, a very important prerequisite must be met: safety.
Safety is the foundation beneath streamers, moderators, and everyone in chat. We want to foster a community that supports and sustains streamers' ability to express themselves, and provides a welcoming and entertaining environment for viewers, free of illegal, harmful, and negative interactions. As a result, we take an approach to safety that combines the efforts of both Niki Live and members of the community, working together globally to promote safety in real time. It starts with our Community Guidelines, which seek to balance user expression with community safety, and set expectations for the behavior that everyone on Niki Live is expected to demonstrate. When we talk about harm, we mean actions that lead to physical, emotional, social or financial damage or loss to our users or to society.
These guidelines set the guardrails for what behavior is and is not allowed on our service, and apply to all content on our service, including video, chat, whispers, and accounts. When we find someone has violated our Community Guidelines we take actions that can include removal of content, removal of monetization tools, a warning, and/or suspension of their account. If someone who receives an account enforcement believes it was issued by mistake or in error, they may file an appeal using our Appeals procedures.
We consider our Community Guidelines to be a living document, and we work with streamers, mods, and external safety and policy experts to review and update them regularly. In addition to these guidelines, streamers and moderators can also use customizable Niki Live safety tools to tailor their channel standards to meet their needs. Viewers, moderators, and streamers play a crucial role by reporting content or behavior that breaks our Community Guidelines. Reports are reviewed by our global Safety Operations team who work 24/7/365 to ensure a swift response. In this way, we all work together to promote a safe and welcoming live environment.
Enforcement Notes
For some of our Community Guidelines below, you will see an "Enforcement Notes and Clarifications" section. Enforcement Notes are additional examples of what is and isn't allowed on Niki Live, focused on clarifying existing policies already being enforced. Enforcement Notes are not new policies or new rules. We write these notes to share more information about our existing Community Guidelines and to answer commonly asked questions.
Safety
Self-Destructive Behavior
Harming yourself, or discussing self-harm, can be dangerous for not only yourself but for viewers and those around you. We understand that streamers and viewers should be able to discuss sensitive topics related to self-harm or mental health, and we want Niki Live to remain a safe space to do so. Anyone should be able to talk about their struggles, if they so choose. However, Niki Live does not allow content that glorifies, promotes, or encourages self-harm. We also prohibit activity that may endanger your life, lead to your physical harm, or encourage others to engage in physically harmful behavior. We do not make exceptions for self-destructive behavior performed as a stunt or gag made in jest, or meant to entertain, when the behavior could reasonably be expected to cause physical injury to anyone on our service.
For example, you may not show or promote:
- Glorification and/or promotion of self-harm
- Promotion of eating disorders and sharing of pro-eating disorder content, such as saying you're "pro-ana", or sharing your diet plan of not eating for three days and then binge eating on day four
- Sharing graphic details of suicide notes or suicide attempts
- Use of hard drugs and substances not fit for human consumption (e.g., tide pods, bleach)
- Misuse of legal substances (e.g., prescription drugs, whippets)
- Cutting or other forms of self-injury
- Consumption of alcohol or other substances that lead to being incapacitated
- Dangerous or distracted driving, including using a phone while driving and driving under the influence
If you feel like you're struggling, or you know someone who you believe might hurt themselves or others, or if someone is at immediate risk of suicide, please contact someone you trust, a healthcare provider, mental health hotline, or local law enforcement for immediate help and support. We also have resources and help lines available for you here.
Enforcement Notes and Clarifications:
Enforcement Notes are additional examples of what is and isn't allowed on Niki Live, focused on clarifying existing policies already being enforced. Updates here do not indicate a change in policy, but are additional examples of existing enforcements.
Selling activities which may cause harm for monetary gain (such as subscriptions, Bits, tips, etc.) is not allowed.
Drinking goal streams are allowed provided the drinking that takes place is not excessive and would not reasonably be expected to cause harm.
Dangerous or distracted driving–such as operating your vehicle while interacting with your stream in a way that removes your eyes from the road or hands from controlling your vehicle–is never acceptable on Niki Live.
Violence and Threats
Acts and threats of violence are counterproductive to promoting a safe, inclusive, and friendly community. Violence on Niki Live is taken seriously and is considered a zero-tolerance violation, and all accounts associated with such activities on Niki Live will be indefinitely suspended.
For example, you may not show or promote:
- Attempts or threats to physically harm or kill others
- Attempts or threats to hack, dox, DDOS, or SWAT others
- Use of weapons to physically threaten, intimidate, harm, or kill others
- Encouraging others to participate in acts that may harm others
In situations where a user has lost control of their broadcast due to severe injury, medical emergency, police action, or being targeted with serious violence, we will temporarily remove the channel and associated content.
In exceptional circumstances, we may preemptively suspend accounts when we believe an individual's use of Niki Live poses a high likelihood of inciting violence. In weighing the risk of harm, we consider an individual's influence, the level of recklessness in their past behaviors (on Niki Live or elsewhere), whether or not there continues to be a risk of harm, and the scale of ongoing threats.
Content or activities that threaten or promote sexual violence are strictly prohibited and may be reported to law enforcement. See Adult Sexual Violence for more detail.
Terrorism and Violent Extremism
Terrorism and violent extremism promote unlawful violence and spread messages of intolerance. Niki Live does not allow content that depicts, glorifies, encourages, or supports terrorism, or violent extremist actors or acts. This includes threatening to or encouraging others to commit acts that would result in serious physical harm or significant property destruction.
For example, you may not:
- Display or link terrorist or extremist propaganda, including graphic pictures or footage of terrorist or extremist violence, even for the purposes of denouncing such content
Adult Sexual Violence
Acts of sexual violence are a serious offense. Content or activities that promote or threaten sexual violence may be reported to law enforcement. Sexual violence is not tolerated on Niki Live and will result in immediate suspension of your account.
For example, you may not show, promote, or engage in:
- Non-consensual sex acts
- Coercing a guest into committing a sex act by threatening them
- Touching another person in an intimate manner without their consent
Youth Safety
Niki Live prohibits any content or activity that endangers youth. This includes content that features or promotes child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and the sexual exploitation, sexual misconduct or grooming of youth (which is defined by this policy as minors under 18). We report all illegal content or activity to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which works with global law enforcement agencies around the world, and the consequence for engaging in such activity or with such content is immediate and indefinite suspension.
For example, you may not show, promote, or engage in:
- Sexually explicit content or sexualized images of youth
- Sharing links to third-party sites that contain content prohibited by this policy
- Content that promotes, encourages, provides instruction to, or admits participation in the sexual exploitation or sexualization of youth
- Content that constitutes or facilitates inappropriate interactions with youth, including grooming, purposefully exposing youth to sexually explicit language or sexual material, and engaging in sexual conversations in messages with youth
- Content that attempts to exploit youth by coercing money, favors or intimate imagery with threats to expose intimate imagery or information
- Content depicting nudity of youth
- Identifying alleged victims of CSAM by name or image
Enforcement Notes and Clarifications:
Depicting fictional anime characters of a child-like appearance ("lolis"/"shotas") with any kind of sexual framing is not allowed. This applies to VTubers and within games where avatars are uploaded, such as VRChat, with child-like avatars even if the broadcaster and operator of the avatar is above the age of 18.
Any humor regarding anything sexual in relation to minors will result in immediate action on your account.
Stating you are below the age of 13 anywhere on Niki Live, even if intended to be humorous, will result in your account being permanently deactivated in accordance with applicable laws.
Off-Service Conduct
For streamers and their viewers to build vibrant and dynamic communities, everyone must feel secure and protected. We believe that some off-service offenses committed by Niki Live users can create a substantial safety risk to the Niki Live community. As a result, Niki Live enforces against certain severe offenses that occur off Niki Live when committed by members of the Niki Live community.
For example, we do not allow individuals or organizations who engage off-service in:
- Deadly violence and violent extremism
- Terrorist activities or recruiting
- Explicit and/or credible threats of mass violence (i.e. threats against a group of people, event, or location where people would gather)
- Leadership, membership, or sponsorship of a known hate group
- Carrying out or deliberately acting as an accomplice to non-consensual sexual activities and/or sexual assault
- Sexual exploitation of youth, such as grooming and/or solicitation/distribution of CSAM
- Actions that would directly and explicitly compromise the physical safety of the Niki Live community
- Explicit and/or credible threats against Niki Live, including Niki Live staff
- Harmful misinformation actors that are persistent misinformation superspreaders
- Doxxing: Sharing personally identifiable information with malicious intent, such as revealing another person's:
- Mailing address
- Home address
- Work or school addresses
- Physical location
- Sensitive financial information
- Government IDs
- Swatting: Deliberately submitting false reports to emergency services to have police break into another person's address
Users can contact the Niki Live Off-Service Investigations team to report cases of any abhorrent and impactful off-service abuses listed above. These reports go directly to our global team responsible for investigating allegations of severe off-service offenses, and are handled with complete confidentiality.
Evidence for Off-Service reports
Because we have less context for behaviors that occur off Niki Live, we require that evidence of these activities is verifiable before we will take action. This includes content directly uploaded by the violating user or direct reports from victims themselves sent to our Off-Service Investigations team with appropriate evidence. Screenshots and other content from groups not directly involved that may be edited, doctored, or falsified are generally not considered to be sufficient unless they are supported by other verifiable evidence that is accurate and not misrepresented or confirmed by our third party investigator as authentic. Additionally, we will consider law enforcement action(s) as an input when assessing the credibility of accusations and evidence.
Off-Service FAQ
Important Note: Niki Live will not actively monitor other websites or services for violations of our Community Guidelines, nor will we be acting on off-Niki Live content created prior to March 5, 2018.
Unauthorized Sharing of Private Information
Sharing someone else's sensitive data without their permission can be both a distressing and potentially dangerous experience. Therefore, Niki Live doesn't allow users to reveal personal information of others on our service.
For example, you may not:
- Share personally identifiable information (PII), such as looking up a streamer's leaked address and sharing it in chat
- Share restricted or protected social profiles or any information from those profiles
- Share content that violates another's reasonable expectation of privacy, for example streaming from a private space, without permission
- Broadcast an unwanted intrusion of private video conference calls
Enforcement Notes and Clarifications:
Requesting or soliciting personally identifiable information that could reasonably be expected to harm a user's safety– physically, financially, or otherwise–if shared is not allowed in chat or on stream.
Civility and Respect
Hateful Conduct
Niki Live aims to be a place where everyone can come together in shared, community experiences. This vision is threatened when people experience harmful rhetoric and abuse on Niki Live. Niki Live does not permit behavior that is motivated by hatred, prejudice or intolerance, including behavior that promotes or encourages discrimination, denigration, harassment, or violence based on the following protected characteristics: race, ethnicity, color, caste, national origin, immigration status, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, serious medical condition, and veteran status. We also provide certain protections for age, which are expressly noted in the examples.
We define 'protected groups' as a subset of the population with a shared protected characteristic. Every Niki Live user falls into multiple of these protected groups. Niki Live affords every user globally equal protections under this policy.
For example, regardless of your intent, you may not:
- Promote, glorify, threaten, or advocate violence, physical harm, or death against individual(s) or groups on the basis of a protected characteristic, including age
- Incite or promote violence against a protected group, e.g., "kill all the [protected group]"
- Promote or express a desire for a protected group to be infected and/or die from a serious disease
- Tell a user to kill themselves used in combination with a hateful slur, e.g., "kys [slur]"
- Modify video game content to promote violence against a group based on a protected characteristic
- Glorify specific hate crimes or mass violent acts and/or the perpetrators of such acts
- Suggest that a victim of a hate crime deserved to be harmed
Use hateful slurs, either untargeted or directed towards another individual. We allow certain words or terms, which might otherwise violate our policy, to be used in an empowering way or as terms of endearment when such intent is clear. We also make exceptions for slurs in music—and singing along to music—as long as the song itself is not hateful and the slurs are not combined with other discriminating or denigrating content.
Examples of prohibited slur usage:
- Enter a chat and spamming a slur
- Target an individual with a slur based on a protected characteristic in chat
- Include a slur in profile content
- Call another player a slur while streaming
Post, upload, or otherwise share hateful images or symbols, including symbols of established hate groups and Nazi-related imagery.
- Stream with a Confederate flag in the background. Given its historic association with slavery and white supremacist groups in the US, displaying this symbol— in non-educational contexts — runs counter to Niki Live's commitment to being a service that is inclusive and welcoming to all users.
- Wear a T-shirt with the Arrow Cross
- Post a swastika or SS bolts in chat
Create speech, imagery, or emote combinations that dehumanize or perpetuate negative stereotypes and/or memes.
- Black/brown/yellow/redface
- Content that perpetuates a recognized negative stereotype about a protected group as greedy or unintelligent
- Content perpetuating negative associations between an animal and a protected group, or comparing a protected group to animals that are perceived as inferior or unclean
- Content comparing a protected group to insects, pests, parasites, filth, or diseases/viruses
- Content suggesting that protected group members are sub-human, inhuman, or impure
- Content insinuating that individuals with certain protected characteristics are criminals or terrorists
- Referring to a protected group as property or things
- Intentionally referring to someone using a pronoun or form of address that does not correctly reflect the gender with which they identify, such as repeating incorrect pronouns after being asked to stop
Create content that expresses inferiority based on a protected characteristic:
- Support for or promotion of outdated, discriminatory genetic or anthropological theories, including eugenics
- Claims of divine sanction for hostility toward a protected group
- Negative statements related to mental health, e.g., "[protected characteristic] is a form of insanity"
- Negative statements related to hygiene, e.g., "[protected group] are all smelly"
- Expressions questioning a group's worth, e.g., "[protected group] are useless"
- Statements suggesting inferiority of a protected group, e.g., "[protected group] are just worse at gaming"
- Statements questioning the moral integrity of a protected group, including statements suggesting that a protected group are all cheaters
- Content that implies that another contemporary culture is primitive
Call for subjugation, segregation or exclusion:
- Support for denying right to political participation, e.g., "[protected group] should not be allowed to vote"
- Support for limiting participation in the workplace, e.g., "we shouldn't hire [protected group]"
- Calls for exclusion from public services, e.g., "we shouldn't spend tax dollars educating [protected group]"
- Calls for exclusion from online services based on protected characteristic, including suggestions that a protected group does not belong on Niki Live
- Calls for controlling or dominating a group of people, including glorifying a period because a protected group was subjugated during that time, e.g., "slavery was the glory days of America"
Other prohibited conduct:
- Encourage or support the political or economic dominance of any race, ethnicity, or religious group, including support for white supremacist/nationalist ideologies. This does not include support for self-determination movements.
- Support for the hegemony of any group based on protected characteristic
- Calls to increase fertility rates or restrict immigration to preserve the economic/political/social power of any group
- Expressions of contempt, hatred, or disgust based on a protected characteristic
- Mock the event/victims or deny the occurrence of well-documented hate crimes, or deny the existence of documented acts of mass murder/genocide against a protected group
- Make unfounded claims assigning blame to a protected group, or that otherwise intends to incite fear about a protected group as it relates to health and safety
- Encourage the use of or generally endorsing sexual orientation conversion therapy
- Support, promote, or be a member of a hate group, including sharing hate group propaganda materials
- Create accounts dedicated to hate, such as through abusive usernames
Enforcement Notes and Clarifications:
- We take into consideration if the reported user belongs to the targeted protected group to help determine if an offense occurred.
- We consider context when enforcing. Self-deprecating terminology in a positive or joking way may be treated differently than terminology targeted at someone else.
- The "N-word" with a "hard R", a racial slur, is never allowed under any circumstances.
- Denouncing slurs in context is allowed.
We prohibit the use of terms that may not be harmful or abusive in isolation, but can be used as a slur or to denigrate others in certain contexts. Similar to other terms that may be used as a proxy for a protected group, we treat "Zionists" as a proxy for Jews or Israelis if the word is used in a context to promote harm or violence, or when used to make dehumanizing comparisons or perpetuate antisemitic stereotypes. Comments regarding Zionism that are about the political movement, including criticisms, do not violate our Hateful Conduct Policy.
Harassment
Harassment deters the growth of vibrant and diverse communities, prevents people from feeling safe on Niki Live, and creates a gateway for more severe forms of harm and abuse. People experience harassment in different ways, including personal attacks, promotion of physical harm, and malicious brigading. Engaging in harassment will result in enforcement action taken against the relevant accounts.
Please keep in mind, we expect streamers to take the necessary steps to mitigate harassing content that appears on their stream or in their chat. We will not suspend broadcasters that we find to be acting in good-faith (including by using tools such as AutoMod, timeouts, and channel bans) to remove abuse appearing from third parties and external sources.
For example, you may not engage in:
- Wishing harm or death on others
- Telling another person to severely harm or kill themselves
- Saying that another person deserves to contract a terminal or severe illness
- Glorifying, endorsing, or expressing approval of a person's past or current traumatic events
- Telling a victim of a violent crime or their kin that they deserved to be harmed (if based on a protected characteristic, this is evaluated under Hateful Conduct)
- Encouraging a suicidal person to kill themselves
- Making implied physical threats to others (Note that explicit threats of violence are handled under our Violence and Threats policy)
- Targeting others with repeated or severe personal attacks
- Repeatedly sending personal insults to a broadcaster after being timed-out in the channel
- Browsing other broadcasters' channels on stream and directing insults towards them related to their intelligence or appearance
- Sharing negative doctored or artistic content to abuse or degrade another person
- Creating "deepfake" videos to insult or abuse another person
- Drawing images of another person for the purposes of mocking or attacking that person
- Inciting viewers to target another person with abuse, regardless of whether the targets are on or off-Niki Live
- Organizing or participating in hostile raiding
- Directly opening a user's channel on stream and directing personal attacks towards them
- Making malicious contact towards legitimate businesses or private persons
- Calling customer support lines repeatedly and hanging up, or calling restaurants and placing fake orders
- Deliberate, non-consensual in-game stream sniping, including using another person's stream to gain a competitive advantage in a multiplayer game and disrupt their broadcast
- Stalking or ignoring another person's established personal physical boundaries
- Broadcasting another person who has denied consent
- Broadcasting in a location where recording is prohibited
- Creating accounts dedicated to harassment, such as through abusive usernames
Streamers should always consider the consequences of their statements and actions of their audiences; sometimes unwanted focus or attention can encourage others to escalate their behavior into abuse. For example, broadcasting other Niki Live streams while insulting those users often encourages others to also direct abuse to the target. Participating in this activity can, therefore, lead to suspension of your account.
Although harassment is never allowed on Niki Live, we want users to express themselves naturally with their friends and communities without fear that these interactions could be misidentified as harassment. In order to fully understand the context of incidents that appear unclear when viewed in isolation, we may require that individuals who feel targeted by abuse indicate that these actions were not consensual banter before we will intervene. Filing a user report or taking moderation action on the individual's channel count as such indications.
Sexual Harassment
Niki Live firmly opposes sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is never acceptable, whether these comments are directed towards others on or off Niki Live. We define sexual harassment to encompass non-physical behaviors of a sexual nature that cause users to feel uncomfortable, degraded, unsafe, or discouraged from participation. We prohibit unwanted comments–including comments made using emojis/emotes–regarding someone's appearance or body, sexual requests or advances, sexual objectification, and negative statements or attacks related to a person's perceived sexual behaviors or activities, regardless of their gender. We also do not tolerate the recording or sharing of non-consensual intimate images or videos under any circumstances, and may report such content to law enforcement.
The following categories of behaviors are considered to be sexual harassment, and are prohibited on Niki Live:
- Whispering another user with compliments about their appearance after being asked to stop
- Sending chat messages to another user and calling them "sexy" after previously being timed-out for similar behavior
- Asking another user to expose their non-sexual body parts, such as their feet, after receiving a chat warning
- Persisting in asking about someone's sexual experiences or history after being informed it's unwanted
- Sending nude pictures or videos to another person
- Directing others to sexually explicit content
- Making sexually-focused comments about another person's breasts, buttocks, or genitals
- Commenting on another person's perceived sexual abilities or lack thereof
- Commenting on how sexually aroused they are based on another person's features
- Making requests for sexual favors or making unsolicited statements in reference to performing graphic sexual acts on another person
- Asking a streamer to expose themselves or send nude images
- Whispering other users and asking them to perform graphic sex acts
- Discussing a desire to perform graphic sex acts on a public figure
- Alleging that a person is sexually immoral due to their attire or physical appearance
- Stating that a person's attire reflects negatively on their sexual practices
- Suggesting that a person's channel is only popular or has not been suspended due to sexual favors
- Repeatedly negatively targeting another person with sexually-focused terms, such as 'whore' or 'virgin'
- Making claims that another person likely has a sexually transmitted infection due to their sexual practices
- Offering to promote a user's channel in exchange for sexual acts
- Threatening retribution against another person if they do not share sexual images or videos
- Advocating for or expressing a desire to commit sexual violence against another person
- Expressing a wish for another person to experience sexual assault
- Directing another person to carry out non-consensual sexual acts
- Discussing a desire to commit rape against another person
- Deliberately recording sexual body parts or intimate activities of another person without their awareness or consent
- Offering a private video of another person having sex, without permission of the person depicted
- Sharing leaked nude images of another person without their consent
- Creating or sharing doctored or 'deepfake' intimate images of an identifiable person
When applicable, we will take indications (i.e., timeouts, channel bans, user reports, etc.) from the individual(s) targeted by this behavior into account to help us understand when advances and other statements are unwanted, even if they are not clearly derogatory. If you encounter sexual harassment, we encourage you to submit a report to us and use the moderation tools available to indicate that the behavior is unwanted as this helps us understand that you feel harassed.
Streamers are leaders of the communities they create or foster around them. Streamers should always consider the consequences of their statements and actions of their audiences; sometimes unwanted focus or attention can encourage others to escalate their behavior into abuse. For example, broadcasting other Niki Live streams while insulting these users often encourages others to also direct abuse to the target. Participating in this activity can, therefore, lead to suspension of your account.
We expect streamers to take the necessary steps to mitigate harassing content that appears on their stream. We will not suspend streamers that we find to be acting in good-faith (including by using tools such as AutoMod, timeouts, and channel bans) to remove abuse appearing from third parties and external sources.
Civility and Respect FAQ
Illegal Activity
Breaking the Law
For the safety of our community, we require users to respect all applicable local, national, and international laws while using our services. Any content or activity featuring, encouraging, offering, or soliciting illegal activity is prohibited and may be reported to law enforcement.
For example, you may not:
- Engage in any form of human trafficking, including sex trafficking, sales of children, forced marriages, or domestic servitude
- Buy or sell illegal drugs, firearms, or counterfeit goods on Niki Live
- Commit or aid in the destruction, defacement, or theft of public or another person's property without permission on Niki Live
Intellectual Property Rights
In order to protect the intellectual property rights of others and comply with intellectual property laws, we do not allow users to share content on their Niki Live channel that they do not own or otherwise have rights to share.
For example, without permission from the rights holders or unless otherwise permitted by law, you may not share:
- Performing other people's copyrighted content, including playing another artist's copyrighted songs
- Other Niki Live creators' content or content from other sites
- Pirated games or content from unauthorized private servers
- Movies, television shows, or sports matches
- Music you do not own or do not have the rights to share, including music streamed in the background of a user's broadcast
- Goods or services protected by trademark
- Closed Alphas/Betas and Pre-Release Games. We ask that you respect all publisher/developer-enforced release dates, embargoes, and NDAs by waiting to broadcast these games until everyone else gets to. Unless given prior approval, your channel may be subject to DMCA takedown by a rights holder.
Any unauthorized content users share on Niki Live violates our Terms of Service and is subject to removal. Multiple violations of our policies may lead to a permanent suspension of a user's account. Rights holders may request that Niki Live remove unauthorized content and/or issue penalties through the following processes:
- For copyrighted works, the notice-and-takedown process described in our DMCA Guidelines.
- For trademarks, the process described in our Trademark Policy.
- For copyrighted works owned by rights holders with whom Niki Live has contractual arrangements, we may have separate reporting and handling processes, for example, the Music Reporting Process.
Sensitive Content
Extreme Violence, Gore, and Other Obscene Conduct
Although we allow a variety of content to be shown on Niki Live, content that features extreme violence or gore may be disturbing and distressing, especially if there is death, mutilation, or blood. Content that exclusively focuses on extreme or gratuitous gore and violence is prohibited. Additionally, websites that heavily feature adult content such as sexually explicit content, illegal content, or death and gore are prohibited.
For example, you may not:
- Show content with death or extreme injury
- Browse 4chan, the dark web, or porn on Niki Live
- Use randomized video chat services
Enforcement Notes and Clarifications:
Randomized video content that you can not control is never allowed under any circumstances due to the risks it poses to viewers of the stream.
Sexual Content
To ensure content on Niki Live is appropriate for diverse audiences, certain sexual content is prohibited, regardless of the medium used to create it (digital or non-digital). Users are prohibited from broadcasting, uploading, soliciting, promoting, offering, and linking to pornographic content.
For example, you may not show, offer, or promote:
- Explicit, simulated, fictional, or implied sex or masturbation. This includes oral, anal, and vaginal sex, touching of genitals in self or mutual masturbation, or prolonged audio that implies sex/masturbation/orgasm.
- Adult nudity without implied or real sex acts is subject to our Adult Nudity policies
- Display of sexual bodily fluids
- Advertisement or solicitation of sexual services, including prostitution, escort services, sexual massages, and filmed sexual activity
- Content that focuses on clothed intimate body parts such as the buttocks, groin, or breasts for extended periods of time.
- Consensual sexual violence such as flogging or whipping another person
- Non-consensual sexual violence is subject to our Adult Sexual Violence and Exploitation policies
- Graphic descriptions of sex acts such as phone sex or erotica
- Display of sex toys in a non-educational context, such as bragging about the size of a dildo
The foregoing list is not exhaustive, and Niki Live reserves the right to remove content that it deems to be inappropriate.
Users may not directly link, promote, or advertise pornographic content in their broadcasts, profile, or chat. While users may not directly link to pornographic or sexually explicit content in their broadcasts, profile, or chat, users will not be penalized for linking to their personal websites or social media pages that may incidentally contain these links.
For information about content relating to sexuality and sexual themes that is allowed with a label, see the Sexual Themes policy.
Enforcement Notes and Clarifications:
- Direct links to websites that primarily provide sexual content are not allowed in your content (overlay, bio, sent in chat, etc).
- If any links to this kind of content through methods such as link aggregators are found, Niki Live may apply the Sexual Themes Content Classification Label for a set amount of time.
- We allow certain content that includes sexual themes, providing it is educational in nature, has relevant Content Classification Labels applied to the stream, and doesn't break our other guidelines such as Nudity.
Positioning your camera to highlight intimate body areas is not allowed.
Artistic depictions of nudity are only allowed in the context of public art.
Important: If prohibited sexual content is shared accidentally, your account will still be suspended. If you are unsure if a link, photo, video, or other content in your broadcast abides by the Community Guidelines, we suggest that you review it privately before airing it on your broadcast.
If your channel is reported multiple times in a short period of time for sexual content (or for any other policy violation), this will not result in your channel being suspended if you did nothing wrong. All of our sexual content enforcements are manually reviewed and issued.
Emotes, badges, and cheermotes are also subject to our policies. Because subscriber emotes are available for use globally across Niki Live and highly visible outside of their original channels, our emote guidelines may be more restrictive than our general Community Guidelines in some instances.
As long as attire requirements are met, body painting on the breasts and buttocks is allowed with a Sexual Themes Content Classification Label.
Adult Nudity
Users are prohibited from broadcasting or uploading content that contains depictions of real or fictional nudity, regardless of the medium used to create it. Incomplete censoring, such as pixelization, mosaics, blurring effects, sheer or partially see-through clothing do not constitute an exemption to this policy.
For example, you may not show or promote:
- Exposed anuses or fully unclothed and exposed buttocks
- Any amount of exposed genitals
- Female presenting individuals' breasts with exposed nipples (unless actively breastfeeding a child)
Art history educational content or public art that might feature nude figures are exempt from this policy.
Attire
In order to set consistent standards that allow creators to express themselves without exposing our community to inappropriate content, we have an attire policy, with detailed examples below. We aim to be transparent around our standards and expectations to empower creative expression and boost creators' confidence with a clear understanding of our guidelines.
The list of contextual exceptions, outlined below, is not exhaustive. If you find yourself in a situation that is not described by an exception, then we expect you to follow the standard guidelines.
Standard Guidelines
We don't permit streamers, their co-hosts, or their invited guests to be fully or partially nude, including exposing genitals or buttocks. Nor do we permit streamers to imply or suggest that they are fully or partially nude, including, but not limited to, covering breasts or genitals with objects or censor bars. We do not permit the visible outline of genitals, even when covered. Broadcasting nude or partially nude minors is always prohibited, regardless of context.
- For those who present as women, we ask that you cover your nipples and areolas and do not expose underbust. Cleavage is unrestricted as long as these coverage requirements are met and it is clear that the streamer is wearing clothing.
- For all streamers, you must cover the area extending from your hips to the bottom of your pelvis and buttocks.
- For those areas of the body where coverage is required, the coverage must be fully opaque; sheer or partially see-through clothing does not constitute coverage.
Contextual Exceptions
Streamers, their co-hosts, and invited guests engaging in general IRL streaming outside the home must follow standard body-coverage expectations. Those passing through the background of your stream are not held to the standard dress code requirement and the content does not have to be placed in the Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches category, but broadcasting nudity is not permitted regardless of context. If accidental nudity appears on your stream, we expect you to take immediate action, remove the content, and take precautionary steps so it won't happen again. You should not focus your stream on anyone violating our clothing or sexual content standards; you will be held accountable for doing so to the same extent as if you were violating the standards yourself.
Swimwear, short shorts, and bodysuits are permitted as long as they completely cover the genitals, and those who present as women must also cover their nipples and areolas. Full coverage of buttocks is not required, but camera focus around them is still subject to our Sexual Content policy. Coverage must be fully opaque, even when wet. Sheer or partially see-through swimwear or other clothing does not constitute coverage.
Content subject to this contextual exception must be placed within the Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches category. Content that violates standard attire guidelines and is not subject to this contextual exception (e.g. wearing a bikini outside of pool or beach setting) is still violative even if placed into the Pools, Hot Tubs, and Beaches category.
For streams dedicated to body art, full chest coverage is not required, but those who present as women must completely cover their nipples & areola with a layer of non-transparent clothing or a paint & latex combination (artist-grade pasties, tape, latex or similar alternatives are acceptable). This coverage must be applied before streaming begins, not on-stream. Buttocks and genitals must also be fully covered by opaque attire. In addition, we ask that streamers add a Sexual Themes Content Classification Label when painting on their chests or buttocks.
This exception to the general coverage requirements only applies while the streamer is actively engaged in body painting, though the streamer may take short breaks between active painting sessions, or when painting is complete to model the results.
Streamers are given some leeway for making transitions between contexts with different limits of acceptable attire (e.g., beach to general outdoor IRL streaming). In these situations, streamers are expected to only spend as much time wearing insufficient attire as needed to add clothing or change offscreen into clothing with appropriate coverage for the new context.
The standard chest coverage requirements outlined above do not apply to individuals actively breastfeeding a child on stream.
Enforcement Notes and Clarifications:
- When evaluating reports for sexual conduct, attire is just one factor we will use in making a determination on whether conduct is acceptable.
- We recommend streamers wear attire that would be publicly appropriate for the context, location, and activity they are broadcasting. For example, workout clothes would be appropriate for a fitness stream and a swimsuit would be appropriate for a stream from a public beach.
- The attire policy applies to VTubers, in the same way it applies to other streamers.
- Genitalia, buttocks, hips, female-presented nipples, and underbust must be covered at all times on general streams. These guidelines apply to Vtuber models but not video game characters including those uploaded into games such as VRChat.
- Hip coverage is often forgotten in this rule, please be sure that your Vtuber model covers this area.
- Festival and beach wear allows slightly more revealing clothing when within the relevant category - allowing the showing of hips and underbust, but genitalia and female-presenting nipples must still be covered.
- Static or slightly animated artwork for scenes such as "Stream Starting", "Be Right Back" and "Stream Ending" artwork must follow all of our guidelines.
- If you are in a "setting" such as a Pool, Hot Tub, or Beach (that may not be real) props do not require water within them for us to still consider you in the correct context.
- Your content is still required to be in the correct category and apply any applicable Content Classification Labels.
- If we cannot functionally tell whether or not you are clothed, or you are implying you are not clothed, through methods such as tight skin-toned clothing, black bars, blurring, hiding behind props or being off-screen, you will be at risk of enforcement for our Attire and possibly our Sexual Content Policies.
Account Usernames and Display Names
In order to ensure that our community is safe and inclusive, inappropriate account names that violate our Community Guidelines are prohibited. We also recognize that an account's username has more impact across our services than many other forms of content because they are persistent, cross-functional, and, in most cases, much more visible. Because of this, we have additional, higher standards for usernames based on reducing harm across our services.
For example, usernames and display names created on Niki Live may not include:
- Breaking the law, including terrorism and child exploitation
- Violence and threats
- Hateful conduct
- Harassment and sexual harassment
- Unauthorized sharing of private information
- Impersonation
- Glorification of natural or violent tragedies
- Self-destructive behavior
- References to recreational drugs, hard drugs, and drug abuse, with exceptions for alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana
- References to sexual acts, genital, or sexual fluids
Indefinite suspensions are issued for usernames and display names that constitute clear violations of our standard Community Guidelines, or that are typically representative of malicious and bad-faith behavior. For example, you may not create a username that includes:
- References to terrorism or terrorist organizations
- References to child grooming or exploitation
- Threats, promotions, or calls to real-life violence against others
- Hateful Conduct, including slurs and derogatory terminology related to protected characteristics
- Harassment and Sexual Harassment directed towards another person
- Threats or promotion of suicide and self-harm
- Personal information of another person leaked without consent
- Impersonation of another person, company, or organization
- Glorification of natural or violent tragedies
In instances where we believe users may be acting in good-faith, we will mandate a username or display name reset instead of indefinitely suspending the accounts. For example, your username may be reset if it includes:
- References to hard drugs, recreational drugs, and drug abuse (with the exceptions of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana)
- References to pornography, sexually explicit, and sexually suggestive content or behavior
- Using terms related to sexual orientation or disability in an insulting context or as a negative descriptor
Username resets are leveraged in these cases under the assumption that these violations are likely mistaken or unintentional. However, repeatedly renaming an account in violation of our username policy will result in further enforcement actions against your account, up to an indefinite suspension.
Username FAQ
Authenticity
Impersonation
Impersonation is a malicious practice that compromises trust in our service and can harm the target of impersonation. Content or activity meant to impersonate an individual or organization is prohibited, including impersonation of Niki Live staff, celebrities, companies, or friends.
For example, you may not:
- Impersonate a Niki Live partner's account
- Pose as a celebrity in a streamer's chat
- Create a "waiting room" i.e. a stream with the title, tag, or description of being a "waiting room" for someone else's stream or channel content that contains no reaction or original content created by the channel owner
Enforcement Notes and Clarifications:
- If you are being impersonated as a streamer on Niki Live and the content does not qualify for action under the DMCA process (such as a branded trademark), please report the stream under "Impersonation". Please provide full information in the report.
- We take into account a number of factors such as usernames and bios, as well as if the person being impersonated submits the report when determining whether to enforce.
Spam, Scams, and Other Malicious Conduct
Spam and other deceptive practices create a negative user experience, decrease trust in our service, and mislead viewers, creators, and advertisers. Any content or activity that disrupts, interrupts, harms, or otherwise violates the integrity of Niki Live services or another user's experience or devices is prohibited.
For example, you may not:
- Post spam, such as large amounts of repetitive, unwanted messages or user reports
- Distribute unauthorized advertisements
- Engage in phishing, spreading malware, or viruses
- Defraud Niki Live or others
- Engage in viewership tampering (such as artificially inflating follow or live viewer stats)
- Sell or sharing user accounts, services, or features
- Cheat the Niki Live rewards system (such as the Drops or channel points systems)
- Engage in any cheating, hacking, botting, or tampering, that gives the account owner an unfair advantage in an online multiplayer game
We understand that sometimes streamers are victims of account takeover, fraud, or viewbotting directed by a malicious third party. We have methods to detect the responsible party and do not penalize good-faith streamers under these circumstances.
Enforcement Notes and Clarifications:
- Links to social media profiles in your bio (About Me) or panels, including links to live streaming platforms, are permitted.
- You may not use your bio (About Me) or panels to actively promote other live streaming platforms, including large banners or messages encouraging users to watch your livestream on other services.
- Niki Live may not be used to drive users to a livestream on another platform or service.
- For example, you cannot use Niki Live to encourage viewers to alternative live streaming services via links on your Niki Live bio, banners, QR codes, broadcast titles, go-live notifications, chat commands, or other means.
Drops Policy:
- Drops are meant to be earned during live gameplay with your community - not through streaming unrelated content like static images, rebroadcasts of past VODs/footage, or other scenarios where you are not interacting with your community.
Shared Viewership Policy:
- Shared Viewership, through utilizing Shared Chat as a tool, is designed to highlight the total number of community members present when two or more streamers are both live and collaborating together. Abusing these tools to artificially promote or inflate viewership without appropriate collaboration is not allowed, with some exceptions as noted below.
Suspension Evasion
Circumventing our enforcement actions undermines the integrity of our service. For suspended users, any attempt to circumvent an account suspension or chat ban by using other accounts or identities will also result in an additional enforcement against your accounts, up to an indefinite suspension. For non-suspended Niki Live streamers, you may react to a VOD or a livestream from another service of a suspended user, but you may not feature them on your stream as a guest (for example, streaming in the same room or using collaboration software to feature a suspended user as a guest, even in an ensemble).
For purposes of this violation, "feature" is defined as:
- Streaming with a suspended user
- Streams of a group that include the suspended user
- Create a new account in order to evade a suspension issued to your primary account
- Create a channel that functions to rebroadcast a suspended user's content (e.g. channel panels and name similar to suspended user and rebroadcasts are presented without commentary)
- Have a one-on-one interview with a suspended user or participate in a stream with a suspended user in a group setting where the suspended user actively participates in your stream
- Attend and stream on Niki Live an event hosted by or to celebrate a suspended user
We understand that there may be instances where suspended users appear on your stream due to circumstances beyond your control, such as through third-party gaming tournaments or limited engagement while IRL streaming. However, we expect that you make an effort to not actively promote them in a manner intended to bypass their Niki Live suspension. Please remember, that you are responsible for all content in your streams, including policy violations by third parties.
Harmful Misinformation Actors
In order to reduce harm to our community and the public without undermining our streamers' open dialogue with their communities, we prohibit harmful misinformation superspreaders who persistently share misinformation on or off of Niki Live. We remove users whose online presence is dedicated to (1) persistently sharing (2) widely disproven and broadly shared (3) harmful misinformation topics.
This policy is focused on Niki Live users who persistently share harmful misinformation. It will not be applied to users based upon individual statements or discussions that occur on the channel. We will evaluate whether a user violates the policy by assessing both their on-platform behavior as well as their off-platform behavior. You can report these actors by sending an email to our internal investigations team with the account name and any available supporting evidence.
Under this policy we cover the following topic areas, and will continue to update this list as new trends emerge:
- Misinformation that targets protected groups, which is already prohibited under our Hateful Conduct & Harassment Policy
- Harmful health misinformation and wide-spread conspiracy theories related to dangerous treatments, COVID-19, and COVID-19 vaccine misinformation
- Discussions of treatments that are known to be harmful without noting the dangers of such treatments
- For COVID-19—and any other WHO-declared Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)—misinformation that causes imminent physical harm or is part of a broad conspiracy
- Misinformation promoted by conspiracy networks tied to violence and/or promoting violence
- Civic misinformation that undermines the integrity of a civic or political process
- Promotion of verifiably false claims related to the outcome of a fully vetted political process, including election rigging, ballot tampering, vote tallying, or election fraud
- In instances of public emergencies (e.g., wildfires, earthquakes, active shootings), we may also act on misinformation that may impact public safety
*Note: In order to evaluate civic misinformation claims, we routinely work with specialists and consult information from election boards, congressional certification, and other relevant sources.
Content Labeling
You are expected to accurately label your content to the best of your ability. When choosing a category or tag, please choose whichever best describes your content.