Depop takes user safety and well-being seriously, and utilises people, policies, and technology to enforce our content moderation policies. As a baseline, we work to ensure that illegal, harmful and fraudulent content does not exist on the platform. Beyond this, we expect that content aligns with the mission of our brand to make fashion circular, and we develop these policies with our company values in mind.
We strive to consistently enforce our policies and hold all users accountable to the same standards, strengthen trust in our community, and maintain the integrity of our platform. This goal is achieved using human review, automated tooling and processes, quick action upon notice of an issue, cooperation with experts and regulators, educating Depop’s community, and a continuing commitment to a thoughtful content moderation strategy.
- Policies that apply to you and your content
a. Content policies
b. Other policies - How we detect violating content
- How we enforce on violating content
- Appeals
a. Listing removal
b. Policy violation strike
c. Account suspension
- Policies that apply to you and your content
The following policies apply specifically to the content created by our users:
- Terms of Service
- Abuse, Bullying and Harassment Policy
- Community Guidelines
- Dropshipping Policy
- Electronics Policy
- Graphic and Violent imagery Policy
- Hate Speech and Discrimination Policy
- Intellectual Property Policy
- Nudity Policy
- Prohibited & Restricted Items List
- Restricted and Hazardous Content Policy
- Sexually inappropriate Content and Behaviour Policy
Other policies which govern your use of the service include, but are not limited to, the following:
If Depop has reason to believe you, your content, or your use of the service violate our policies, we may deactivate and remove your content to some or all users, or suspend or terminate your account (and any accounts Depop determines is related to your account) and your access to the services. Generally, Depop will notify you that your content or account has been suspended or terminated.
- How we detect violating content
Our team uses a combination of automated systems and human review by content moderation specialists to monitor and remove policy violating listings and accounts. Violations may be brought to our attention in any of the following ways:
- Users: Listings can be reported directly to Depop, such as through the ‘Report’ option, using the ellipsis button (3 dots) at the top right of a listing.
- Regulatory reports: Inbound reports from government agencies help Depop identify non-compliant sellers and content (see further details here).
- Automated systems: Our automated systems attempt to identify violative content within user content. Upon detection, the content is then reviewed and/or removed.
- Internal sweeping: Depop internal agents may scan Depop to identify violating content before taking action to remove it and enforce our Terms and policies.
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Intellectual Property Notices: Intellectual property holders can notify Depop of content that infringes their rights, such as trademark or copyright violations, in accordance with our Intellectual Property Policy.
- How we take action against policy-violating content
In order to keep Depop safe and improve our services, we may take actions that limit the visibility of a shop, listings, boosted listings or other content. We may also take actions on a user’s payment account by holding or recouping funds in accordance with our Terms of Service.
If we determine that content shared by a user violates Depop’s policies, the enforcement action we take will vary based on the nature of the violation. For example, we may remove an item from the marketplace, record a policy violation against the user’s account, send a warning, provide a user with educational content, or temporarily or permanently suspend an account.
We may use a combination of manual enforcement and an automated system to send warning notifications and ultimately suspend the accounts of users who have repeatedly violated policies.
4. Appealing Depop’s Enforcement Decisions
Depop’s marketplace presents unique challenges for content moderation detection and enforcement. These challenges include the breadth of Depop’s independent sellers’ offerings, and the non-standardized nature of those items and the listing content used to describe them. Depop regularly updates its tools, controls, and enforcement to increase their effectiveness and accuracy, but occasionally, wrong enforcement actions are taken, or policies are updated such that enforcement outcomes change.
We provide routes to appeal for users whose listings or accounts have been impacted by Depop enforcement actions, and there is no time limit on appealing prior enforcement decisions.
a. Listing removal
Depop notifies users by in-app message and email when a listing is removed for violating policies. Listing removal can be appealed through the appeal form linked in the notification email.
b. Record of policy violation
Depop notifies users by in-app message and email when we detect and record a non-listing policy violation on their account. The policy violation can be appealed through the appeal form linked in the notification email. If the appeal is successful, we will remove the recorded violation from the user’s account.
c. Account suspension
Accounts may be permanently or temporarily suspended.
If a user’s account is temporarily suspended, the user will receive an email from Depop explaining what happened and how to resolve the suspension.
If a user’s account is permanently suspended, the user can appeal the policy violations that led to the suspension, using the appeal processes for listing removals and policy violations. If the enforcement decisions that led to suspension are overturned, the account will be automatically reactivated.
Learn more about our Appeals Policy here.