Our easier to read and understand policies
At Whatnot, our policies are designed to foster trust – whether that's trust in receiving the product you buy, getting paid for the product you sell, or engaging safely with other users. We know clarity is important to you. We want to be clear about our expectations so you feel confident bringing and growing your business here.
Today, we're updating these guidelines to improve their organization and structure, making them easier for everyone to understand. These updates don't change our policies; the rules and enforcement remain the same. What's new is a more navigable, accessible, and detailed presentation of these rules.
These guidelines aren’t just for community understanding – our internal team uses these rules too. When you report a concern our team evaluates the situation against the same categories of prohibited behavior outlined in these guidelines (such as harassment, or prohibited items) to determine if any violations have occurred.
Our updated guidelines have three parts:
Seller policies. Standards for maintaining a high-quality user experience, protecting you, your buyers, and Whatnot. These cover what you can and cannot sell, how to sell (like accurately representing the product you’re selling), and post-sale expectations (like shipping requirements).
All community policies. Rules applicable to everyone participating in our communities, fostering positive and safe experiences. These policies cover things that are never ok on Whatnot, like hate and harassment, or fraudulent behavior, as well as areas where our rules are more context-dependent, like explicit content.
Policies against feature abuse. We also have guidelines specific to Whatnot features, like bidding, giveaways, and tips. In order to protect the integrity of our platform, we prohibit any abuse or manipulation of products or features of Whatnot.
How we’ve evolved on safety
These guidelines and our enforcement actions have evolved alongside Whatnot's growth as a platform, and feedback from our community over what has worked and what hasn’t. Previously, we had fewer remediation options when people broke the rules, but now we can take a more nuanced approach, such as restricting selling privileges, category access, or usage of a specific feature. Where we’ve identified more nuanced approaches, we may reverse previous decisions – in some instances, reinstating previously banned accounts. When looking at individual cases for reinstatement, we look at many different factors, including severity of the user's past actions and how much time has passed since the violation. We plan to evolve these guidelines over time with your feedback, all with the goal of maintaining a fair, trustworthy, and safe platform for everyone. You’re welcome to review our Community Guidelines at any time here.
