Summary. The operating documents of a content platform, annotated.

Template 1 — Terms of service: the provisions that matter

Not a full agreement. These are the clauses that determine liability.

Acceptance. By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms. We record the version you accepted and the date.

License you grant us. You retain ownership of content you post. You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, modify (for formatting and technical purposes), publish, distribute, and display that content in connection with operating and promoting the Service, and to sublicense these rights to our service providers. This license ends when you delete the content, except for copies retained in backups and copies others have shared.

Your representations. You represent that you own or have the rights to the content you post, and that it does not violate any law or third-party right. You will indemnify us against claims arising from your content.

Our discretion. We may remove content, restrict features, or terminate accounts that violate these Terms or our Community Guidelines, or where we reasonably believe doing so is necessary to protect users or the Service. [Choose one:] — Discretionary version: We may do so with or without notice and are not obligated to provide reasons. — Process version: We will notify you, identify the policy involved, and provide an appeal at [address] which we will decide within [X] business days.

No obligation to monitor. We do not review all content before it is posted.

Termination. Either party may terminate at any time. On termination, [describe treatment of content and data].

Disputes. [Arbitration clause and class waiver, or court and venue.]

The single most important drafting decision is the choice in the "Our discretion" clause. The process version is defensible only if the process runs. Aspirational commitments are the most common source of platform contract liability, and 47 U.S.C. § 230 does not touch them.

Template 2 — DMCA notice procedure (published)

Copyright complaints. We respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 512. Send notices to our designated agent:

[Agent name] · [Address] · [Email] · [Telephone]

Your notice must include:

  1. A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf.
  2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed.
  3. Identification of the material claimed to be infringing, with information reasonably sufficient to let us locate it (a URL is best).
  4. Your contact information: address, telephone number, and email address.
  5. A statement that you have a good faith belief that the use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
  6. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the owner's behalf.

Please consider fair use before sending. Misrepresentations in a notice may create liability under § 512(f).

What happens next. If your notice substantially complies, we will remove or disable access to the material and notify the user who posted it. The user may submit a counter-notification.

Operational note: the agent must be registered with the Copyright Office and the registration kept current. A lapsed registration forfeits the safe harbor entirely and silently.

Template 3 — Counter-notification procedure (published)

If your content was removed following a copyright notice and you believe the removal was a mistake or misidentification, you may send a counter-notification to our designated agent including:

  1. Your physical or electronic signature.
  2. Identification of the material removed and the location where it appeared before removal.
  3. A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief the material was removed as a result of mistake or misidentification.
  4. Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the district where you reside (or, if outside the United States, any district where we may be found), and that you will accept service of process from the person who sent the notice.

What happens next. We will forward your counter-notification to the complaining party. If they do not notify us within 10 business days that they have filed an action seeking a court order, we will restore the material in 10 to 14 business days.

Template 4 — Repeat infringer policy and strike tracker

Policy. We terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the accounts of users who repeatedly infringe copyright. A "strike" is recorded when we remove content in response to a compliant notice. Strikes are removed if the user submits a counter-notification and the material is restored, or if the notice is withdrawn.

Thresholds. [First strike: notice and education. Second: temporary restriction. Third: [n]-day suspension. Fourth: termination.] We may terminate sooner for egregious or willful infringement.

Appeals. A user may dispute a strike at [address] within [n] days.

Strike tracker fields:

User Strike date Notice ID Complainant Content removed Counter-notice? Strike stands? Cumulative Action taken

This tracker is the evidence. A policy with no terminations in the data is not "reasonably implemented," and courts have held platforms lost the safe harbor on exactly that record. Run the report quarterly and confirm terminations are occurring.

Template 5 — Community guidelines outline

PUBLIC GUIDELINES (plain language, with examples)

1. What this community is for
2. Content that is never allowed
   - Child sexual abuse material
   - Non-consensual intimate imagery
   - Credible threats and incitement
   - Terrorist and violent extremist content
   - Content that violates others' rights (IP, privacy, publicity)
   - Illegal goods and regulated products
3. Content that is restricted
   - Adult content [permitted with labeling / prohibited]
   - Graphic violence
   - Harassment and abuse
   - Misinformation in defined categories
4. Behavior rules
   - Impersonation, spam, manipulation, evasion of enforcement
5. What happens when rules are broken (the enforcement ladder)
6. How to report
7. How to appeal

INTERNAL GUIDANCE (not published)
  For each category: definition, positive and negative examples,
  edge cases, escalation triggers, and the standard applied.

Test of adequacy: give two moderators the same twenty cases. If they disagree on more than a few, the guidance is too vague.

Template 6 — Moderation decision log

Field Entry
Case ID
Reported by User / automated / trusted flagger / legal process
Report date and time
Content ID and type
Policy category alleged
Reviewer (human ID or system)
Decision date and time
Decision No action / removed / restricted / age-gated / account action
Policy actually applied
Reasoning (brief)
User notified? Date
Appeal filed? Date
Appeal reviewer and outcome
Jurisdiction-specific handling

Why it matters beyond compliance: this log is the input to every transparency report, the basis for consistency measurement, and the record that answers a contract claim about whether the platform followed its own process.

Template 7 — Notice and action intake (non-copyright)

REPORT INTAKE                                    Case ID: ______

1. CATEGORY
   [ ] Trademark / counterfeit    [ ] Right of publicity / likeness
   [ ] Privacy                     [ ] Non-consensual intimate imagery
   [ ] Impersonation               [ ] Harassment / threats
   [ ] Child safety                [ ] Illegal / regulated goods
   [ ] Defamation                  [ ] Legal process

2. REPORTER
   Name / entity / relationship to the subject / contact

3. CONTENT
   URL(s) / content ID / description / screenshots

4. BASIS
   What right or rule is violated, and why

5. AUTHORITY (for rights-based reports)
   Registration number, ownership evidence, or authorization

6. TRIAGE
   Priority:  [ ] Emergency (imminent harm)  [ ] Expedited  [ ] Standard
   Target response: ____
   Assigned to: ____

7. DECISION
   Outcome / date / policy applied / user notified / appeal offered

Priority rules: child safety and credible threats are emergencies. Non-consensual intimate imagery is expedited and does not require a court order. Everything else is standard unless the facts warrant escalation.

Template 8 — Subpoena and legal process protocol

1. INTAKE
   Single monitored address. Log receipt date and method.

2. CLASSIFY
   [ ] Civil subpoena      [ ] Criminal subpoena
   [ ] Court order         [ ] Search warrant
   [ ] Preservation request [ ] Informal government request
   [ ] Foreign legal process

3. VALIDATE
   Issuing court has jurisdiction?          Y/N
   Properly served?                          Y/N
   Signed and dated?                         Y/N
   Response deadline reasonable?             Y/N
   Does the process authorize what it seeks?
     - Non-content records: subpoena may suffice
     - Content: generally requires a warrant
     - Real-time: separate authority required

4. NOTIFY THE USER
   Permitted?  [ ] Yes  [ ] Barred by nondisclosure order
   If our Terms promise notification: NOTIFY.
   Date notified: ____   Objection deadline given: ____

5. OBJECT IF WARRANTED
   Overbreadth / burden / jurisdiction / wrong process / privilege

6. RESPOND
   Scope produced / date / method / recipient

7. LOG
   For transparency reporting: type, jurisdiction, outcome

Do not disclose content on a civil subpoena without analyzing the Stored Communications Act. This is the single most common error in ad hoc handling.

Template 9 — Transparency report structure

REPORTING PERIOD: ______

1. CONTENT ACTIONED
   By policy category: count, % of total, method (automated / human)

2. ACTIONS TAKEN
   Removed / restricted / age-gated / labeled / account action

3. TIMELINESS
   Median and 90th percentile time from report to action, by category

4. APPEALS
   Received / decided / granted / denied / median time

5. ACCOUNTS
   Suspended / terminated / reinstated

6. COPYRIGHT
   Notices received / URLs actioned / counter-notices / restorations
   Repeat infringer terminations

7. LEGAL PROCESS
   By type and jurisdiction: received / complied in full / in part /
   objected / rejected / user notified

8. GOVERNMENT REMOVAL REQUESTS
   By jurisdiction and legal basis: received / actioned / declined

9. METHODOLOGY
   Definitions, counting rules, and known limitations

Section 9 is not optional. A report without stated methodology invites the criticism that the numbers were selected, and it makes year-over-year comparison meaningless.

Template 10 — Product design review form

Complete before launching any feature in a covered category.

FEATURE: ______________________       REVIEW DATE: ______

1. WHAT DOES IT DO?

2. DOES IT COLLECT STRUCTURED INPUT FROM USERS?
   If yes, list every field and every enumerated option.
   Does any field elicit a protected category (race, sex, religion,
   national origin, familial status, disability, age)?
   Context: housing / employment / lending / insurance / credit?
   *** Roommates.Com RISK — escalate ***

3. DOES IT RANK, RECOMMEND, OR SURFACE CONTENT?
   What is optimized for?
   What safety constraints are applied?
   Are the constraints documented and testable?

4. DOES IT AFFECT USERS UNDER 18?
   Default settings:
   Notification behavior:
   Engagement mechanics:
   Age assurance relied on, and its known limitations:

5. DOES IT CHANGE WHAT WE PROMISE USERS?
   Terms update required?  Y/N
   Safety page update required?  Y/N

6. DOES IT INVOLVE PAYMENTS, COMMISSIONING, OR CREATOR SELECTION?
   Could it make us an information content provider?

7. REVIEWER / DECISION / CONDITIONS

Template 11 — Section 230 motion outline

MOTION TO DISMISS — 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1)

I.   INTRODUCTION
     What the complaint actually alleges, in one paragraph.

II.  THE STATUTE AND THE THREE ELEMENTS

III. DEFENDANT IS A PROVIDER OF AN INTERACTIVE COMPUTER SERVICE
     Established from the complaint's own allegations.

IV.  THE CLAIMS TREAT DEFENDANT AS A PUBLISHER
     Count-by-count. For each: what duty is alleged, and why
     performing it would require publishing decisions.

V.   THE CONTENT WAS PROVIDED BY ANOTHER CONTENT PROVIDER
     A. The content originated with users
     B. Defendant did not materially contribute to the
        alleged unlawfulness (Roommates.Com)
     C. Neutral tools do not make a service a content provider

VI.  PLAINTIFF'S RECHARACTERIZATIONS DO NOT AVOID THE STATUTE
     [Design defect / failure to warn / negligent undertaking]
     — address the substance, not the label

VII. THE EXCEPTIONS DO NOT APPLY
     Federal criminal / intellectual property / ECPA / § 1595

VIII. [CONCEDE ANY COUNT NOT BARRED, AND ADDRESS IT ON THE MERITS]

IX.  ALTERNATIVE GROUNDS FOR DISMISSAL
     No duty / no causation / failure to state a claim

Two drafting rules. Do not claim the statute bars a contract count based on the platform's own terms — it does not, and overclaiming costs credibility on the counts where the argument is correct. And always brief the substantive deficiencies, because a court reluctant to reach a broad statutory holding may prefer a narrower ground.

Template 12 — Incident response plan (one page)

Element Entry
Trigger types Viral illegal content / coordinated harassment / safety emergency / mass compromise / regulatory inquiry / press inquiry
Incident commander Name, backup, contact
Legal owner
Trust and safety owner
Communications owner
Executive escalation Threshold and named person
Preservation trigger Who issues it; what is preserved
Law enforcement referral standard
Mandatory reporting obligations Child safety: preserve, do not delete
User communication decision Who approves
Regulator communication Who speaks
Post-incident review Within [10] days, with findings assigned

Template 13 — Creator program terms (risk provisions)

Compensation is formulaic. Payments are calculated by [defined formula based on engagement metrics]. We do not commission specific content, direct the subject matter of your content, or pay for particular messages.

You are independent. You are not our employee, agent, or partner, and you may not represent otherwise.

Disclosure. Where you receive compensation or free products in connection with content, you will disclose it clearly and conspicuously in the content itself, consistent with 16 C.F.R. Part 255.

Compliance. Your content must comply with our Community Guidelines and applicable law. We may remove content and suspend participation for violations.

No claims about the Service. You will not make claims about the Service's safety, reach, or performance that we have not approved in writing.

Taxes. You are responsible for taxes on amounts paid. We will report as required.

Why "formulaic" matters: a platform that commissions specific content moves toward being an information content provider as to that content, which forfeits 47 U.S.C. § 230 protection for it.

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