Chefra Community Guidelines & Acceptable Use Policy

1. Why These Guidelines Exist

Chefra is a place for people who love food — to share recipes, discover ideas, connect with other cooks, and build community. These Community Guidelines and Acceptable Use Policy ("Guidelines") define what is and isn't acceptable on Chefra. They exist to protect our community, help Chefra comply with applicable law, and ensure we can continue operating the platform for everyone.

These Guidelines are incorporated by reference into Chefra's Terms of Service. By using Chefra, you agree to follow them.

2. Our Role and How We Moderate

Chefra is not a publisher and has no duty to monitor. We do not review content before it is posted and we make no guarantee that content on the platform complies with these Guidelines or any law. We rely on our community and our automated systems to surface potential violations.

We reserve sole and absolute editorial discretion. Chefra may, at any time and without prior notice or liability to you, remove, limit, or restrict any content or account that we determine, in our sole judgment, violates these Guidelines, our Terms of Service, or any applicable law — or that we determine is harmful to our community, even if not explicitly listed here. We are not required to explain individual moderation decisions.

We are not liable for failing to act. Our decision to leave content up or take it down does not create any duty of care, warranty, or liability. Chefra is not responsible for content posted by users.

This approach is consistent with our rights as an interactive computer service under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and our general rights as a private platform operator.

3. Prohibited Content

You may not post, share, upload, import, link to, or otherwise make available on Chefra any content that:

3.1 Harms People

• Harassment and bullying: Content that targets, threatens, intimidates, demeans, or repeatedly contacts another person in a way intended to distress them, including in Circles, Kitchens, comments, or direct messages.
• Hate speech: Content that attacks, dehumanizes, or promotes hatred against individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or other protected characteristics.
• Doxxing and privacy violations: Posting another person's private information — including real name, address, phone number, email, financial information, or precise location — without their explicit consent.
• Sexual harassment: Unsolicited sexual content, sexual propositions, or gender-based harassment directed at any user.
• Threats and incitement to violence: Explicit or implicit threats of physical harm against any person or group, or content designed to incite violence.

3.2 Exploits or Endangers Minors

• Child sexual abuse material (CSAM): Any depiction, real or simulated, of minors in a sexual context is strictly prohibited and will be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and relevant law enforcement.
• Grooming: Content or conduct designed to build inappropriate trust with or access to a minor for the purpose of exploitation or abuse.
• Unsafe content targeting children: Dangerous activities, inappropriate adult content, or harmful advice presented in a manner targeting minors.

3.3 Is Deceptive or Inauthentic

• Impersonation: Pretending to be another person, brand, or organization in a misleading way, including mimicking another user's name, profile photo, or identity.
• Misinformation: Knowingly false health, food safety, or nutritional claims that could cause harm if followed.
• Spam: Repetitive, unsolicited, or mass-posted content, including bulk recipe imports that are not your original content or properly licensed material.
• Fake engagement: Using bots, automation, or purchased followers, likes, or saves to artificially inflate engagement.

3.4 Involves Illegal Activity

• Illegal goods and services: Offering, soliciting, or facilitating the sale or trade of controlled substances, prescription drugs, weapons, counterfeit goods, or any other product or service whose sale or distribution is illegal.
• Illegal food practices: Content promoting food handling, preparation, or sale in violation of applicable food safety laws.
• Facilitating crimes: Instructions or coordination for hacking, fraud, theft, or any other criminal activity.

3.5 Infringes Intellectual Property

• Copyright infringement: Reproducing, distributing, or importing another creator's protected expression — including recipe headnotes, narrative descriptions, or photographs — without authorization. Note: bare ingredient lists and purely functional instructions are generally not copyrightable, but creative expression, writing, and images are. When in doubt, link to the source rather than copy it.
• Trademark infringement: Using another party's trademark in a way likely to cause confusion as to source or affiliation.
• See Section 15 (DMCA and Copyright) and /help/dmca for the repeat-infringer policy.

3.6 Is Otherwise Harmful

• Dangerous food advice: Recipes or instructions that could cause serious injury or illness if followed, including advice to consume dangerous quantities of substances, use equipment unsafely, or handle allergens in ways that misrepresent cross-contamination risk.
• Self-harm promotion: Content that promotes, glorifies, or provides instructions for self-harm, disordered eating, or suicide.
• Off-platform solicitation: Using Chefra to redirect users to external platforms for commercial solicitation, pyramid schemes, or multi-level marketing.
• Malware and phishing: Sharing links, files, or code designed to deceive, harm, or gain unauthorized access to systems.

4. Prohibited Conduct

Beyond what you post, you may not:

• Evade enforcement: Create new accounts or use alternate accounts to circumvent a suspension or termination.
• Abuse platform features: Mass-report other users in bad faith, manipulate search or discovery features, or exploit technical vulnerabilities.
• Scrape or harvest data: Collect user data, content, or account information from Chefra by automated means without our express written permission.
• Interfere with the service: Attempt to disable, overload, or disrupt Chefra's infrastructure, or interfere with other users' access.
• Violate others' rights: Use Chefra to defame, infringe, or violate any person's legal rights, including privacy and publicity rights.
• Commercialize without permission: Sell, license, or sublicense access to Chefra features or data without our written authorization.

5. Kitchens (Public Communities)

Kitchens are public, topic-focused communities visible to all Chefra users. Kitchen creators and moderators are responsible for enforcing these Guidelines within their Kitchens. Chefra may intervene in any Kitchen at any time.

Kitchen names, descriptions, and rules may not violate these Guidelines. Kitchens created primarily to harass specific individuals, promote prohibited content, or evade enforcement action will be removed.

6. Circles (Private Groups)

Circles are private groups whose content is visible only to members. Being private does not exempt content or conduct from these Guidelines. Reports from Circle members will be investigated. Chefra does not proactively monitor private Circle content but reserves the right to review and act on reported content.

Circles may not be used to coordinate harassment, share CSAM or other illegal content, or engage in any conduct prohibited by these Guidelines or applicable law.

7. Direct Messages

Chefra does not monitor private direct messages. However, we reserve the right to investigate and act on credible reports of abuse.

You may not use direct messages to:

• Send unsolicited sexual content.
• Harass, threaten, or stalk another user.
• Send spam, phishing links, or malware.
• Solicit minors inappropriately or attempt grooming.

Adult-to-minor messaging: Users who are adults may not send unsolicited direct messages to users who are identified as minors. If you receive an unsolicited message from an adult that makes you uncomfortable, please report it.

8. Minors

Chefra is intended for users 13 years of age and older. Users under 13 are not permitted to create accounts. If we discover an account belongs to a user under 13, we will delete it and the associated data.

If you are under 18:

• Do not share personally identifying information (full name, school, precise location) in public spaces on Chefra.
• Block or report any adult whose conduct toward you is inappropriate.
• A parent or guardian is encouraged to review these Guidelines with you.

Chefra reserves the right to apply additional default protections for minor accounts as platform features and applicable law evolve.

9. Recipe Importing and Attribution

Chefra's import features are provided for your personal use with content you own or have the right to use. When you import a recipe or content from an external source, you represent that:

• You have the right to import, reproduce, and share that content on Chefra.
• The import does not infringe any third party's copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights.
• You understand that creative expression in recipes — including headnotes, descriptions, and photos — is protected by copyright even when ingredient lists are not.

You are responsible for any content you import. Chefra is not liable for infringing imports. You agree to indemnify Chefra for any claims arising from content you import.

Best practice: When importing recipes from other creators, import only factual elements (ingredient quantities, steps) and credit the original source by linking to it rather than reproducing protected text or photos.

10. AI-Assisted Features

Chefra uses AI (powered by Anthropic's Claude) to assist with recipe parsing, import, and other features. AI outputs are probabilistic and may contain errors, including inaccurate ingredient quantities, nutritional information, allergen data, or cooking instructions.

You must verify AI-generated content before relying on it, especially for allergen, nutritional, or medical purposes. Chefra is not liable for errors in AI-generated content. See the Terms of Service for the full AI disclaimer.

11. How to Report Violations

To report content or conduct that violates these Guidelines:

• In-app reporting: Use the "Report" option on posts, comments, profiles, and messages throughout Chefra.
• Email: support@getchefra.com — include a description and, if possible, a link or screenshot.
• DMCA copyright complaints: Use the process at /help/dmca.
• Emergency / CSAM: If a child is in immediate danger, contact local law enforcement immediately. Also report CSAM to NCMEC's CyberTipline at cybertipline.org or 1-800-843-5678.

Filing false or bad-faith reports is a violation of these Guidelines and may result in enforcement action.

11a. Our commitment on objectionable content and abusive users

To protect everyone who uses Chefra — and in keeping with the requirements that distribution platforms place on apps that host user-generated content — Chefra commits to all of the following:

• Filter objectionable material. Chefra uses a combination of automated screening and human review to filter content prohibited under Section 4 (Prohibited Content) before and after it appears in public surfaces.
• Provide a reporting mechanism. Every post, comment, profile, and direct message has a "Report" affordance that creates a moderation case for human review.
• Act on objectionable content reports promptly. Chefra aims to action reports of objectionable content within 24 hours, removing the content and taking enforcement action against the responsible user when appropriate. CSAM is escalated immediately and reported to NCMEC.
• Let users block abusive accounts. Any user can block any other user from Settings → Blocked, or from the menu on a profile, post, comment, or DM. Blocking is mutual on public surfaces and silences direct messages from the blocked account.
• Publish these rules. The Community Guidelines and Terms of Service are linked from every Chefra screen and from the App Store / Play Store listings.

12. What Happens After a Report

• Review: Our team or automated systems review the reported content against these Guidelines. We do not guarantee a specific review timeframe.
• Action: If content violates these Guidelines, we may take one or more actions described in Section 13.
• Notification: We may notify the reporting user that we've reviewed their report. We do not always share the specific action taken, to protect all parties' privacy.

We are not required to take action on every report.

13. Enforcement

Chefra applies enforcement in its sole discretion. Depending on the severity and frequency of violations, we may:

• Issue a warning.
• Remove or restrict visibility of specific content.
• Temporarily or permanently limit access to specific features.
• Temporarily suspend your account.
• Permanently terminate your account (may occur without prior warning for severe violations including CSAM, credible threats of violence, or repeated infringement).
• Report conduct to law enforcement where required or appropriate.

Repeat infringers: Users who repeatedly infringe third-party intellectual property rights will have their accounts terminated. See /help/dmca for the full repeat-infringer policy.

Chefra is not liable to you for any enforcement action taken in good faith under these Guidelines.

14. Appeals

If your content was removed or your account was suspended or terminated and you believe the action was taken in error, email support@getchefra.com within 30 days. Include your account username or email, the content or action at issue, and why you believe the action was taken in error.

We will review appeals in good faith but are not required to reverse any enforcement decision. Our decision on appeal is final.

Appeals do not apply to CSAM-related terminations. Those are permanent and not subject to appeal.

15. DMCA and Copyright

Chefra respects intellectual property rights and maintains a designated DMCA agent. For copyright takedown notices, counter-notifications, and our repeat-infringer policy, see /help/dmca.

16. Changes to These Guidelines

We may update these Guidelines at any time. If we make material changes, we will provide notice through the app or by email. Continued use of Chefra after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Guidelines.

17. Contact

Questions: support@getchefra.com
Legal: legal@getchefra.com
Privacy: privacy@getchefra.com
DMCA: dmca@getchefra.com

Chefra LLC
PO Box 76
Haven, Kansas 67543