AO3 News

TOS Spotlight: Harassment

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Published:
2025-06-14 19:40:54 UTC
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Spotlight on Policy & Abuse

The Policy & Abuse committee (PAC) is responsible for enforcing the AO3 Terms of Service (TOS). To help users better understand the TOS, we're posting a weekly spotlight series about the TOS and our policies. We'll also be reading comments and answering questions on this and our other spotlight posts.

Today's post from the Policy & Abuse committee is about harassment. As stated in Section II.H of our Terms of Service, "Harassment is any behavior that produces a generally hostile environment for its target. Examples include bullying, threats, and personal attacks by or towards individuals or groups of people."

Harassment is not tolerated on AO3 in any form—regardless of whether it occurs in works, tags, comments, usernames, pseuds, profiles, icons, or any other type of content.

What qualifies as harassment?

Threats and insults

When directed towards other users, threats and insults constitute harassment, and we will act on them if reported to us. This includes when phrases such as "X/Y shippers are creeps" are present in work tags or summaries.

Severe harassment

Some harassment is severe enough that it creates a hostile environment not just for the target, but for anyone who witnesses it. Engaging in severe harassment will result in harsher penalties.

The following are all considered to be severe harassment when directed towards other AO3 users:

  • Death threats/wishes
  • Threats of violence/bodily harm
  • Slurs directed at other users
  • Self-harm/suicide baiting (suggesting that someone should hurt or kill themselves)
  • Doxxing or threats of doxxing (connecting a user's non-public, personally identifying information to their online handle)

Anyone can report these, whether or not they're the primary victim. PAC will remove all instances of severe harassment that are reported to us.

Call-out posts

A call-out is when someone posts a work (or a chapter or author's note) that criticizes someone for their behavior in an attempt to draw public attention to that person.

We consider call-out posts to be harassment. If you see a call-out post, whether or not it is targeted at you, you can report it to us. Call-out posts are not allowed, regardless of what the target of the call-out has done.

If you encounter someone who has violated the AO3 Terms of Service, please don't post a call-out and violate the TOS yourself. Instead, we recommend that you submit an Abuse report and use AO3's blocking and muting features to avoid that person.

Interacting after being blocked

A blocked user is expected to cease all interaction with the person who blocked them. We consider attempting to "get around" a block to be harassment. If you've blocked someone and think they're evading your block, you can report them to us.

What does not qualify as harassment?

Offensive content

What's considered offensive and unacceptable varies from person to person. AO3 hosts a wide range of content that many users find to be offensive, and in our last post, we discussed some of the ways you can avoid such content.

You may not leave comments attacking the creator of a work you find offensive.

You can mute the user so you don't see any of their works, bookmarks, or comments. If you want to make sure they can't communicate with you, you should also block them.

Criticism

We don't consider criticism of a work, constructive or otherwise, to be harassment in and of itself. Offensive opinions and comments that aren't direct personal attacks are also not harassment (for example, expressing negative views about celebrities or the content of a work).

If somebody says your work is bad, that's an opinion about your work, not a personal attack against you. However, repeatedly leaving negative comments in a short period of time, pressuring you to delete your work, or encouraging others to engage in similar behavior could be considered harassment depending on the circumstances.

Arguments

People are allowed to argue or disagree with your opinions. Argument is not harassment, and PAC will not intervene simply because users are arguing with or being rude to each other. If someone in the argument is using personal attacks, you can report them to us, but in general, PAC does not mediate disputes between users. If you want to end an argument, you should tell that person you will not respond further; if necessary, you can also block them.

If you are a bystander witnessing an argument rather than one of the participants, then we are unlikely to uphold your complaint unless someone is engaging in severe harassment. When it comes to rude or moderately antagonistic comment exchanges, we rarely act on third-party reports.

Do Not Interact (DNI) requests

Requesting that someone does not interact with you is not harassment in itself, but it may be considered harassment if paired with an insult or threat (for example, "DNI you weirdos who ship this" or "no incest lovers allowed I will stomp you all to death with my hooves").

If you want someone to stop interacting with you, you should block them. If you never want to encounter them again, you can also mute them.

What should I do if I'm getting harassing comments on my works?

PAC tries to prioritize urgent reports such as harassment, but there will always be a delay while we investigate and take action. We recommend that you immediately block any registered user who harasses you. We also recommend that you enable one or more of the Privacy options on your work(s) while you wait for our response.

To edit the Privacy options on your work, select the "Edit" button, then navigate to the "Privacy" section. If you want to edit the Privacy options on multiple works at once, you can do so easily using our "Edit Multiple Works" tool.

Changing your Privacy options does not have to be permanent; you can update them at any time. If you're being harassed, we recommend changing your Privacy options at least for a short period of time.

The options available to you in the Privacy section are as follows:

Only show your work to registered users

You can use this feature to lock your work so only registered users can see it. If you are the victim of a mass-harassment campaign, this will prevent "drive-by" comments from guest users. Works that have been restricted to AO3 users will have a blue lock symbol displayed next to the title and are not accessible to guest users.

Enable comment moderation

Comment moderation prevents any new comments (from both registered users and guests) from being publicly displayed on your work until you approve them. If you don't approve a particular comment, then it will not be made public. PAC volunteers are able to see unreviewed/unapproved comments, so you can report a harassing comment without marking it as approved.

If you're being harassed by a guest user but don't want to disable anonymous comments entirely, you can use comment moderation to prevent harassing guest comments from appearing on your work.

If the harassment was posted by a registered user, comment moderation can help too. It not only prevents their comments from being shown to others, but also makes it easier for us to investigate, as long as you leave their comments unapproved and don't delete them yourself.

Who can comment on this work

There are three comment settings:

  1. Registered users and guests can comment: Anyone can comment, including guests. (Note: If your work is restricted to registered users, guest users won't be able to access it and therefore cannot comment even if this option is enabled.)
  2. Only registered users can comment: This is the default option. Only logged-in users can comment on your work, while guests and logged-out users cannot.
  3. No one can comment: This will disable all new comments on your work, regardless of whether the user is logged in or a guest.

Changing these settings will not affect any existing comments.

Archive locking, comment moderation, and comment restriction can all be used in conjunction with each other. For example, you can enable comment moderation and set your work to only allow registered users to comment at the same time. This means you won't receive any guest comments at all, and comments from registered users will have to be manually approved.

What should I do if I encounter harassing content on AO3?

You can report harassment through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form, which is linked at the bottom of every page on AO3. If you wish to avoid future contact from a registered user, we recommend blocking and muting them.

If the harassing content has been deleted, we generally won't be able to investigate unless you're able to provide screenshots or other copies of the harassing content. While it's not possible to upload images to our reporting form, you can include links to images hosted on third-party sites in your report description. You can also specify in your report that you saved copies of the harassment, which we may ask you to provide in our initial response to your report.

How do I report harassing comments?

Comments can be reported through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form like all other content on AO3. You can get the direct link to a specific comment by selecting the "Thread" button on the comment and copying the URL of that page, or by clicking on the link in your email or AO3 inbox.

If you're reporting moderated comments, you don't have to approve the comments or link every single comment in your report—just give us the link to your work's unreviewed comments page, and specify which comment(s) you're reporting (if you have a lot of unapproved comments).

Please don't submit multiple reports about the same user. When reporting multiple works or comments by the same user, please submit only one report with links to everything you're reporting, so that all information about that user is in the same place. If the harassment is ongoing, you can turn on comment moderation—if you mention that you've done so and link your work's unreviewed comments page in your report, we'll check that page for any new harassing comments submitted, without you needing to file an additional report.

For example, a report of a harassing comment might look like this:

Link to the page you are reporting: https://archiveofourown.info/comments/000000000

Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Harassment

Description of the content you are reporting:
USERNAME went on a slur-filled rant in this comment on my work.

If you are reporting additional comments, please include all relevant links and other information in your report description:

Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Harassment (repeated nasty comments and block evasion)

Description of the content you are reporting:
USERNAME went on a slur-filled rant in this comment on my work.

After I froze the thread, they commented with more slurs and insults here: https://archiveofourown.info/works/1234/comments/123456789

I blocked them and turned on comment moderation but then they commented again as a guest: https://archiveofourown.info/ works/1234/comments/234567890

I have screenshots and copies of the email notifications if you need them.

A report of a harassing work might look like this:

Link to the page you are reporting: https://archiveofourown.info/works/00000000

Brief summary of Terms of Service violation: Harassment in tags and notes

Description of the content you are reporting:
USERNAME has a harassing tag: "go away x/y freaks or i'll call the cops"

And in the end notes they have more harassment: "incest lovers do not comment or I will slice your toes off"

If you are reporting additional works or comments that are part of the same incident, please include all relevant links and other information in your report description:

Description of the content you are reporting:
USERNAME has a harassing tag: "go away x/y freaks or i'll call the cops"

And in the end notes they have more harassment: "incest lovers do not comment or I will slice your toes off"

One of their other works (https://archiveofourown.info/works/23456789) also has harassment and I think is not a fanwork? It's a long rant about why x/y shippers are idiots.

The comments of this work are full of harassment, mostly by guests, but the creator calls a bunch of people pedophiles in these threads:
https://archiveofourown.info/comments/123456789
https://archiveofourown.info/comments/234567890

In the second thread linked above, there's also a "kys" (kill yourself) comment by USERNAME2, which the creator responds to with "u first".

You can add more details if you like, but these examples provide the basic information we need:

  • Who posted the harassing content: Tell us their username(s) or if the comment(s) or work(s) are anonymous or orphaned.
  • Where we can find the harassing content: Enter one URL in the "Link to the page you are reporting" field, and (if applicable) include links to any other violating works or comment threads in the description of your report.
  • What violates the TOS: Explain why you think harassment has occurred, for example by including a quote and/or providing context for a comment exchange. A brief description of the situation is fine; you don't need to be very detailed or quote an entire TOS or FAQ section.

You'll receive an automatic email confirming that we received your report, and our volunteers will investigate when they get a chance. Please be patient and do not submit another report about the same incident. While PAC investigates every report we receive, it can take several months for us to process a report.

What if I have more questions about harassment?

PAC follows a strict confidentiality policy. Therefore, while you are welcome to ask general questions in the comments of this post, we will not give information on specific cases, publicly rule on a work, or update you on the status of a report you have already submitted. Comments on this post that discuss specific works or users will be removed.

If you are being harassed, think you've found harassing content, or if you want to know whether a particular work or comment qualifies as harassment, please report the work(s) or comment(s) to us as described above. For more information, you can read our TOS FAQ on harassment.

If you are still uncertain, you can comment below or submit a question through the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form.