The mission of CandFans is to help creators unlock and take full ownership of their potential. We achieve this by fostering a secure and thriving environment, offering unmatched opportunities, and implementing strong safeguards to prioritize the safety, privacy, and well-being of our community. Through our Transparency Reports, we highlight our unwavering commitment to building the world’s safest social media platform, setting a new standard in accountability and leading the way in safety compliance within the industry.
The monthly CandFans Transparency Report is available at the following link: Report List
Additionally, detailed explanations for each section are provided below.
CandFans Approach to Safety & Transparency
CandFans empowers creators from all genres to own their potential. We are committed to having robust protections and controls to ensure the safety, privacy, and well-being of the CandFans community while maximizing the freedom of our creators and fans to control and monetize the lawful content they produce and view. We do this by:
- enforcing a zero-tolerance policy against any content related to violence, trafficking, solicitation, child sexual exploitation, or child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
- preventing individuals from abusing our platform, and keeping off our platform, any individuals who would use CandFans in a way which negatively impacts creator and fan safety.
- detecting and blocking or taking-down any material which violates our Terms of Service.
- identifying and reporting illegal content to law enforcement agencies, NGOs such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), industry groups, and charities globally.
- protecting our creators and fans from infringements of their intellectual property rights, personality rights, privacy, and data protection rights including under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
We continuously scan our platform to prevent the posting of material that breaches our Terms of Service which includes our Acceptable Use Policy. CandFans does not use end-to-end encryption which means that everything on the site is visible to CandFans moderation team. We can review and remove any content shared on CandFans at any time, including in all direct messages.
Before content can appear on a newsfeed, we inspect it with state-of-the-art digital technologies (including hashed images databases) to check whether the content is allowed on the platform. All content that passes this initial review is then manually reviewed by our trained human moderators.
Our moderators identify, and immediately escalate, any content which they suspect may breach CandFans Terms of Service. Any suspected breach of our Terms of Service is investigated and appropriate action is taken. With each of these controls, and many others across the platform, CandFans takes proactive and preventative measures that go above and beyond the legal requirements and our peers to provide a safe and very robust platform. You can find out more about the ways in which we keep our community safe by visiting our Safety & Transparency Center.
Key Transparency Data
Transparency matters. This Transparency Report is designed to give visibility to our community into how the steps we take to keep our community safe translates into data. If you would like any additional information please contact us on support@candfans.zendesk.com.
Account Approval
Keeping our community safe is a priority for CandFans. It is very important that we know who is using our platform and that they are at least 18 years old. CandFans reviews all applications for accounts on CandFans using a combination of technology and human moderation teams to verify age and identity of Creators. The tools, policies, and procedures we use to verify age and identity are always evolving to reflect best practices, state-of-the-art technology, and changes in the law. You can find out more information about the steps we take to verify the age and identity of our creators and fans by visiting here.
Applications for Creator accounts are often rejected for reasons which can be easily rectified (for example failure to provide a clear picture of their government issued identification documents or failure to provide social media handles). Where the reason for rejection can be rectified our Support Team will work with the individual to try to address these issues.
Depending on their location, Fans have to provide a combination of personally identifying information, confirmations, payments details, documents and satisfy age estimation requirements to view media content on CandFans.
We continue to check both Creator and Fan accounts after an account is opened. We proactively re-check age and identity verification using both technology and human intelligence, and we investigate any concerns from our community or other interested third parties like law enforcement, commercial partners, or non-governmental organisations.
Enforcing our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy
CandFans has a robust content moderation department with strict guidelines following our Acceptable Use Policy. We review all content, including live streams, with state-of-the-art digital technologies within minutes of being posted to CandFans.com to check whether the content is allowed on the platform.
All content that passes this initial review is then manually reviewed by our trained human moderators within 24 hours. Our trained moderators identify, and immediately escalate, any content which they suspect may breach of Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy. We also permit users to report content and accounts for any reason. We review all user reports.
Content which breaches our Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy will be deactivated. Our Creator's Guide to Content Moderation sets out the most common reasons content is removed from CandFans. If your content has been deactivated and you believe that you have not violated our Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy please complete the Deactivation Appeal Form.
Account Deactivation
CandFans goes above and beyond the legal requirements, and our peers, to provide a safe platform for Creator and Fans while maximizing the freedom of Creators and Fans to control and monetize the lawful content they produce and view.
To keep our community safe, where a Creator or Fan breaches our Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy CandFans will take appropriate action this may include warnings, account suspension or account deactivation. In addition, users may be reported to law enforcement or other authorities. If your or account has been deactivated and you believe that you have not violated our Terms of Service or Acceptable Use Policy please complete the Deactivation Appeal Form.
Combatting CSAM
CandFans fights to combat the creation and distribution of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM). CSAM is any image or video of sexually explicit conduct, including nudity, involving a person less than 18 years old. These images amount to child sexual abuse and exploitation.
We do not tolerate CSAM on our platform, and actively work to block it. The creation or distribution of CSAM is illegal and against our Terms of Service and our Acceptable Use Policy. We invest heavily in fighting child sexual exploitation online and use a combination of technology and human review to deter, detect, and remove CSAM from our platforms. For more statistics reflecting how we and other peer companies are contributing hashes to NCMEC, visit the NCMEC CyberTipline 2023 Reports.
How does CandFans identify CSAM on its platform?
Our proactive prevention and detection efforts include both automated and human review. Additionally, we respond immediately to reports submitted by our users and third parties such as NGOs, in order to detect, remove, and report suspected CSAM on our platforms. We also deploy state of the art technology to discover never-before-seen CSAM, which is then confirmed by our specialist review teams. You can find out more about the steps we take to combat CSAM here.
Incidents of suspected CSAM make up less than 0.0002% of all content submitted by creators to be posted (or attempted to be posted) on CandFans. We report all suspected incidents of CSAM to NCMEC via CyberTipline, which records the total number of reports made by CandFans and other digital media companies here. Once a CyberTipline Report is made, the suspected media is blocked and removed for investigation. Much of the suspected media does not turn out to be CSAM and/or are duplicate images or videos.
What does CandFans do when it detects CSAM on its platform?
When we detect suspected CSAM on our platforms, we immediately remove it from public view, make a "CyberTipline" report to NCMEC, and deactivate the user's account and/or take appropriate action (we put accounts into a secure server for 90 days).
NCMEC serves as a clearinghouse and comprehensive reporting center in the United States for issues related to child exploitation. Once a report is received by NCMEC, they may forward it to law enforcement agencies around the world. CandFans cooperates with any follow up requests from law enforcement in reference to NCMEC reports. In addition to CyberTipline reports, where relevant we work directly with law enforcement as needed to ensure rapid reporting and provide relevant contact points. This policy covers all jurisdictions where we operate.
How can I report suspected CSAM?
Community reporting is a very important part of our moderation process. Each post and account has a report button, which includes a specific option to report CSAM material. In addition you can email support@candfans.zendesk.com to report any post or account which you believe is sharing CSAM.
CyberTipline reports to NCMEC
A report sent to NCMEC may include information identifying the user, the minor victim, and/or other helpful contextual facts to assist in protecting and safeguarding minors. It may be the case that more than one report is sent on a particular user or piece of content — for example, in cases where content is identified from multiple sources. It may also be the case where the same content is identified associated with a user with multiple accounts, we only report that matter once, per NCMEC guidelines and standard operation procedures. NCMEC may send those reports to law enforcement agencies around the world.
Our Transparency Reports sets out the number of instances of suspected CSAM reported on a rolling monthly basis. Any slight difference in the number of reports is due to false positives or duplicate reports.
Hashing and Hash Reporting
Hashing technology allows us, and others, to find previously identified CSAM. As part of our safety compliance programme all content on CandFans is compared against a number of known bad hash lists prior to being available for view on CandFans.com. We deploy hash matching from a number of third parties including Microsoft DNA, Thorn the Internet Watch Foundation, CyberTip Canada and NCMEC.
Where CandFans identifies new CSAM, where necessary or appropriate we create a hash of the content, add that to our internal repository and report it to NCMEC, and other third-party tools. We also share hash values with other providers so they can access these hashes as well. Contributing to NCMEC's and others hash databases is one of the key ways to fight online CSAM across industry.
This metric represents the cumulative number of hashes CandFans has contributed to this effort this month. For more statistics reflecting how we and other peer companies are contributing hashes to NCMEC, visit the NCMEC CyberTipline 2023 Reports.
How does CandFans identify CSAM on its platform?
Our proactive prevention and detection efforts include both automated and human review. Additionally, we respond immediately to reports submitted by our users and third parties such as NGOs, in order to detect, remove, and report suspected CSAM on our platforms. We also deploy state of the art technology to discover never-before-seen CSAM, which is then confirmed by our specialist review teams. You can find out more about the steps we take to combat CSAM here.
Incidents of suspected CSAM make up less than 0.0002% of all content submitted by creators to be posted (or attempted to be posted) on CandFans. We report all suspected incidents of CSAM to NCMEC via CyberTipline, which records the total number of reports made by CandFans and other digital media companies here. Once a CyberTipline Report is made, the suspected media is blocked and removed for investigation. Much of the suspected media does not turn out to be CSAM and/or are duplicate images or videos.
What does CandFans do when it detects CSAM on its platform?
When we detect suspected CSAM on our platforms, we immediately remove it from public view, make a "CyberTipline" report to NCMEC, and deactivate the user's account and/or take appropriate action (we put accounts into a secure server for 90 days).
NCMEC serves as a clearinghouse and comprehensive reporting center in the United States for issues related to child exploitation. Once a report is received by NCMEC, they may forward it to law enforcement agencies around the world. CandFans cooperates with any follow up requests from law enforcement in reference to NCMEC reports. In addition to CyberTipline reports, where relevant we work directly with law enforcement as needed to ensure rapid reporting and provide relevant contact points. This policy covers all jurisdictions where we operate.
How can I report suspected CSAM?
Community reporting is a very important part of our moderation process. Each post and account has a report button, which includes a specific option to report CSAM material. In addition you can email support@candfans.zendesk.com to report any post or account which you believe is sharing CSAM.
CyberTipline reports to NCMEC
A report sent to NCMEC may include information identifying the user, the minor victim, and/or other helpful contextual facts to assist in protecting and safeguarding minors. It may be the case that more than one report is sent on a particular user or piece of content — for example, in cases where content is identified from multiple sources. It may also be the case where the same content is identified associated with a user with multiple accounts, we only report that matter once, per NCMEC guidelines and standard operation procedures. NCMEC may send those reports to law enforcement agencies around the world.
Our Transparency Reports sets out the number of instances of suspected CSAM reported on a rolling monthly basis. Any slight difference in the number of reports is due to false positives or duplicate reports.
Hashing and Hash Reporting
Hashing technology allows us, and others, to find previously identified CSAM. As part of our safety compliance programme all content on CandFans is compared against a number of known bad hash lists prior to being available for view on CandFans.com. We deploy hash matching from a number of third parties including Microsoft DNA, Thorn the Internet Watch Foundation, CyberTip Canada and NCMEC.
Where CandFans identifies new CSAM, where necessary or appropriate we create a hash of the content, add that to our internal repository and report it to NCMEC, and other third-party tools. We also share hash values with other providers so they can access these hashes as well. Contributing to NCMEC's and others hash databases is one of the key ways to fight online CSAM across industry.
This metric represents the cumulative number of hashes CandFans has contributed to this effort this month. For more statistics reflecting how we and other peer companies are contributing hashes to NCMEC, visit the NCMEC CyberTipline 2023 Reports.
Assisting Law Enforcement
As a global business, CandFans monitors developments in the legal and regulatory areas which impact our creators and our fans. We continue to make any necessary changes to our policies and procedures to ensure we comply with all applicable laws and regulations.
Keeping our community safe is a priority for CandFans. Having a close working relationship with law enforcement in all jurisdictions in which we operate is a key part of our efforts to keep our community safe.
CandFans help law enforcement in many ways including:
- helping them to investigate suspected criminal activity
- providing certified records in court proceedings
- reporting suspicious or illegal actions where appropriate or necessary
- sharing best practices on identifying suspicious/illegal activity online
- helping them to shape policy on online safety and harm prevention and detection techniques including age and user verification and content moderation.
Government agencies from around the world ask CandFans to disclose user information. When CandFans receives a request for assistance from Law Enforcement or NGOs, we carefully review each request to make sure it satisfies laws of the relevant jurisdiction. CandFans handles requests from government agencies in administrative and criminal cases, as well as requests related to civil law matters. In all cases our legal teams require the agencies to comply with formal legal processes such as obtaining a subpoena, production order, search warrant, or court order to compel disclosure of user information.
We have a dedicated team which responds to requests for information or assistance from law enforcement. We have a specific guide in place to help Law Enforcement to contact us, which can be found here and you can find out more information about how we work with law enforcement by visiting here.
Protecting Your Privacy
CandFans respects user privacy and is committed to protecting personal data. CandFans collects personal data to keep our community safe. We need to know who is using our platform and how they are using it. A list of the types of data we collect can be found in our Privacy Policy .
CandFans Creator and Fans can request a removal or deletion of personal data from CandFans. When a User makes a request for the removal or deletion of personal data, we will balance their privacy and data protection rights with our legal obligations — for example, we may decline to remove certain information about identity information, content shared, financial scams, account behavior or other relevant conduct. More information can be found by visiting Privacy Policy.
Helping Creators Protect Their Copyright
CandFans' mission is to empower Creators to own their potential. We are committed to providing Creators with a safe environment, so that they can share and monetize the content which they create. Each Creator owns the content which they chose to post on CandFans. Each Creator grants CandFans a legal right to use the content on the platform by displaying the content to the Creator's Fans.
We respect and value the rights of our content creators in their works and images. CandFans supports those rights by policing the unauthorized use and/or re-publishing of those creations and images on other sites or for unauthorized purposes. CandFans submits DMCA requests to third party sites to enforce those rights. Just as we protect the property rights of our creators, CandFans respects the property rights of third parties and prohibits the unauthorized use of images or creations. You can find more information about how we help Creators protect their copyright by visiting here.