2024 year-end developments from the Policy Team

The latest in Patreon policy... and how your input can help shape what's next.

Content warning: This post mentions topics related to mental health, including self-harm and suicide. If you or someone you know may need support, we encourage you to seek help through trusted resources like the Crisis Text Line or other local mental health services.

As the year comes to a close, Patreon’s Policy Team is back with updates on key developments, from enhancing platform safety and refining Community Guidelines, to fostering new partnerships — all informed by invaluable feedback from our creators. As part of our Creator Policy Engagement Program, we invite you to share your input with us during a live virtual event on December 12 (RSVP here), where we’ll delve deeper into these updates and answer your questions.

We’re also thrilled to welcome Eric Han as Patreon’s new Vice President of Trust and Safety. With over 15 years of experience in trust and safety operations at companies like TikTok, Uber, Twitter, and Google, Eric’s leadership reinforces our commitment to a creator-first approach to keeping Patreon safe and welcoming. Stay tuned for an opportunity to meet Eric during an early 2025 policy livestream.

Policy proposals for your feedback

The Policy Team welcomes creator feedback on the following proposals:

• New Commerce Guidelines: As Patreon evolves from a membership platform to one offering a wide array of marketplace products and features, we’re proposing adding a new Commerce Guidelines section to Patreon’s policy categories to govern all products, services, and benefits offered on Patreon. These will also cover products, services, and benefits offered off Patreon, where creators provide access or promote through our platform. Building on the existing Benefit Guidelines, the Commerce Guidelines would prohibit illegal activities and materials from being sold in Patreon shops, including child sexual exploitation, pornography, gambling, explosives, hate, and more. They would also give creators clearer rules for product listing descriptions, address new categories like recalled products, align with global compliance standards, and make it harder for bad actors to work around our policies.
• Refund policy improvements: We’re proposing updates to Patreon’s current Refund Policy to enhance transparency and streamline the process for both creators and fans. Under the proposal, fans would have a 14-day window to request refunds for digital purchases made via web and mobile, with creators still able to honor requests beyond this timeframe if they choose. Refunds within the 14-day period would follow a clear escalation pathway for unresolved requests. These updates apply to digital products and purchases and aim to improve clarity, address concerns about refund misuse, and balance fairness for creators and fans alike.
• Refining Harmful Acts guidelines: When it comes to mental health, our goal is to protect our community while fostering an environment of education, support, and recovery. We’re proposing an update to the Harmful Acts section of our Community Guidelines that would clarify that Patreon does not permit content that expresses a clear and immediate intent to engage in self-harm or suicide, as well as content that promotes, glorifies, or normalizes these acts; however, Patreon does allow works that raise awareness, provide support, or involve fictional storytelling.
• Clarifying guidance on AI-generated Adult/18+ content: We’re proposing an update to the Artificial Intelligence section of our Community Guidelines on Sexually Gratifying Works to prohibit tutorials or educational content for creating hyperrealistic AI-generated Adult/18+ works, including detailed guides or techniques. This update makes it easier for our content moderation team to ensure clarity and consistency in enforcement. As a reminder, AI-generated hyperrealistic depictions of people on Adult/18+ accounts must be real humans who have documented their explicit consent; AI-generated Adult/18+ figures or characters that are animated or illustrated — as opposed to hyperrealistic — and otherwise comply with Patreon’s Sexually Gratifying Works policies, are permitted on Patreon.
• Seeking input to inform guidance on linking to external sites and off-platform activity: To support a safe and welcoming Patreon community, we’re interested in updating our Community Guidelines in the coming months to better explain how behavior and content outside of Patreon — such as linking to other sites, sharing URLs that direct members to external platforms, or engaging in harmful activities off-platform — are evaluated in content moderation. We intend to address concerns like scams, platform abuse, and harmful commerce practices, providing clearer transparency on what is and isn’t permissible. As we embark on this work, we encourage creators to share areas where further clarification would be helpful or address any points of confusion.

Additional updates

• Election misinformation policy addendum: Ahead of the U.S. election cycle, we updated the Inauthentic Behavior section of our guidelines to distinguish between permissible and prohibited election-related content. The updates ensured that while educational and journalistic works, as well as discussions, opinions, and satire, are welcome, works that spread harmful misinformation or unverified claims about elections is not allowed.
• Supporting your mental health and wellness: In our mid-year policy update, we shared our intention to enhance mental health and wellness resources for the Patreon community and asked for your input on potential programming and partnerships. Guided by your feedback, we’re thrilled to announce Patreon’s partnership with Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit offering free, 24/7, confidential text-based mental health support in English and Spanish. Since 2013, Crisis Text Line has facilitated over 10 million crisis conversations in the U.S. and 14 million globally. Stay tuned as we collaborate with Crisis Text Line to bring new mental health resources to creators and fans in 2025.
• Appeals process revamp: In our mid-year update, we also shared plans to introduce a more robust appeals process for creators, and we’re excited to announce that it is now live! Now, creators whose accounts have been removed by Patreon’s Trust & Safety Team can appeal within six months by submitting a request through our Help Center, including detailed reasoning and supporting evidence. These updates aim to provide clearer pathways and greater transparency for creators navigating account removal decisions. Learn more about the clarified appeals process here.
• ID verification and inactive Adult/18+ creator pages: To comply with payment processors’ identity verification requirements, Patreon will return inactive Adult/18+ creator pages to an unpublished (or “draft”) state if they have not completed ID verification, posted in the past 365 days, or received payments or memberships. Affected creators will be notified via email two weeks before their page is unpublished. Unpublishing makes the page undiscoverable and unable to accept memberships, but creators can relaunch it anytime by completing ID verification. For more details about unpublishing, visit our Help Center.

Live event with the Policy Team

Livestream: Join members of Patreon’s Policy Team for a live virtual event on Thursday, December 12, at 11:00 AM PST // 2:00 PM EST // 7:00 PM GMT. During the session, the team will dive deeper into these updates and answer questions from creators. By RSVPing you can submit your questions in advance and ensure you’ll receive a recording of the event via email, even if you can’t attend live. Please note that the event will be conducted in English.

Community Q&A: Following Thursday’s livestream, the policy discussion will carry on for one week in a policy Q&A channel on Patreon’s Creator Community Discord. Head over to #policy-live-qa to participate in the conversation, which will open at the conclusion of the livestream and remain active until Thursday, December 19 at 12:00 PM PST // 3:00 PM EST // 8:00 PM GMT.

Email: You can also reach Patreon’s Policy Team with feedback, suggestions, or questions at [email protected].

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The Policy Team looks forward to your thoughts on these updates and deeply appreciates your continued involvement and support.