Vimeo is an online video platform that empowers you to showcase your creativity, engage your audience, and make a lasting impact. As you embark on your journey with Vimeo, it's important to understand the guidelines and policies that govern the platform. This article will serve as your guide to using Vimeo effectively and ensuring your content meets the platform's standards while providing a positive experience for all users.
We will dive into Vimeo's terms of service and content guidelines to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of what kind of content is acceptable on Vimeo.
Vimeo Terms of Service
When using Vimeo, it's important to familiarize yourself with the rules and regulations outlined in the terms of service. Here are the critical sections related to uploading content:
Ownership and Responsibility
You own the content you upload to Vimeo, but it's your responsibility to ensure that you have all the necessary rights, licenses, and permissions to share it on the platform.
Prohibited Content
Vimeo strictly prohibits the upload of content that infringes upon intellectual property rights, promotes hate speech, contains explicit violence or pornography, harasses or defames individuals, or violates any local, national, or international laws.
Copyright Infringement
Vimeo respects copyright laws and takes copyright infringement seriously. Unless you have explicit permission or a legal basis, you cannot upload content that violates the copyrights of others.
Vimeo Content Guidelines
Third-Party rights
The content you upload should not infringe on any other third-party rights. This may include trademark rights and privacy rights.
Sexually Explicit Content
We do not allow pornography or other sexually explicit content. This includes content that.
- depicts sexual acts in an explicit manner
- contains sexualized nudity; or
- is primarily intended to cause sexual stimulation, even if no sexual act or nudity is featured. We may allow videos that depict sexuality that serve a clear creative, artistic, aesthetic, or narrative purpose and non-sexual nudity. However, in these cases, you must rate the content properly..
Defamation
We do not allow content that makes provable false statements of fact about a person, regardless of their private or public status, that would harm their reputation. If the complaining figure is a public one, we will generally require evidence that the false statement was maliciously made to take down the content.
Harassment, bullying, and abuse
We do not allow content that seeks to threaten, intimidate, insult, shame, or hurt an individual or group, regardless of their private or public status. Threats, doxing, revenge porn, trolling, cyberbullying, and other forms of abuse will be removed. We may allow critical commentary of public figures as long as it does not constitute harassment or abuse.
Hateful and Discriminatory Speech
We do not allow hateful and discriminatory speech. We define this as any expression that (1) is directed to an individual or group of individuals based upon personal characteristics of that individual or group; (2) conveys a message of inferiority or contempt; and (3) would be considered extremely offensive to a reasonable person.
Promotes or supports terror or hate groups
We do not allow content from hate or terror groups that aim to spread propaganda designed to radicalize and recruit people or aid and abet attacks or provide instructions on how to assemble explosive/incendiary devices or homemade/improvised firearms.
Child Harm
We do not allow content that was created through the exploitation of children or that is harmful to children. Content featuring child nudity is not permitted. We will remove this type of content, regardless of who posted it or with what intention, to reduce the chances of others using it for unintended or harmful purposes. 💡Tip: If you intend to watch Vimeo with your kids or upload any content featuring them, please read our Parental Guidance for tips on how to keep them safe.
Depicts or encourages self-harm or suicide
We do not allow content that depicts or encourages self-harm or suicide. We do allow videos where users talk openly about depression, self-harm, suicide, or other mental health issues, or about their own experiences with these issues, to educate the public, raise awareness and help others.
Excessive Violence
We do not allow content that:
- Incites violence
- Show people being murdered, tortured, or physically or sexually abused
- Depict self-mutilation or encourage it
- Show animals being tortured or killed
- Display shocking, disgusting, or gruesome images
Videos that depict violence in a way that complies with our Guidelines must be marked with a “Mature” content rating to be displayed on Vimeo.com.
Deceptive Schemes
We do not allow content that promotes:
- Illegal schemes (like Pyramid/Ponzi schemes)
- Businesses that promise wealth with little or no effort
- Unregistered securities offerings (absent a legal basis)
- Illegal products or services
- Products or services (even if legal) using deceptive marketing practices
Health Misinformation
We do not allow health-related content that might cause people to take dangerous or unproven treatments or refrain from taking indicated precautions or treatments that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or World Health Organization (WHO) recommend. We also do not allow claims that an epidemic or pandemic (such as COVID-19) is a conspiracy.
Vaccine Misinformation
We do not allow claims that vaccines are unsafe for a general population unless the CDC or WHO has substantiated the claim. In addition, we do not allow content that promotes an agent or treatment for use to vaccinate against a particular infectious disease if it has not been specifically approved by a governmental body.
Abortion Misinformation
We do not allow content that seeks to provide false or misleading information regarding the safety and availability of abortion care.
Voter Suppression
We do not allow content that spreads false or misleading information on voter eligibility, voter registration, and the voting process (e.g., time, place, manner, requirements) in a manner that might cause a reasonable voter to fail to take an action that would allow that person to effectively vote. We also do not allow content that seeks to intimidate or harass voters.
Election Interference
We do not allow content that: calls for violence over voting or an election; seeks to intimidate or harass persons who administer voting or elections; or encourages others to do any of the foregoing or to interfere with or obstruct the voting or election process.
Misinformation about Elections Results
We do not allow content that
- contains an explicit or implicit call for violence or unlawful activity.
- defames, intimidates, or harasses people or companies involved in administering elections.
- is part of an apparent campaign to spread disinformation on Vimeo.com (e.g., multiple accounts created to spread the content or other coordinated behavior).
Candidate Eligibility
We do not allow content that spreads false or misleading information about a candidate's technical eligibility requirements for an elected office (e.g., age, citizenship, address).
False and Misleading Content
We do not allow:
- Claims that established events such as genocides, school shootings, or terrorist attacks did not happen.
- Claims that a disaster or other emergency did occur when no such event happened.
- Fake news, highly deceptive manipulated media (e.g., deep fakes), propaganda, conspiracy theory-related content, or any other false and misleading information that creates a serious risk of real-world-harms to individuals, groups, and the general public.
Vimeo provides a platform for creators and businesses to share their videos with a global audience. By understanding and adhering to Vimeo's terms of service and content guidelines, you can maintain a positive and compliant presence on the platform. Following these guidelines ensures that your content aligns with Vimeo's standards and contributes to a vibrant and respectful community of creators.