Oh, no! We’re sorry to hear that your photo was rejected. We completely understand how frustrating it is to have a photo taken down like this and we apologize for any inconvenience.
Hornet, just like any other app, has to follow guidelines laid down by Apple and Google about what’s appropriate. That’s why we came up with our Hornet Guidelines: so we can ensure that we’re building a safe space for everyone.
If your photo has been rejected, you may find the reason within our guidelines.
Unfortunately, we’re not able to give you a specific answer to it since we moderate over 100,000 photos every day and all rejected photos are deleted from our database once the moderation process comes to its end.
Below we list reasons why your photo can be rejected by Hornet (an in-depth explanation to what is included into each of these categories can be found in Hornet Guidelines):
- Sexually Explicit Content
- This group includes a variety of violations but most common ones are: sexual intercourse is being depicted in a photograph, any type of nude pictures, especially if genitals or buttocks are shown (even if covered with an emoji or you put a special effect on the photo). This group also includes some not so obvious violations: focusing on genitals area, touching or grabbing it, erection or genitals outline visible through fabrics.
- Unpleasant Content
- Usually this comes down to different body fluids being displayed on the photo (blood, semen, urine, feces, vomit or anything imitates it). This category also covers photos showing animal or human cruelty, photos of dead, victims of disasters, crashes, or military conflicts, weapons or firearms, indecent, dirty, or insulting gestures, etc.
- Discriminatory Content
- Anything that can be classified as an attempt to discriminate, humiliate, mock or reject a person or a group of people based on different biases, personal likes/dislikes or beliefs.
- Authenticity
- First and foremost the photo must be of you and you must not impersonate someone else. We understand that it may not be safe to publish your personal photo in your area, to be safe, crop the original photo in the way that it will be impossible to identify you or simply take a picture of a landscape and use it as a profile photo, we won’t remove it.
- Copyright
- The rule is very simple – any picture you post should belong to you or you must have a right to repost it. Otherwise we’ll delete it at the first request of the copyright holder.
- Private Information
- We do not allow sharing any private information of other people, including on photos.
- Commercial Activities
- We do not allow advertising in any form of any kind of services, products, events, websites or applications.
- Illegal Activities
- This is a very serious violation and usually involves showing drugs, drugs use or paraphernalia. Not so obvious, but this category also includes different perversions (zoophilia, pedophilia, incest, etc).
- Malicious Behavior
- Regarding photos, under this category we do not allow nazi, neo-nazi or extremist organization symbols or slogans to be posted on Hornet. This category also includes using hard language on the photos, if the photo is aimed to harass, threaten, bully, or troll another person or make humiliating or offensive remarks about Hornet users or its staff.
- Minors
- Debatable photos with children depicted on it will get removed by the Hornet Moderation Team.
- Spam and Scam
- If your photo(s) can be classified as spam or scam we’ll get it removed.
- Other
- Some cases that doesn’t fall under any of the categories above: we might remove any photo if we can’t understand what is on it (extremely close-up, obscure, nonsense photos); we do not allow profile photos with text that occupies most of the photo (allowed as feed photos); Hornet logo can not be used (only Hornet staff can use it); photos with dating apps’ watermarks.
We also classify photo violations as Serious or Minor violations. Below you can find some examples of what we deem to be serious and mild violations:
Serious Photo Violations
- Nudity. Genitals or full ass is visible.
- Feces, urine, semen, blood, or anything made to look like this.
- Sexually explicit or graphic photos, including drawings or cartoons depicting sex. An example of this is a photo showing oral sex being performed. No nudity or genitals are visible, but it’s clearly a sexually explicit photo.
- Violence.
- Bloodsports or animal cruelty.
- Bestiality or necrophilia.
- Firearms or weapons.
- Children (Anyone under the age of 18). If the photo is only of a child or children, it is deemed to be a serious photo violation. If the child is in the photo with you (you are holding your son/daughter etc) it is deemed to be a mild violation.
- Illegal drug use or drug paraphernalia (if it looks dodgy, it’s a no-no, such as a ‘roll-up’ cigarette). It also includes drug use in a State or Country where it may be legal.
- Depictions of underage drinking (as we aren’t Interpol and don’t know the legal age for drinking in each country, anyone who looks young will have the photo rejected).
Minor Photo Violations
- Photos with you and a child (a child is a person under the age of 18).
- A partial nude ass shot (a full nude ass shot is a serious violation).
- Photos that aren’t you (celebs, your ex, that guy you hate, your mother-in-law, etc).
- Genitals covered up by a towel, hat, teacup, thimble, bed sheet, emoji, your hand, etc.
- Grabbing/holding or touching genitals or genital area. That includes over your shorts.
- Erection or outline of genitals through clothing. This is a subjective one. We allow a ‘genital bulge’. But, if the outline shows the shape of the penis and testicles, then it will be rejected. This can be affected by how tight the clothing is and/or how big a boy you are.
- Sex toys or props.
- Pubic hair or the area of the groin where pubic hair normally grows (a couple of centimeters is fine but do not show too much).
- Photos of any obscene gestures and/or lewd behavior. (Flippin’ the bird, the finger, etc)
- Image used to advertise services, goods, events, websites, or apps (your profile may be suspended for being commercial).
- Copyrighted or photographer-marked images or illustrations
- No profanity or curse words on a photo. Includes holding up a paper with curse words written on it.
- Photo of just the crotch: front, side, back, pixelated, clothed, whatever. This would include a photo taken from the waist down. Just because your legs are in it does not mean it isn’t a crotch shot. If the main focus is on the crotch, it’s not allowed. As a general guide, if your head is not in the photo, then it is more likely to be considered a crotch shot.
- Extreme close-up photos, photos where it is unclear what the photo is of.
- Photos with only, or mainly, text. As a general rule, one word or one line of text superimposed on a photo is acceptable (unless the font is large and dominates the photo). 2 or 3 lines of text will likely result in a photo being rejected.
- Photos that are gross, disgusting, nasty, yucky, terrible, abhorrent, and repugnant. For example, a person vomiting, or a photo of vomit.
Please note: The more of your photos get rejected (especially if the violations were serious), the higher the chance of your profile getting blocked.
If, after reviewing our guidelines, you feel that your photo was rejected by mistake, please get in touch with us by writing to feedback@hornet.com. Don’t forget to include your Account ID (@…) and attach the rejected photo so we can review it.
