Terms of Service
Last Updated: November 25th, 2025
Effective Date: December 10th, 2025
Introduction
These terms of service (the "Terms") cover your access and use of Server Operator’s ("Administrator", "we", or "us") instance, located at gotosocial.social (the "Instance"). These Terms apply solely to your use of the Instance as operated by the Administrator. Please note that we have no affiliation with gotosocial.org (i.e. This is not an official GoToSocial instance). If you would like to contact us for any reason, please direct all questions, comments, concerns and notices to us by following the instructions provided in the Notice section below.
Please read these Terms carefully before using the Instance as they contain important information about your interactions with the Instance. We may have other policies that apply to your use of the Instance and that are incorporated into these Terms. You should also read these policies before using the Instance. Age Requirements and Responsibility of Parents and Legal Guardians
By accessing the Instance, you signify that you are at least sixteen (16) years old and that you meet the minimum age required by the laws in your country. If you are old enough to access the Instance in your country, but are not old enough to have the legal authority to consent to our Terms, please ask your parent or legal guardian to read these Terms with you, as they must agree to the Terms on your behalf. If you are a parent or legal guardian who has accepted these terms on your child’s behalf, these terms apply to you and you are responsible for your child’s activities on the Instance.
Prohibited Uses
You are fully responsible for your activities while using the Instance, including any content, information or other materials you post or upload to the Instance, and you bear all risks associated with use of the Instance. By agreeing to these Terms, you agree to comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations in connection with your use of the Instance. You also agree not to use the Instance to engage in any prohibited conduct, or to assist any other person or entity in engaging in any prohibited conduct.
We reserve the right (but do not have the obligation) in our sole discretion to: (1) monitor the Instance for violations of these Terms; (2) take appropriate legal action against anyone who uses or accesses the Instance in a manner that we believe violates the law or these Terms, including without limitation, reporting such user to law enforcement authorities; (3) deny access to the Instance or any features of the Instance to anyone who violates these Terms or who we believe interferes with the ability of others to enjoy our Instance or infringes the rights of others; and (4) otherwise manage the Instance in a manner designed to protect our rights and property and to facilitate the proper functioning of the Instance.
You are prohibited from using the Instance for the commission of harmful or illegal activities. Accordingly, you may not, or assist any other person to (or attempt to):
- Violate these Terms or other policies and terms posted on, or otherwise applicable to, the Instance.
- Upload any material, program, or software that contains any virus, worm, spyware, Trojan horse or other program or code designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of the Instance, launch a denial of service attack, or in any other way attempt to interfere with the functioning and availability of the Instance.
- Use, launch, develop, or distribute any automated system, including without limitation, any spider, robot, cheat utility, scraper, offline reader, or any data mining or similar data gathering extraction tools to access the Instance, except in each case as may be the result of standard search engine or Internet browser and local caching or for human review and interaction with Content on the Instance.
- Use or launch any unauthorized script or other software.
- Interfere with, disable, vandalize or disrupt the Instance or servers or networks connected to the Instance.
- Hack into, penetrate, disable, or otherwise circumvent the security measures of the Instance or servers or networks connected to the Instance.
- Otherwise use the Instance in any way that violates any applicable national, federal, state, local or international law or regulation.
Intellectual Property
The Instance contains content provided by its users, including you, such as text, photos, videos, audio, links, and streams (“Content”). When you submit Content to the Instance, you represent and warrant that you have all of the rights, power, and authority necessary to grant the rights to the Content contained within these Terms. Because you alone are responsible for the Content that you submit to the Instance, you may expose yourself to liability from third parties if you post or share such Content without all necessary rights.
You retain all ownership rights you have in the Content that you submit to the Instance, but you grant us a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, license to use, copy, store, display, share, distribute, communicate and transfer the Content in ways that are consistent with your use of the Instance. By deleting your account on the Instance, you revoke our license your Content. Upon receiving your deletion request, we will make a good faith effort to delete all copies of the Content within ninety (90) days.
To the fullest extent possible, you agree to waive or promise not to assert against the Administrator all moral rights you may have in the Content to the extent those rights are necessary for the Administrator to host the Content on the Instance.
DMCA Copyright Infringement Notice
We have implemented the procedures described in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 ("DMCA"), 17 U.S.C. § 512, regarding the reporting of alleged copyright infringement and the removal of or disabling access to infringing material. If you have a good faith belief that copyrighted material on the Instance is being used in a way that infringes a copyright over which you are authorized to act, you may make a Notice of Infringing Material. If you have a good faith belief that copyrighted material that was removed or access to which was disabled was a result of a mistake or misidentification, then you may make a Notice of Counter-Notification.
Before serving a Notice of Infringing Material or Counter-Notification, you may wish to contact a lawyer to better understand your rights and obligations under the DMCA and other applicable laws. For example, if your Notice or Counter-Notifications fails to comply with all requirements of sections 512(c)(3) or 512(g)(3), respectively, your Notice or Counter-Notification may not be effective.
Termination of Repeat Infringers
We will terminate or disable your use of the Instance in appropriate circumstances if you are deemed by us to be a repeat copyright infringer.
Notices and Counter-Notifications must be sent to:
DMCA Agent: Copyright Manager
Address: Available upon direct request
Email: staff@gotosocial.social
Disclaimer
Service Availability
Administrator reserves the right in our sole discretion to modify or discontinue, temporarily or permanently, the Instance (or any part thereof) with or without notice to you. You agree that Administrator will not be liable to you or to any third party for any modification or discontinuance of the Instance.
Compliance and Responsibility
You understand that we are not responsible for any activities or legal consequences of your use of the Instance. Users are responsible for using the Instance in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations of the jurisdictions in which such users are domiciled, reside, or are located at the time of such access or use, as well as these Terms.
Decentralized Nature and Data Propagation
You acknowledge that the Instance operates as part of a decentralized social network using the ActivityPub protocol. Content you submit may be federated to, stored on, and displayed by third-party servers ("Remote Instances") globally that are not owned or controlled by the Administrator. While we are committed to deleting your Content from our Instance upon your request and making a good faith effort to broadcast standard deletion notifications (e.g., ActivityPub "Delete" activities) to known Remote Instances, you explicitly understand and agree that: (1) We have no control over Remote Instances; (2) We cannot guarantee, nor do we bear any obligation to ensure, that Remote Instances will honor deletion requests or remove copies of your Content; and (3) Once Content propagates to the fediverse, it may be impossible to completely remove it from the internet. We are not liable for any data retention by third parties.
User Disputes and Interactions
You are solely responsible for your interactions with other users of the Instance and users of Remote Instances. The Administrator is not a party to, and bears no responsibility for, any disputes, conflicts, or negative consequences arising between you and other users. We reserve the right, but have no obligation, to monitor disputes between users. You hereby release the Administrator from any and all claims arising out of or in any way connected with such disputes.
Links to and From Other Websites
You may gain access to other websites and Instances via links on the Instance. These Terms apply to the Instance only and do not apply to GoToSocial, other Instances, or other parties' websites. Similarly, you may have come to the Instance via a link from another website or Instance. The terms of use of other websites and Instances do not apply to the Instance. Administrator assumes no responsibility for any terms of use or material outside of the Instance accessed via any link. You are free to establish a hypertext link to the Instance so long as the link does not state or imply any sponsorship of your website, instance or service by Administrator or the Instance. Unless expressly agreed to by us in writing, reference to any of our products, services, processes or other information, by trade name, trademark, logo, or otherwise by you or any third party does not constitute or imply endorsement, sponsorship or recommendation thereof by us. You may not, without our prior written permission, scrape the Instance or incorporate into another website or other service any of our material, content or intellectual property, unless you are otherwise permitted by us to do so in accordance with a license or subject to separate terms.
Governing Law and Dispute Resolution
Choice of Law
These Terms and any action related thereto will be governed by the laws of the Republic of Estonia without regard to its conflict of laws provisions.
Binding Online Arbitration
Any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms, or the breach, termination, or invalidity thereof, shall be settled by binding arbitration rather than in court. The arbitration shall be conducted in the English language.
You agree that:
- The arbitration will be conducted solely based on written submissions, or via video conference (e.g., Zoom, Skype), or by telephone, and will not require the personal appearance of the parties or witnesses.
- The arbitration shall be administered by a mutually agreed online Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) provider or, failing agreement, solely by the rules of the Arbitration Court of the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
- Any judgment on the award rendered by the arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.
Class Action Waiver
You and the Administrator agree that each may bring claims against the other only in your or its individual capacity and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class or representative proceeding. Further, unless both you and the Administrator agree otherwise, the arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims with your claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of a representative or class proceeding.
Forum for Judicial Actions
If for any reason a claim proceeds in court rather than in arbitration, you and the Administrator agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts located in Tallinn, Estonia, and waive any objection to such jurisdiction or venue. You further agree to accept service of process by email.
Limitation of Liability
In no event will Administrator’s total liability to you for all damages, losses, or causes of action exceed ten dollars ($10). The existence of more than one claim will not enlarge this limit. If you are dissatisfied with the Instance or with these Terms, your sole remedy is to discontinue your use of the Instance.
Notices
All notices to Administrator under these Terms, unless otherwise specified, shall be sent to staff@gotosocial.social. Service of any notice will be deemed given on the date of receipt delivered by email.
Changes to these Terms
We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to change or modify these Terms at any time. We will make such changes effective by posting the revised Terms on this page (currently located at: https://docs.gotosocial.social/basics/terms-of-service).
You agree that we have no obligation to provide you with individual notice (such as via email or in-app notifications) of any changes. It is your responsibility to check this page periodically to review the most current Terms.
Your continued use of the Instance following the posting of any changes to these Terms constitutes your acceptance of those changes. If you do not agree to the new Terms, you must stop using the Instance immediately.