Content Policy

Knol is a free service from Google that allows you to communicate, collaborate, and share your knowledge with the world.  We believe that Knol increases the availability of information, encourages freedom of expression, and makes possible new connections between authors and readers.

We respect our users' ownership of and responsibility for the content they choose to share. It is our belief that censoring this content is contrary to a service that bases itself on freedom of expression.  In order to uphold these values, we need to curb abuses that threaten our ability to provide this service and the freedom of expression it encourages. As a result, there are some boundaries on the type of content that can be hosted with Knol. The boundaries we've defined are those that both comply with legal requirements and that serve to enhance the service as a whole.

Please respect these guidelines. From time to time, we may change our content policies so please check back here.

PORNOGRAPHY, ADULT CONTENT, AND OBSCENITY:

• Pornography, Nudity, and Sexually Explicit Material: We do not allow image or video content that contains nudity, sexually graphic material, or material that is otherwise deemed explicit by Google, unless it is used as a relevant illustration for a medical or educational knol.  If your knol does contain appropriate adult or explicit material, please mark the page as containing mature content as a courtesy to other Knol users, so that they will have the choice of viewing or not viewing this content.  You can do this either in the subtitle or in the opening paragraph of your knol.  We reserve the right to put such content, or any knol containing mature content, behind an interstitial.
• Pedophilia, Incest and Bestiality: Users may not publish written, image, audio or video content that promotes pedophilia, incest and bestiality.
• Commercial Pornography: We do not allow content that exists for the primary purpose of monetizing porn content or driving traffic to a monetized pornography site.
• Child Pornography: Google has a zero-tolerance policy against child pornography, and we will terminate and report to the appropriate authorities any user who publishes or distributes child pornography, or who promotes material that is or purports to be child pornography.

HATEFUL CONTENT: Users may not publish material that promotes hate toward groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity.

VIOLENT CONTENT: Users may not publish direct threats of violence against any person or group of people.  We also ask users not to publish content that contains graphic violence.

COPYRIGHT: It is our policy to respond to clear notices of alleged copyright infringement. More information about our copyright procedures can be found here.

PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION: We do not allow the unauthorized publishing of people's private and confidential information, such as credit card numbers, Social Security Numbers, driver's and other license numbers, and other personal information that is not publicly accessible.

IMPERSONATION: We do not allow impersonation of others through our services in a manner that is intended to or does mislead or confuse others.

COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY:  You may use Knol to create articles for your business or to promote your lawful products or services that are not otherwise prohibited by our Content Policy or Terms of Service, unless you are in Cuba, Iran, Burma (Myanmar), North Korea, Syria, or Sudan.  There are some commercial uses we don’t allow.  We don’t allow pages that have the primary purpose of redirecting visitors, acting as a bridge page, or driving traffic to another website.  We also don’t allow Knol pages that have the primary purpose of profiting from displaying ads from any publisher network, such as pages created with little or no unique content that exist only to display ads.

UNLAWFUL USE OF SERVICES: Our products and services should not be used for unlawful purposes or for promotion of dangerous and illegal activities. Your account may be terminated and you may be reported to the appropriate authorities.

SPAM, MALICIOUS CODES AND VIRUSES: We do not allow spamming or the transmission of malware and viruses or anything that might disrupt this service or harm our users. Spam includes, but is not limited to, sites that fail to meet Google's quality guidelines due to the use or promotion of such techniques as cloaking, keyword stuffing, search engine spamming, and doorway or bridge pages.

If you believe that someone is violating our Content Policy or our Terms of Service, please click on the “Flag inappropriate content” link on the Knol page that contains the objectionable content.  If you report abuse, we’ll review your report and take action if appropriate.

Some comments not related to Content Policy have been removed from this page. If you have general questions, scan the topics under "Knol Help Also Wrote." Some known Knol bugs are documented here. If you have looked about for an answer to your question and not found it, please email knolhelp@google.com.