Content Policy

Introduction

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.

Guidelines

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.

Take Action

Flag inappropriate content

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 or on the Comment that contains the objectionable content.  If you report abuse, we’ll review your report and take action if appropriate.

FAQs

What happens if a page doesn't meet the content policy guidelines?

If Google flags a page for removal, we cease serving it to the public. It may remain temporarily in a non-editable transitional state where it may be visible to its author. After some point, it may be deleted.  Some accounts associated with flagged content may be terminated -- see the Term and Termination section of the Terms of Service.

Will  you reinstate removed content?

Google generally does not reinstate removed content. However, if you believe your knols were taken down in error, you may send email to knolhelp@google.com.

My content was flagged and removed. Can you tell me specifically what content was not acceptable?

Under most circumstances we will be unable to provide individual explanations of why specific content was taken down. We cannot provide any instructions on what will make content acceptable, beyond referring you back to this Content Policy document, and pointing to the examples on our Best Practices page as describing "ideal knols". For general guidance on creating good web content, see Google's Webmaster guidelines.

Why are "Top Pick" badges added to or taken away from knols?

The Top Pick badges are placed by an algorithm, not an individual human's decision. All knols need to meet the minimum standards described by this content policy -- see here for more details.