Submission Guidelines

Submission & Community Guidelines

Be The People encourages Americans from all walks of life to tell their stories in their own unique way, contributing to an ever-changing patchwork exploring our shared ideals and challenges, our hopes and fears, and our evolving sense of community.

We are thrilled that you want to participate. Be The People elevates the stories of our communities that are not being told, and we want it to be a safe, authentic place for expression. There are lots of forums for grievances. This is not one of them.

By contributing to Be The People, you agree to the Guidelines below and our full Terms of Use, which provide additional detail on the Be The People project. Violations of these Guidelines may result in deleted content or disabled accounts. We reserve the right to decline or un-publish content submissions at our sole discretion, including based on these standards.

If you come across a submission that seems to violate these Guidelines, you can report it directly using the features on the site or by contacting support@stories.bethepeople.org

Be creative. Be honest. Be respectful.

Share Your Own Content

Only share content that you’ve created yourself or that you own the rights to share. Content copied or collected from the Internet is generally prohibited. Please refer to the Terms of Use for additional information about ownership and license grants.

Avoid Gratuitously Offensive or Objectionable Material

Be The People is intended for a very diverse audience. While we want your submissions to be genuine and uninhibited, gratuitously offensive material (e.g., violence, racial epithets, sexism, graphic language, or nudity) should not be included unless it is absolutely essential to understanding the matter at hand and does not include obscene, indecent, or profane content.

Do Not Advertise

Be The People is about telling real stories of real people across the country. This is not a platform to solicit the buying or selling of any goods or services in any way. Also, please do not include links to other websites or platforms in your submissions.

Respect the Community and Be Responsible

We encourage diverse views and perspectives, and we expect participants to be respectful of one another. We strictly prohibit content that supports violence or threats toward any specific individual or group of people for any reason.

Please be truthful. Don’t share content that impersonates someone else, and don’t submit misleading images or captions that aren’t representative of your story.

Don’t include personal contact details in the publicly viewable fields of your submission (the last name and email address you use to create your account will never be displayed publicly).

We reserve the right to work with law enforcement if we believe there’s a threat to individual or public safety.