WEBTOON™ Community Policy and Uploading Guidelines
02.25.2022
WEBTOON™ Community Policy and Uploading Guidelines
Publishing on WEBTOON CANVAS
In general
CANVAS is our self-publishing platform, where you can publish your own comics. You must create an account with WEBTOON in order to use CANVAS. When you post on WEBTOON CANVAS, you will always keep ownership over your work. You will own all of your intellectual property, and you can continue to promote your work on social media or other publishing platforms, while utilizing the tools we offer on CANVAS.
You must own all the rights to your uploads, and your content must not infringe on the copyright, trademark, publicity right of any other party, or you must have sufficient intellectual property rights to upload the content consistent with these terms.
Comics
By default, CANVAS allows other users to comment on uploaded comics. However, if you upload work to CANVAS, you may use your account management settings to turn off commenting entirely, delete specific comments and block specific users for your comics. Accordingly, please note that your comments on other user’s work may be removed or you may not be able to comment on specific user’s work on CANVAS. WEBTOON cannot guarantee that the Service will correctly or immediately reflect your preferences and actions in whole or in part.
To help promote your series, we may use your series/episode assets for promotional marketing purposes.
Comics published on CANVAS are “User Postings” under our Terms of Use. Please refer to the Terms of Use for other provisions applicable to User Postings.
Creator Profiles
The Services allow you to customize your user profile page and make some or all of it public to other users of the Services for feedback and interaction (any such page, a “Creator Profile”). Your Creator Profile will display your profile picture, nickname and the works you have posted to the Services through CANVAS or as originals. Among other things, your Creator Profile can be customized to include a biography, a temporary notice and other information about your work and online activities. You may also post text about your activities and comics in the Community feed at the bottom of your Creator Profile (“Posts”). The content of your Posts and profile information in your Creator Profile are “User Postings” as defined in our Terms of Use.
Content Guidelines
Abusive or Hateful Content
Malicious or abusive content or comment toward creators or other users is not allowed. This includes revealing an individual’s personal information (e.g. real name, contact information, address, social security numbers etc.). This includes the use of hate speech symbols without meaningful context.
Hateful content or comment that promotes or encourages violence, or has the primary purpose of inciting hate towards individuals or groups based on race, ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, political orientation, etc. is not allowed.
Copyright
Posting, distributing or transmitting copyrighted content without the copyright holder’s consent is not allowed. This includes posting or distributing links to pirated content from another website or service. Any unauthorized content you share on WEBTOON may be subject to a takedown by the rights holder(s) to remove the infringing content
Mature or Sexual Content
Content that contains nudity or intended to be sexually gratifying is not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to, full and partial nudity, as well as graphic depictions of sexual acts.
The ‘Mature Content Warning’ feature should be used to identify mature themes and content, including topics of sexuality. However, please note that utilizing the ‘Mature Content Warning’ feature does not mean that nudity or explicit sexual content is allowed on the platform.
Violent or Graphic Content
We do not allow graphic depictions of gratuitous violence, or content that promote acts of violence. Examples of prohibited content include:
• Brutal, extended, graphic acts of violence
• Depiction of sadism, or glorification/promotion of inflicting harm on others
• Glorification or promotion of self-harmDangerous or Illegal Content
Content that is encouraging, promoting, or soliciting dangerous or illegal activity is not allowed. Examples of dangerous or illegal content include, but are not limited to:
• Spreading misinformation
• Content with themes of incest and grooming
• Glorification or promotion of illegal substance or drug useSpam and Advertising
Posting unsolicited or unwanted content or links is not allowed. This includes creating profiles or uploading content with the primary purpose to drive traffic to external websites. Posting solicited or unwanted content or links is not allowed. This includes creating profiles or uploading content with the primary purpose to drive traffic to external websites. Sponsored episodes expressly pre-approved by WEBTOON in writing must be identified as such to avoid removal. Sponsored episodes must be identified as such to avoid removal. Using automated means to increase view counts or perform social interactions, or creating multiple accounts to increase view counts or perform social interactions will result in account suspension or removal.
Potentially Unlawful Content
We reserve the right to remove content and discipline conduct that we deem, in our sole discretion, to be potentially unlawful. Examples of potentially unlawful content or conduct include (i) defamatory content, (ii) factually false or deceptive content, (iii) content that violates the privacy rights of another person and (iii) repeated or serious harassment of other users through the Services.
Reporting Inappropriate Content
Reporting Comments and Posts
To report comments, Posts or other content of Creator Profiles that violates this policy or our Terms of Use, click on the “Report” link below every comment or the “more” button on the applicable Posts or Creator Profile. Reported material will be reviewed by our moderation team, and comments, Posts or other content of Creator Profiles in violation with our policies will be removed.
Reporting Series and Episodes
To report episodes that violate our content guidelines, click on the “Report” button available at the end of each episode.
Episodes with multiple reports may be automatically removed until further review. If the same episode or series is reported repetitively, and if we determine that the report is justified, the episode or series may be removed, and the user will receive a warning for inappropriate content.
Copyright Infringement
Process for Reporting Copyright Infringement
If you believe a user's content violates your copyright or if you are the legal representative to represent the copyright holder, you may send a takedown notice to dmcanotice@webtoon.com with the following information. These requests should only be submitted by the copyright owner or any agent authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.
1. Materials which prove that the person is the copyright holder;
2. The specific URL of the infringing content on WEBTOON;
3. A statement that:
- You have good belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law
- The information in this notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, you are the owner, or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
4. Information of the copyright holder or legal representative sufficient to permit WEBTOON to contact you, such as address, phone number, or email address
5. A signature of the copyright holder or the copyright holder’s legal representative (typing your full legal name is sufficient)When we receive a valid takedown notice, we will immediately take down the content at issue and notify the user. If we do not receive a response from the user within 14 days, the content will remain blocked.
Counter-notice
If you believe that your content that was removed is not infringing, or if you have authorization from the copyright holder, the copyright owner’s agent, or pursuant to law, you may send a counter-notice to our dmcanotice@webtoon.com with the following information.
1. Identification of the removed content and the specific URL of the content on WEBTOON;
2. A statement that:
- You have a good faith belief that the content was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the content;
- You consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided the original DMCA notification or an agent of such person.
3. Your name, address, phone number, and email address
4. Your physical or electronic signature (typing your full legal name is sufficient)When a valid counter-notice is received, we may forward the notice to the notifying party who submitted the original copyright infringement notification. The original notifying party will then have 10 days to file legal action relating to the allegedly infringing material. Unless notice of legal action is received, the removed content may be replaced in 10 business days or more at WEBTOON’s sole discretion.
Violations of this Policy
Notwithstanding any remedies available to us in the Terms of Use, we reserve the right to take any action we deem appropriate in response to violations of this Policy. Users who violate this Policy may be suspended from posting or submitting User Posting (temporarily or permanently) or have their account and access to the Services suspended or terminated.
While we generally attempt to provide advance notice to users of actions we take in response to policy violations, we may elect not to do so in our sole discretion. As a result, violations of this Policy or the Terms of Use may result in permanent loss of User Postings and other content previously accessible through the Services.
If your content has been removed or suspended due to policy violations, you may contact our Creator Support team at creatorsupport@webtoon.com. However, please note that we do not offer an appeals process for actions we take in response to violations of this policy.
Questions and Feedback
If you have any questions or feedback about our community and content guidelines, or if have safety concerns about the platform, feel free to contact us at creatorsupport@webtoon.com.