Content Rules and Moderation Guide
Every Lens you publish—including Lenses made with Easy Lens—must follow Snap's policies. This guide summarizes what's allowed, what may be rejected, how moderation works, and how to fix or appeal a rejected Lens.
The policies that apply
All Lenses are subject to:
- Snap's Terms of Service
- The Community Guidelines
- The Lens Studio Terms
- The Privacy Policy
These policies can change over time, so review them periodically. The authoritative, detailed rules live in the Submission Guidelines.
What's allowed
Snapchat is a global, 13+ community. Strong Lenses are:
- Kind—inclusive and functional for everyone, regardless of skin tone, body shape, language, ability, or background.
- Smart—thoughtful about privacy and safety; they don't encourage oversharing personal information.
- Creative—visually compelling, original, and made for the camera.
What may be rejected
The categories below are summarized from the Submission Guidelines. Some content is fully prohibited; other content is allowed but receives limited ("targeted") distribution.
| Category | Examples of prohibited content |
|---|---|
| Sexually explicit content | Nudity, depictions of or references to sex acts or genitalia. |
| Harassment | Bullying, revealing someone's personal information, friend-ranking Lenses. |
| Threats | Implied harm to a person, group, place, or property. |
| Violence | Realistic, disturbing, or gory harm to people or animals. |
| Suicide or self-harm | Glorifying or encouraging suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders. |
| Dangerous activity | Encouraging risky real-life behavior or harmful "challenges." |
| Realistic weapons | Modern real-life firearms, weaponized explosives, or combat knives. |
| False or deceptive information | Scams, manipulative marketing, unsubstantiated medical claims. |
| Illegal activity | Promoting crime, illegal drugs, contraband, or counterfeit goods. |
| Regulated industries | Tobacco, alcohol, gambling, pharmaceuticals, weapons promotion. |
| Violent groups | Terrorists, extremists, organized crime, gangs, hate groups. |
| Hate | Slurs, stereotypes, hate symbols, or mocking protected groups. |
| Creative quality | Growth hacks ("Follow for more"), QR codes. |
You must also hold the rights to everything in your Lens, including music. Don't imply a partnership with Snap or imitate Snap trademarks (such as "Snap," "Snapchat," "Bitmoji," or the Ghost logo).
Because Easy Lens generates content from your prompts, you are still responsible for the final Lens. Avoid prompts that would produce prohibited content—the result is moderated the same way as any other Lens.
How moderation works
Every Lens submission goes through three steps before it can go Live:
- Validation—metadata is checked to confirm the Lens meets technical requirements.
- Automated Testing—the Lens is tested for performance, memory, and device compatibility across iOS and Android.
- Content Review—the Lens is reviewed against the Community Guidelines.
A Lens that passes all three becomes Live. A Lens that fails will show as Invalid (technical) or Rejected (content), with a reason. See Lens statuses.
Fix or appeal a rejected Lens
- Read the reason. In My Lenses, open the Lens to see why it was rejected, and check Error Logs for technical failures.
- Fix the content. Adjust your Lens—or your prompt in Easy Lens—to remove the issue. For technical failures, address performance, size, or compatibility.
- Resubmit. Submit an update. If a Lens was previously Live and only your latest update is Invalid, the previous version stays active.
- If you believe it was a mistake, you can appeal or report a moderation concern through the Snapchat Support Site.
A Rejected Lens can no longer be unlocked by others, but you can always modify the project, fix the content, and submit a new version.
Reporting and intellectual property
- To report a Lens that may violate the Community Guidelines, use the Support Site.
- To report copyright infringement, follow the instructions here.