Content Guidelines

1. The underlying principle

Serious literature approaches human experience in full, including war, crime, loss and abuse. Malath does not prohibit a subject simply because it is harsh.

The distinction we work with is between a work that treats a difficult subject as literature, and material that glorifies harm, incites it, or constitutes an act of harm in itself.

A narrow category is prohibited absolutely, and no context lifts it. It is set out in section 3.

2. Other people's rights

Work that infringes someone's copyright or trade marks may not be published.

Plagiarism is prohibited: presenting another person's work as your own, in whole or in part, whether copied verbatim or reworded while keeping its structure and detail.

Limited quotation with clear attribution is acceptable within what the law allows.

3. Absolute prohibitions

The following is prohibited outright, and no literary, artistic or documentary justification is accepted:

• Any sexual content involving a minor — explicit or suggestive, real, fictional or machine-generated.
• Material that promotes, facilitates or normalises the sexual exploitation of children.
• Content promoting human trafficking or coerced sexual exploitation.

4. Sexual content

A literary work may deal with sexual relationships between adults. An accurate age rating and an advance content warning are required.

Non-consensual sexual content is prohibited where it is presented so as to glorify it or portray it as acceptable or titillating — not where a work treats it as the assault and harm that it is.

Sexual material about a real person without their consent is prohibited, including fabricated or machine-generated material.

5. Hate and dehumanisation

Content that degrades people or strips them of their humanity on the basis of religion, race, origin, sex, disability or similar characteristics is prohibited.

Portraying a bigoted character within a novel is not in itself prohibited. What is prohibited is a work that adopts and advocates that position.

6. Harassment and threats

Targeting a specific person with harassment, intimidation or threats of harm is prohibited, whether in the text or in any interactive surface added later.

Organising or encouraging others to harass someone is prohibited.

7. Violence

A literary work may depict violence, war and crime. An age rating and a warning are required where the depiction is graphic.

Violence written purely to be savoured is prohibited, as is content that glorifies the perpetrators of real crimes or celebrates their victims.

8. Terrorism and violent extremism

Promoting terrorist or violent extremist groups, glorifying their acts, recruiting for them, or distributing their propaganda is prohibited.

9. Self-harm

Encouraging suicide, self-harm or eating disorders is prohibited, as is publishing anything that functions as instruction in their methods.

Treating these experiences in literature is permitted, with an advance warning and an appropriate age rating.

10. Dangerous and illegal instructions

Publishing actionable instructions for making weapons, explosives or harmful substances, or for committing a crime, is prohibited even inside a work of fiction.

Narrating that such an act took place is acceptable. What is prohibited is the working recipe.

11. Privacy and personal data

Publishing personal data about real people without their permission is prohibited — addresses, phone numbers, workplaces, official documents.

Writing about a real event involving a real person remains subject to privacy and reputation law.

12. Impersonation

Claiming to be another person or organisation is prohibited, as is publishing work in a way that implies a well-known author wrote it.

Parody that is clearly identifiable as parody is not impersonation.

13. Fraud, spam and malware

Using the platform for fraud or to promote deceptive financial schemes is prohibited.

Repetitive or automated posting with no reading value is prohibited, as is inflating metrics by artificial means.

Distributing malicious links, harmful files or phishing attempts is prohibited.

14. Misleading metadata

A work's title, description and categorisation must honestly reflect its content.

Using a sensational title unrelated to the content, or concealing the real nature of a work from readers, is prohibited.

15. Age ratings and content warnings

Once publishing exists, authors are responsible for giving a work an accurate age rating and adding the warnings it needs — graphic violence, abuse, sexual content.

A warning is not a mark against a work. It lets a reader choose with their eyes open.

16. Reporting

To report content you believe breaches these guidelines, use the Contact and Complaints page and choose "Report content", or write to [To be completed before launch].

Please give the link to the content and describe the problem precisely; that speeds up review considerably.

Copyright complaints have their own route — see the Copyright Complaint and Takedown Procedure.

17. Review and enforcement

We review reports and consider the context of the work before acting. Action escalates with the seriousness and repetition of the breach:

• Asking for the age rating to be corrected or a warning added.
• Restricting the work's visibility.
• Removing the offending content.
• Suspending access to the service for serious or repeated breaches.

Content falling within the absolute prohibitions is removed as soon as it is verified, with no escalation ladder.

18. Appeals

If you believe action was taken against you in error, you can appeal within a reasonable period through the published contact channels.

Explain why you disagree and give any context that was not visible at the time of review. We will reconsider the case and tell you the outcome.