Legal

Reporter.ink is an independent live journalism platform. We exist because we believe the media landscape is broken. Major news organizations, television networks, digital publishers, and print institutions are largely owned by corporations, hedge funds, and billionaires with financial and political interests that directly conflict with truthful reporting.

Reporters at these organizations are routinely told what stories to cover, what angle to take, what sources to trust, and what facts to minimize. The result is not journalism. It is narrative management dressed up as news.

Reporter.ink was built to change that. Every journalist on our platform is verified, independent, and directly supported by their audience, not by advertisers, sponsors, or corporate owners who can dictate the story.

By accessing or using Reporter.ink, whether as a reader, subscriber, or verified journalist, you agree to these Terms of Use. If you do not agree, do not use the platform. These terms apply to all users in all countries.

We may update these terms when necessary. We will notify users of material changes. Continued use after notification constitutes acceptance.

Reporter.ink publishes live reporting, dispatches, and articles from verified journalists. We do not editorially control what verified reporters publish, that is the point. However, all users and reporters agree not to publish:

• Content that is provably false and presented as factual
• Content that incites violence against any person or group
• Content that violates the privacy or dignity of private individuals
• Content that constitutes harassment, threats, or abuse
• Content that exploits or harms minors in any form
• Spam, coordinated manipulation, or artificially amplified content

Journalists on Reporter.ink undergo a credentialing review before being approved. Verification confirms professional identity and journalistic background, it does not constitute endorsement of any specific reporting. Verified status can be revoked for repeated, material violations of these terms.

Verification is not a guarantee of accuracy. All journalism involves judgment calls, and reasonable journalists can reach different conclusions from the same facts. We do not penalize reporters for reaching conclusions that differ from official narratives, government positions, or mainstream consensus.

Reporter.ink enables readers to support journalists through gifts and subscriptions. Reporters receive 100% of all gifts and subscriptions sent to them. Reporter.ink charges no commission, takes no platform fee, and does not share in journalist earnings from direct audience support.

Payments are processed by Stripe (card) and Coinbase Commerce (cryptocurrency). These are third-party processors subject to their own terms. Reporter.ink does not store payment card numbers. Cryptocurrency transactions are irreversible.

Journalists retain full copyright ownership of all content they publish on Reporter.ink. By publishing on the platform, journalists grant Reporter.ink a non-exclusive license to display, distribute, and archive their content on the platform and in platform previews, including social sharing thumbnails. This license ends if a journalist removes their content or closes their account, subject to reasonable archival periods.

The Reporter.ink name, logo, and platform design are proprietary. You may not replicate, resell, or misrepresent them.

Reporter.ink provides a platform for independent journalists. We are not liable for the content published by journalists on the platform, for decisions made by readers based on that content, or for interruptions in service.

To the extent permitted by law, Reporter.ink's total liability to any user for any claim is limited to the amount paid by that user to Reporter.ink in the twelve months preceding the claim, or $100 USD, whichever is greater.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to conflict of law principles. Disputes will be resolved through binding arbitration under JAMS rules, except where prohibited by applicable consumer protection law in your jurisdiction.

Nothing in these terms waives rights you may have under mandatory consumer protection laws in your country of residence.

Legal inquiries: legal@reporter.ink
General support: support@reporter.ink
Security disclosures: security@reporter.ink

Surveillance capitalism, the business model where user data is the product, is a primary mechanism through which corporate media and technology platforms manipulate public opinion. By building detailed behavioral profiles on hundreds of millions of people, these platforms can shape what information individuals see, what they believe is popular, and what conclusions they reach about the world.

Reporter.ink does not engage in this model. We do not sell your data. We do not build advertising profiles. We do not share your information with data brokers, analytics resellers, or third-party marketers.

Information you give us directly

When you create an account: your name, email address, and password (stored hashed, we cannot read it). If you are a journalist, we collect the professional information you provide during the verification process.

When you make a payment: billing information processed by Stripe or Coinbase Commerce. We do not store card numbers. We receive a transaction record with the amount and your account reference.

Information collected automatically

Standard server logs: IP address (stored in hashed form for security purposes), browser type, pages visited, and approximate geographic region. These are used to operate the service securely, detect abuse, and understand aggregate usage. They are not used to build individual behavioral profiles.

Live stream viewing data: whether you watched a stream, approximate duration, and viewer counts. This data is used to show journalists how their coverage is performing and to display live viewer counts. It is not sold or shared.

• We do not track you across other websites
• We do not use advertising pixels or marketing tags
• We do not build interest or behavioral profiles
• We do not collect biometric data
• We do not read your private messages
• We do not sell, rent, or trade your data to any third party for commercial purposes

Running a platform requires a small number of trusted services. Here is an honest account of what we use and why:

We do not use Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, TikTok Pixel, or any behavioral advertising network. We do not use Intercom, Segment, Mixpanel, or other user behavior tracking platforms.

Regardless of where you live, you have the right to:

• Access - request a copy of data we hold about you
• Correction - correct inaccurate information in your account
• Deletion - delete your account and associated personal data
• Portability - receive your data in a machine-readable format
• Objection - object to any processing you did not explicitly consent to

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@reporter.ink. We respond within 30 days.

Account data is retained for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, personal identifying information (name, email, profile data) is removed within 30 days. Anonymized transaction records may be retained for legal and accounting compliance. Published content may be retained in anonymized archive form.

We will disclose user data to law enforcement or government agencies only when required by a valid legal order, a court order, subpoena, or equivalent legal process. We will not voluntarily disclose data beyond what is legally required.

Where legally permitted, we will notify affected users of a legal request before complying, so they have the opportunity to seek legal counsel.

We use session cookies to keep you logged in. We use a single first-party cookie to remember your theme preference (light or dark mode). We do not use third-party tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or persistent behavioral cookies.

You can disable cookies in your browser settings, but doing so will prevent you from staying logged into your account.

Reporter.ink is not intended for users under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has created an account, contact us at privacy@reporter.ink and we will delete it promptly.

If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by email (if you have an account) and by posting a notice on the platform at least 14 days before the changes take effect. We will never retroactively apply a less protective policy to data already collected under a more protective one.

This is not a legal document. This is a statement of what we believe.

Reporters at major outlets are not free to cover what they judge to be most important. They pitch stories to editors. Editors answer to executive editors. Executive editors answer to publishers. Publishers answer to owners. Owners answer to shareholders, advertisers, and political allies. By the time a story reaches you, it has been filtered through every one of those interests.

Reporters know this. Many entered journalism to change the world and found themselves quietly told which worlds not to touch. Some leave. Many stay and adapt. The adaptation is not dramatic, it is gradual, invisible, and complete. Reporters who want to keep their careers learn what to emphasize, what to bury, which sources get called back, and which stories never get pitched in the first place.

This is not a conspiracy. It does not require meetings or memos. It is the ordinary outcome of concentrated power. It produces news that is technically accurate and substantively misleading, a category of information more dangerous than outright fabrication, because it is harder to identify and easier to trust.

Reporter.ink exists for the reporters who want out of that system and for the audience that has already stopped trusting it. We provide verified journalists with a direct connection to the people who want to hear from them, funded entirely by those people, answerable only to the truth.

We take no advertising. We take no editorial direction from outside parties. We take no cut of what journalists earn. We are a platform and nothing more, a stage built for people who have something real to say and an audience willing to pay attention.