2025 TRANSPARENCY REPORT

At VSCO, we strive to operate an inclusive platform that enables our creators to build their professional brand and business, allows for the open exchange of creative content and inspiration, and fosters a positive, trusted community.

Our Community Guidelines, along with our Terms of Use, were designed to achieve these goals by establishing clear rules for what is and is not allowed on all of our products and services. They also apply to all content, including all forms of communication (such as text, messaging, images, videos, AI generation and editing, audio, links, and emojis) on VSCO, and to everyone on our platform (who we refer to as our “creators”). 

Our Community Guidelines are based on the following four pillars, which serve as the framework for how we promote positive experiences on VSCO while also defining what is prohibited as harmful content and conduct.

1. Respect the VSCO Community - Be kind to one another. Share who you are and be respectful of the VSCO Community.
2. Respect the VSCO Platform - Ensure a positive and safe experience on VSCO by creating and sharing quality content.
3. Foster Genuine Connections - Connect with others in a genuine and meaningful way to positively impact the community.
4. Safeguard Integrity - VSCO celebrates original expression and is a place where creators can experiment freely and authentically.

In 2025, we updated our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Community Guidelines as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, safety, and responsible innovation. The updates we made included details about (i) updates to our Community Guidelines to reflect the evolving needs of our creators, including the use of AI products and services, (ii) the introduction of Creator Content Standards and clearer terms around AI features and related use of content, and (iii) information related to privacy rights of our creators in accordance with recently enacted data privacy laws.

At VSCO, we believe creativity and self-expression are essential. We also are aware that these things can be negatively impacted when operating in spaces without trust. In service of furthering these goals, we have an internal team dedicated to maintaining the safety of our creators and the VSCO community. We also partner with leading industry experts for industry insights and ongoing improvement of our policies and enforcement efforts.

Our approach to content moderation strives to find the right balance between freedom of expression with the responsibility we have to protect VSCO’s community from harmful, abusive, and illegal content. This is done through a multi-layered approach, combining both technological automation and human review.

Prevention & Education

We believe now more than ever that education is critical to our efforts to prevent abuse. Our Safety Center is designed to empower creators with the tools and information they need to be proactive about their safety on VSCO. 

In our Safety Center and other communications to our creators, we offer articles, guides, and resources about VSCO as well as staying safe online and when interacting with others in the VSCO community. By educating our community on best practices for privacy, security, and responsible behavior, we work to prevent issues before they arise. 

When we take action on content or a profile due to a policy violation, we send a notice to the affected creator outlining the specific guideline that was violated. This notification is designed to help the creator understand our policies and learn how to align their actions with our Community Guidelines moving forward.

Responsible AI Use

At VSCO, we champion photographers so they can make it - by providing tools that enhance creative expression without compromising artistic intent. At VSCO we’ve taken a thoughtful step forward in integrating artificial intelligence into the creative workflow in a way that amplifies creativity while staying true to our values. 

VSCO is committed to responsible AI use. We prioritize safety by issuing clear guidelines related to AI tools and services, incorporating appropriate product guardrails and protections, implementing ongoing monitoring and testing for potential abuse, and always operating with a human-centric approach with appropriate oversight. 

Red Teaming

Before and during release, VSCO conducts red teaming exercises to identify potential safety risks, misuse, and unintended behavior in our AI-enabled tools. Our team evaluates potential harms such as unsafe content generation, policy evasion, bias, and misuse on an ongoing basis and uses these findings to improve safeguards, refine prompt handling, and strengthen content controls. 

Safety Protocols

VSCO’s AI Lab and VSCO Canvas are powered by artificial intelligence models with multiple layers of safety protocols designed to help prevent or redirect potentially harmful or inappropriate outputs. 

If a creator’s prompt is determined by automated safety systems to violate our VSCO guidelines or include prohibited content, the system will likely prevent output generation. In such cases, generated content will not be returned in response to the prompt. 

When a creator’s prompt contains restricted or unsupported elements that do not warrant full blocking, the system may modify or redirect the generation toward a policy-compliant alternative. This can result in outputs that differ from the creator’s original request.

These measures limit abuse proactively by preventing harmful or policy-violating content from being generated at the onset. 

Detection & Reporting

Detection

VSCO invests in proactive measures to detect potentially violative, harmful content, or illegal content, including advanced tooling technologies and machine learning. In 2025 we partnered with organizations like Hive to incorporate their industry leading classifiers to scan content posted to our platform. We also partnered with Thorn to license and implement their state-of-the-art child safety tooling to proactively detect online child sexual exploitation or abuse (OCSEA) and prevent distribution of this type of content. These technologies run on all content posted to VSCO and determine how probable it is that the content violates our policies. 

If content is flagged  to be potentially in violation of VSCO’s policies, which includes illegal content, it is reviewed by trained human moderators to assess and determine in accordance with our policies if the content should be removed. 

Reporting

We make reporting inappropriate or illegal content or conduct easy on our platform. Reporting is available on each of our offered products and services, including Profiles, posts, Blogs, Discussions, VSCO Spaces, VSCO Canvas, and Messages.

Individuals can use our reporting tools directly in our app or on the web to flag content that may violate our Community Guidelines or, in line with Article 16 of the DSA, to report content they believe to be illegal. Individuals also have the ability to create a report with our Trust & Safety Team using the chat bot located in the bottom right corner of our Help Center.

Moderation & Enforcement 

Moderation

Our Community Guidelines serve as the foundation for our content moderation strategies and practices. They establish the rules for appropriate creator conduct and shared content on VSCO to ensure our creators have a positive and safe experience. 

As part of our content moderation efforts, in 2025 we employed full human review of all reports, which allows us to be thoughtful and intentional with our moderation decision-making. When content is flagged, our moderators conduct a thorough review to ensure that we also consider potentially connected or associated content that may violate our policies. This is intended to minimize the potential of future exposure of harmful content to our creators. 

We ensure that our human moderators are fully prepared to handle their responsibilities effectively. Moderators receive comprehensive training, supported by detailed internal documentation on policies and enforcement actions and regular refresher quizzes. We also conduct quality assurance (QA) reviews to ensure consistency and fairness in decision-making.

Our human moderators are responsible for the following activities:

• Reviewing reports submitted by individuals: When an individual reports a piece of content on VSCO - such as a photo, discussion, blog post, message, or space - our human moderators carefully review all information associated with the report to ensure a holistic review. If we determine that any content or conduct violates our policies, we remove it or take appropriate action against the account in question and notify the reported creator.
• ‍Reviewing reports flagged by our detection tools: When an image is detected by our automated detection tools as a potential violation of our policies, it is reviewed by our human moderators who take appropriate actions and notify the reported creator if necessary. Automation helps us proactively detect issues, but all final decisions are made through careful human review to achieve accuracy with fairness.
• ‍Evaluating appeals: Notifications of action taken on content or profiles violating our policies include instructions on how to appeal our decision. All appeals are reviewed by human moderators who carefully reassess the content or profile in question to provide a decision to the impacted creator.

Recognizing the challenges of human moderation, we prioritize the well-being of both our internal teams and those employed by third-party service providers. We offer counseling and support services to all moderators, and we ensure our third-party service providers provide additional mental health resources to their staff. To further mitigate potential stress, our moderation tools include features like blur and grayscale settings to reduce exposure to sensitive or distressing content.

Enforcement

We take a variety of actions in our moderation efforts, including deletion of content, sending warning notices, and suspending offending accounts. If we come across an instance where it appears someone is at imminent risk of harm, we escalate these matters to the proper authorities in a timely manner.

• Deletions and Warnings:  When we delete content that we determine is in violation of our Community Guidelines, we send a warning notice to the creator whose account is impacted. Repeat or continuous violations that follow an initial warning notice may result in a permanent account suspension.

• Suspensions:  For repeat violations, a VSCO account may be suspended, and a suspension notice will be provided to the individual. For serious violations, a VSCO account may be immediately suspended. In these instances, we will not send any warning notices, and instead will send a suspension notice. If an account is suspended, the individual or entity will lose access to their VSCO account, including all associated content. Creation of new accounts in violation of our Community Guidelines will also result in suspensions of those new accounts.