At Whatnot, we’re building a platform that brings millions of people together to shop, sell, and connect around the things they love.
To help keep Whatnot safe and fair for everyone, we take action when accounts violate our Community Guidelines.
How Whatnot approaches enforcement
Our goal is simple:
Maintain a trusted marketplace while giving people the opportunity to course-correct whenever possible.
Our approach is:
- Proportional: Penalties match the severity of the violation and your account history.
- Cumulative: Repeated violations, even if less severe, lead to stronger penalties over time.
- Fair: If we take enforcement action on your account, you can review it and appeal if you think we got it wrong.
What happens if I violate the Community Guidelines?
Depending on the severity of the violation and your account history, you may receive:
- Warning: We’ll notify you about the issue and explain the relevant policy, so you can avoid future violations.
- Feature restrictions: You may temporarily or permanently lose access to certain features, like Direct Messages or Giveaways.
- Discovery restricted: If you’re a Seller, we may temporarily reduce your visibility in Feeds and Recommendations. Your shows will still appear on your profile, in Search, and in the “Followed Hosts” feed.
- Temporary suspension (2 or 7 days): You’ll lose access to your account for a set period. Once the suspension ends, your access will be restored unless we tell you otherwise.
- Ongoing investigation suspension: In certain cases, we may temporarily suspend your account while we review a serious issue. The suspension stays in place until the review is complete.
- Loss of selling access: If you’re a Seller, you permanently lose the ability to sell or host shows on Whatnot.
- Ban: You permanently lose the ability to buy or sell on Whatnot. Serious or repeated violations may result in account removal.
Do violations expire?
Most violations expire after 180 days.
Permanent penalties, like bans or loss of selling access, don’t expire.
How do I appeal a violation?
If you believe a penalty was applied in error, you can appeal by:
Replying to the email you received from Trust & Safety and including any relevant information.
Logging into Whatnot and visiting your Account Health dashboard's Policy Standing section to review your violation. If eligible, you can submit an appeal there.
After you submit an appeal, our team will review the relevant details and follow up with a decision.
How can I check my policy standing?
Visit your Account Health dashboard and check the Policy Standing section. You’ll see your overall standing and any violations from the past 180 days.
Checking this regularly helps you stay in good standing, make adjustments if needed, and avoid surprises.