Terms of Service

1. Agreement

By creating an account on Roots, you agree to these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, please don't use Roots.

Roots is operated by Roots Social, based in Ieper, Belgium.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 16 years old to use Roots. By creating an account, you confirm that you meet this requirement and that any date of birth you provide is accurate.

Roots is invite-only. You may only create an account using a valid invite code from an existing member, or by being admitted from the waitlist.

3. Your account

You're responsible for keeping your account credentials secure and for anything that happens under your account. Let us know immediately at hello@rootsocial.app if you believe your account has been compromised.

You may not create an account on behalf of someone else, impersonate another person, or share your account with others.

4. Your content

You own the content you post on Roots (photos, posts, comments, messages). By posting content, you grant Roots a limited license to store, display, and transmit that content solely for the purpose of operating the service — for example, showing your posts to your friends, or generating your Digital Yearbook export.

We do not claim ownership of your content, and we do not use it for advertising or sell it to third parties.

You're responsible for the content you post. Don't post anything that:

• Violates the law
• Infringes someone else's rights (copyright, privacy, etc.)
• Harasses, threatens, or endangers another person
• Violates our Community Guidelines

5. Prohibited content and Pages

The following are never allowed on Roots — on profiles, in posts, in messages, or on Pages:

• Adult content (18+), including pornographic or sexually explicit material
• Gambling, betting, or games of chance offered for money
• The sale or promotion of alcohol or tobacco products
• Material classified as harmful to minors, including content that depicts or encourages self-harm or extreme violence

Because Pages are a public surface, we apply this strictly: a Page that falls into any of these categories will not be approved, and an approved Page that later does will be taken down. Serious violations — especially anything harmful to minors — also end the associated account.

6. Community Guidelines

Use of Roots is also governed by our Community Guidelines. We may remove content or suspend accounts that violate these guidelines.

7. Roots+ subscription

Roots+ is an optional paid subscription offering additional storage and features.

• Subscriptions renew automatically until cancelled.
• You can cancel at any time; your Roots+ benefits remain active until the end of the current billing period.
• Payments are processed by Stripe. Roots does not store your full payment card details.
• We do not offer refunds for partial billing periods.

If you cancel or a payment fails, your account reverts to the free tier. Free accounts include 2GB of storage (accounts created before this change keep the 5GB they were given). If your stored content exceeds your free tier limit, we'll notify you and give you 90 days to download your content (via the Digital Yearbook export, always available) or resubscribe, with reminders along the way. If no action is taken after that period, we may remove older content to bring your account back within the free tier's limit. New uploads are blocked while you're over the limit.

8. Communities and paid memberships

Creators on an eligible plan can run Communities on Roots — membership spaces that may charge a subscription ("paid membership"). Communities can also be free, optionally gated by a membership application reviewed by the creator.

• A paid membership is a contract between you and the community's creator. Roots provides the platform and processes the payment, but the creator is responsible for delivering what they promise and for moderating their community.
• Memberships renew automatically until cancelled. You can cancel at any time; access remains active until the end of the current billing period.
• As a consumer in the EU, you have a 14-day right of withdrawal. By starting to use a membership immediately, you acknowledge that you lose this right once the service is fully delivered; refunds for the remaining period are otherwise at the creator's discretion, unless required by law.
• Payments are processed by Stripe. Roots does not store your full payment card details.

9. Creator responsibilities and payouts

If you run a paid Community (or another monetised Page) on Roots, you agree that:

• You are the seller of your memberships. You are responsible for your community's content, moderation, member support, and any legal obligations toward your members (including consumer law in their country).
• Payouts go to a Stripe Express account you connect, after identity verification handled by Stripe. You must provide accurate information there.
• Roots deducts a platform fee from each membership payment, shown transparently on your creator plan.
• New communities have an initial payout delay (up to 30 days, reduced for established communities in good standing) so that refunds and disputes are funded from your balance rather than by Roots.
• Refunds and chargebacks are reversed from your community's funds. If a community's dispute rate exceeds safe thresholds, Roots may pause its payouts or the community itself.
• You may not sell anything covered by section 5 (adult content, gambling, alcohol/tobacco, material harmful to minors). Doing so ends the community and the associated account.

10. Invites

Each member receives a limited number of invites to share with people they know. Invites are personal and tied to your account — please don't sell, publicly share, or misuse invite codes.

11. Termination

You may delete your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate your account if you violate these terms or our Community Guidelines.

12. Disclaimers

Roots is provided "as is." We do our best to keep the service reliable, but we don't guarantee it will always be available, error-free, or uninterrupted.

Roots is not a party to memberships sold by community creators; disputes about what a paid membership delivers are between you and the creator. Where EU consumer law applies, your statutory rights are unaffected.

To the extent permitted by law, Roots is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from your use of the service.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we'll notify you before they take effect.

14. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Belgium, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. If you are a consumer, you also keep the protection of the mandatory consumer-law provisions of your country of residence.

15. Contact

Questions about these terms: hello@rootsocial.app