Amazon · AWS Acceptable Use Policy

Prohibition on Illegal or Harmful Content

High severity
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What it is

You cannot use AWS to store, send, or distribute illegal content, including content that violates copyright, is obscene or abusive, or involves child sexual abuse material.

Consumer impact (what this means for users)

This clause prohibits a wide range of harmful and illegal content categories on AWS infrastructure, and because customers are responsible for end-user conduct, businesses hosting user-generated content face significant legal exposure if their platforms are used to store or distribute any of these content types.

How other platforms handle this

Spotify Medium

In any part of the Spotify Service, the Content that you access, including its selection and placement, may be influenced by commercial considerations, including Spotify's agreements with third parties. Some Content licensed by, provided to, created by, or otherwise made available by Spotify (e.g., ...

Redfin Medium

You may not automatedly crawl or query the Services for any purpose or by any means (including, without limitation, screen and database scraping, spiders, robots, crawlers and any other automated activity with the purpose of obtaining information from the Services) unless you have received prior exp...

Anthropic Medium

Rights and Responsibilities. You are responsible for all Inputs you submit to our Services and all Actions. By submitting Inputs to our Services, you represent and warrant that you have all rights, licenses, and permissions that are necessary for us to process the Inputs under our Terms and to provi...

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Why it matters (compliance & risk perspective)

Violations of this provision — including unknowing hosting of illegal content uploaded by third parties — can trigger immediate account termination and expose customers to serious criminal and civil liability.

View original clause language
No Illegal or Harmful Content. You may not use the Services to transmit, store, display, distribute or otherwise make available content that is illegal, harmful, or offensive, including content that: infringes or misappropriates the intellectual property or proprietary rights of others; is defamatory, obscene, abusive, invasive of privacy, or otherwise objectionable; contains or promotes child sexual abuse material or exploitation of minors.

Institutional analysis (Compliance & legal intelligence)

(1) REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision directly implicates 18 U.S.C. § 2256 et seq. (CSAM, DOJ/FBI enforcement), 17 U.S.C. § 512 (DMCA safe harbor, copyright infringement), FTC Act Section 5 (obscene/deceptive content), state criminal statutes on obscenity, and EU law including DSA Arts. 14-16 (illegal content notice-and-action obligations) and GDPR Art. 9 restrictions on sensitive content. CSAM prohibition engages mandatory reporting requirements under 18 U.S.C. § 2258A (NCMEC CyberTipline reporting by electronic service providers). (2)

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Applicable agencies

  • FTC
    FTC enforces against platforms facilitating distribution of harmful, obscene, or deceptive content under FTC Act Section 5, and enforces COPPA where minors are involved.
    File a complaint →

Applicable regulations

CFAA
United States Federal
DMCA
United States Federal
DSA
European Union

Provision details

Document information
Document
AWS Acceptable Use Policy
Entity
Amazon
Document last updated
March 24, 2026
Tracking information
First tracked
March 6, 2026
Last verified
April 9, 2026
Record ID
CA-P-002548
Document ID
CA-D-00028
Evidence Provenance
Source URL
Wayback Machine
SHA-256
c61af89c19589f506fd3fc8bbb8010407f0052d2e845554c876b99cc2495d2ce
Verified
✓ Snapshot stored   ✓ Change verified
How to Cite
ConductAtlas Policy Archive
Entity: Amazon | Document: AWS Acceptable Use Policy | Record: CA-P-002548
Captured: 2026-03-06 20:03:12 UTC | SHA-256: c61af89c19589f50…
URL: https://conductatlas.com/platform/amazon/aws-acceptable-use-policy/prohibition-on-illegal-or-harmful-content/
Accessed: April 28, 2026
Classification
Severity
High
Categories

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