Substack Terms of Use

This document is Substack's Terms of Use, effective April 21, 2025, governing the contractual relationship between Substack Inc. and all users of its media platform for writing, video, podcasts, and creator-centered communities. The agreement states that users grant Substack a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, and worldwide license to translate, modify, reproduce, and otherwise act with respect to user-posted content to operate and improve the platform, and the terms authorize mandatory individual arbitration in San Francisco County, California under JAMS Streamlined Arbitration Rules with a class action waiver. The perpetual, irrevocable scope of the content license is notable in that it survives account deletion, and the agreement acknowledges that publicly posted content may remain viewable after account closure; the mandatory arbitration clause and class action waiver are standard across many consumer platforms but operationally constrain dispute resolution pathways, and applicable law in certain jurisdictions may limit the enforceability of class action waivers or arbitration clauses for consumer claims. The agreement engages COPPA by prohibiting use by children under 16 and committing to delete collected data from such users, implicates the FTC Act through its consumer-facing data and dispute practices, and incorporates a CCPA Policy by reference for California residents; jurisdiction-specific regulatory frameworks including GDPR for EU users may impose additional obligations not fully addressed in this document.