Acceptable use and reporting

Pigeon can't read your messages and doesn't scan them. Abuse only reaches us when someone in the conversation reports it. This page says what isn't allowed and what happens when it's reported.

Version 1.0, 22 October 2026. Part of the terms of service.

What isn't allowed

Don't use Pigeon to send, store or arrange any of the following. The numbers match the categories you'll see when you report.

1. Spam or scams: bulk or unwanted ads, fraud, fake prizes or investments, phishing links, fake accounts and bots.
2. Harassment or hate: bullying, attacking people for who they are, unwanted sexual advances, organising pile-ons.
3. Harm to children: any sexual image or abuse of a child, grooming or trying to meet a child, or hurting a child in any way.
4. Violent threats: threatening to hurt or kill someone, praising violence, or calling for an attack.
5. Graphic violence sent to people who didn't want it: gore, cruelty to animals, killings.
6. Terrorism or violent extremism: supporting, recruiting for or planning violence, or spreading footage of attacks to promote them.
7. Illegal goods and services: drugs, weapons or explosives, human trafficking or forced sex work, hacking and stolen data, or other crimes.
8. Sexual content someone didn't ask for. Sexual content between consenting adults in a private chat is allowed; sending it to someone who didn't want it is not.
9. Private or intimate content shared without consent: intimate images (real or AI-made) shared or threatened without the person's consent, sextortion, hidden-camera images, or someone's home address, ID or financial details.
10. Encouraging suicide or self-harm, or an eating disorder.
11. Pretending to be someone: a person, a company, a public figure, or Pigeon.
12. Infringing copyright or trademark (see the copyright policy).

Also don't attack or overload Pigeon's servers or other people's accounts (see the terms).

How to report

If someone is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency services first. Pigeon knows nothing about where anyone is.

In the app Coming: choose Report on a message and pick what's wrong. You choose which messages to send. The report proves those messages came from the sender's account, and by default doesn't tell us who you are.

Until then, email abuse@pigeonmessage.io and tell us the sender's handle, what happened and when. Never send us an image of a child being sexually abused, not even to report it; describe what you saw and we'll tell you what to do next.

Intimate images of you shared without your consent (including fakes): you can ask us to remove them under the US Take It Down Act. Email abuse@pigeonmessage.io with: your physical or electronic signature; enough information for us to find the image (for example the sender's handle and when it was sent); a statement that you believe in good faith it was shared without your consent; and how to contact you. We remove a valid request as soon as we can and within 48 hours. Because files are encrypted and copies aren't linked to each other, we can only remove copies we can locate from what you tell us.

Copyright: use the copyright notice process.

What happens to a report

A person on Pigeon's safety team reviews it. What we can do is limited by design:

• Remove a file that was reported, from our file servers. We remove only the exact upload that was reported. Text messages live only on people's devices, so we can't remove them; you can delete them on yours and block the sender.
• Suspend the sender's account. It loses its handle and its invite codes, and can no longer message people it hasn't talked to before. Existing conversations can carry on, and the people in them can block it.
• Do nothing, if the report doesn't show a violation.

Strikes. The most serious violations suspend an account the first time: sexual abuse or grooming of a child, an imminent threat, terrorism, trafficking, and non-consensual intimate images or sextortion. Any other violation we uphold is a strike; three strikes within 90 days suspend an account for 30 days, and a strike after that suspends it indefinitely. Many reports about the same message count as one.

Child sexual abuse material. When we confirm a report of it, we remove the file, suspend the account, and report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), as US law requires (18 U.S.C. 2258A). We keep the reported material securely, with very limited access, for one year after our report to NCMEC, as that law requires, or longer if the law requires it.

Emergencies. If a report shows that someone faces an imminent risk of death or serious injury, we may share the reported content with the police, as US law permits.

What we tell people. We tell the reporter the outcome. If we remove a file, the person who sent it sees that it was removed, the category, and how to appeal. We never tell them who reported it.

Appeals. If your file was removed or your account suspended, you can appeal and a different reviewer will decide. Currently, until in-app appeals are built, email abuse@pigeonmessage.io.

False reports. Reporting someone falsely, or in bulk to get them removed, is itself a violation.

How long we keep reports, and what a report tells us, is in the privacy policy. How reporting works technically: abuse reporting with message franking.