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Profanity policy

Policy overview

For a pleasant experience on eBay, we don't allow using hateful, offensive, profane, or vulgar language in almost all public areas of the website, including:

  • About Me pages

  • Chat rooms

  • Discussion boards

  • eBay Motors

  • eBay Stores

  • Feedback Forum (see our Feedback withdrawal and removal page for more info)

  • Listings

  • Want It Now ads

  • Other areas of the site that people see

To find out more about our profanity policy, see the guidelines below as well as our community content policy .

Make sure your listing follows our guidelines. If it doesn't, it may be removed, and your buying and selling privileges could be restricted.

If you see a listing or an eBay user breaking the rules, let us know.

What are the guidelines?

Allowed

  • Music CD, movie DVD, or other media items with titles that include profanity. The profane word has to be part of an official title (for example, a song title) that was originally released by the company that made the item.

  • Officially released product with a brand name that includes a profane word

Restricted

  • Novelty items (hats, T-shirts, and so on) with profanity have to meet the following criteria:

    • The majority of the profane word has to be replaced with asterisks (for example, s*** or f***).

    • Any image showing the profane word needs to be blurred out as well.

Not allowed

  • Hateful, obscene, offensive, racist, sexual, or violent words in any public area of eBay

  • Offensive user IDs (if you see this, report it to us)

  • Profane language to describe an item for sale

  • Profanity in a listing title or description


Why does eBay have this policy?

Just like any public place and other websites viewed by people of all ages, we expect eBay users not to use profane or offensive language. This is a basic rule that applies to everyone and almost everywhere.


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