Terms and rules
GlowUps is a community for before-and-after photographs and honest discussion of cosmetic surgery, bodybuilding and other appearance changes. These terms set out the rules. They are written to be read, not skimmed past.
1. About these terms
glowups.net (“GlowUps”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is an independently operated online community. These Terms of Service (“Terms”) form a binding agreement between you and us. By creating an account, posting, or otherwise using the site you accept them. If you do not accept them, do not use the site.
Our Privacy Policy and Cookie Notice form part of these Terms.
2. Who may use GlowUps
- You must be 18 or older. There is no exception. This is a site about bodies and medical procedures, and we do not accept accounts or content from anyone under 18.
- You must not be prohibited from using the site under any law that applies to you, and you must not have been previously banned from GlowUps.
- One account per person, unless we have agreed otherwise in writing.
If we have reason to believe you are under 18, we will suspend the account and may delete it and its content without notice.
3. Your account
- Give accurate registration details and keep them up to date.
- Keep your password to yourself. You are responsible for everything done through your account.
- Tell us promptly at [email protected] if you think someone else has access to it.
- We may refuse a registration, require a username to be changed, or suspend an account where these Terms have been broken.
4. The content you post
4.1 You keep ownership
You own what you post. Nothing here transfers your copyright to us.
4.2 The licence you give us
By posting content (text, photographs, video, links; together, “Content”) you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, resize, crop, compress, create thumbnails and previews of, publish, publicly display and distribute that Content for the purpose of operating, promoting and improving GlowUps. That includes showing it in galleries, in feeds and RSS, in search-result snippets, and in link-preview cards on other platforms.
The licence lasts as long as the Content is on the site. If you delete it, the licence ends for future use, but we are not able to recall copies already made by others, cached by search engines, or quoted in other members' posts.
4.3 Featuring your photographs on our social accounts
We may reproduce Content you post, including before-and-after photographs, on GlowUps’ own accounts on platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, X, Reddit and YouTube, and in advertising for the site, for the purpose of promoting GlowUps. We will not present your Content as an endorsement of any surgeon, clinic, product or treatment.
You can say no at any time, and you do not have to give a reason. Email [email protected] with the post or your username and we will stop using that Content in future posts, and remove it from our own accounts, within 7 days. Copies that other people have already downloaded, screenshotted or re-shared are outside our control. Deleting Content from GlowUps also ends this permission for future use.
4.4 What you promise about your Content
You confirm that, for everything you post:
- you own it or have the rights to post it;
- posting it does not infringe anyone's copyright, trade mark, privacy or other rights;
- every identifiable person in it is over 18 and has given you express permission to publish it here.
4.5 Everything you post is public
Threads, posts and photographs on GlowUps are visible to anyone on the internet, including people who are not members, and are indexed by search engines. They can be screenshotted, saved, reposted and archived by third parties beyond our control. Do not post anything you would not be willing to have permanently public and attached to your face.
5. Rules for photographs
These are the rules that keep this site legal and worth using. Breaking them will get content removed and will usually get the account banned.
- Never post images of anyone under 18, in any state of dress, in any context. This includes childhood photographs of other people. We report material that appears to be child sexual abuse material to the relevant authorities.
- No nudity, sexually explicit or sexualised imagery. Progress photographs are fine within the norms of a fitness or clinical context; content whose evident purpose is sexual is not.
- Do not expose other people's identities. No screenshots or crops that reveal a third party's name, handle, workplace, address, or contact details.
If a photograph of you has been posted by someone else without your permission, email [email protected] and we will remove it.
6. Health, medical and fitness content
GlowUps is not a medical service and nothing on it is medical advice.
- Nothing posted here, by members or by staff, is medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and using the site does not create any clinician-patient relationship.
- We do not verify anyone's credentials. A member describing themselves as a surgeon, doctor, dietitian or coach may not be one.
- Always consult a qualified professional before making decisions about surgery, medication, supplements, diet or training. Do not delay or disregard professional advice because of something you read here.
- In an emergency, contact your local emergency services.
6.1 Substances
You may not use GlowUps to source, sell, buy, broker, advertise or solicit prescription-only medicines, anabolic steroids, SARMs, peptides, or any controlled substance. That includes source lists, private messages offering supply, referral or discount codes for grey-market pharmacies, and “DM me” posts. Discussing your own experience, including harm reduction and side effects, is permitted. Facilitating a transaction is not.
6.2 Content that presents a risk of harm
We remove content that promotes eating disorders, self-harm, dangerously restrictive dieting, or unsafe practices, and content that encourages other members towards them. If you are struggling, please speak to a professional rather than to a forum.
7. Reviews of surgeons, clinics and practitioners
- Reviews must be your own honest, first-hand experience.
- Distinguish fact from opinion. “My swelling lasted nine weeks” is a fact about you. “This surgeon is incompetent” is an allegation, and you are responsible for it.
- Do not post reviews in exchange for payment, discounts or free treatment, and disclose any relationship you have with a practitioner or clinic you write about.
- We do not verify reviews and we do not endorse any practitioner mentioned on the site.
- Practitioners who wish to respond are welcome to, but must identify themselves accurately. Complaints about specific reviews should go to [email protected]. We will consider them, but we are not a tribunal and we will not always take content down.
8. Things you must not do
- Harass, bully, threaten, stalk or incite violence against anyone.
- Post content that is unlawful.
- Publish anyone's private information without their consent.
- Impersonate another person, a practitioner, or a member of staff.
- Spam, advertise, or post affiliate or referral links without our written permission.
- Upload malware, attempt to gain unauthorised access, probe or overload the site, or interfere with its operation.
- Scrape, crawl, bulk-download or harvest content, images or member data by automated means without our written permission. This includes collecting content for training machine-learning models.
- Evade a ban, or use the site on behalf of someone who has been banned.
9. Moderation
We may remove, edit, hide, move or lock any content, and warn, suspend or terminate any account, with or without notice, where we consider it necessary to enforce these Terms or to protect members or the site. We are not obliged to monitor content, and the presence of a post does not mean we have reviewed or approved it.
If you think a moderation decision was wrong, email [email protected] and we will look at it again.
10. Reporting infringing or unlawful content
To report content that infringes your rights, email [email protected] with:
- your name and contact details;
- a link to the specific post or image;
- a description of the right you hold and how it is infringed;
- a statement that you believe in good faith that the use is not authorised; and
- a statement that the information in your notice is accurate.
We will act on valid notices promptly. If your content was removed and you believe that was wrong, you may send a counter-notice to the same address. We terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.
11. Removing your own content and closing your account
You can delete your own posts where the software allows it, and you can ask us to remove specific content or close your account by emailing [email protected]. When an account is closed we remove or anonymise personal data as described in our Privacy Policy. We cannot remove copies that others have already made, or content cached or archived elsewhere.
12. Our intellectual property
The GlowUps name, logo, page design, custom code and other site material are ours or our licensors'. You may link to the site freely. You may not copy the design or code, or use our name or logo in a way that suggests endorsement, without permission.
13. Third-party links and content
The site contains links and embedded content from other sites. We do not control them, we are not responsible for them, and a link is not an endorsement. Their terms and privacy policies apply when you follow them.
14. Availability of the site
We do not guarantee that the site will be available, uninterrupted, or free of errors. We may change, suspend or discontinue any part of it, and we may impose limits on features or storage, at any time.
15. Disclaimers
The site and its content are provided “as is”. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we exclude all warranties, conditions and representations that are not expressly set out in these Terms, including as to accuracy, fitness for a particular purpose, and the quality or safety of anything described by members.
Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited.
16. Limitation of liability
Subject to the paragraph above, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, loss of data, loss of goodwill, or for any decision you take about surgery, medication, supplements, training or any other treatment. Our total liability to you in connection with the site, in any twelve-month period, is limited to the amount you have paid us in that period, or 100 US dollars, whichever is greater.
If you are a consumer, this section does not affect your statutory rights, and you may have rights under the law of the country in which you live that we cannot exclude.
17. Indemnity
If you use GlowUps in the course of a business, you agree to indemnify us against claims, losses and reasonable costs arising from your Content or your breach of these Terms.
18. Suspension and termination
We may suspend or terminate your access at any time if you break these Terms, if we are required to by law, or if we reasonably believe it is necessary to protect members or the site. You may stop using the site at any time.
19. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms. The date at the top shows when they last changed. Where a change is material, we will give notice on the site or by email before it takes effect. Continuing to use GlowUps after a change means you accept the updated Terms.
20. Governing law and disputes
These Terms and any dispute arising out of them are governed by the law of the country in which GlowUps is established, and the courts of that country have jurisdiction. If you need to know which that is in order to bring or defend a claim, write to [email protected] and we will tell you.
Nothing here takes away rights you have as a consumer. If you live in a country whose law gives you mandatory protections, you keep them, and you may bring proceedings in your local courts.
Before going to court, please write to us at [email protected]. Most disputes about moderation, content removal or accounts can be settled that way.
21. Contact
- General and account matters: [email protected]
- Legal notices, takedowns, and images of you posted by others: [email protected]
- Privacy and data protection: [email protected]
- Or use the contact form.
