Mastodon Terms of Service

Last updated: 7 December 2025

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) apply to your use of the Mastodon instance operated by The Haunted Lighthouse Limited at lighthouse.co.im (the “Service”). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms.

If you do not agree to these Terms, you must not use the Service.

1. Who we are

The Service is operated by The Haunted Lighthouse Limited, a company registered in the Isle of Man (Company No. 138512C).

Contact: contact@haunted.lighthouse.co.im

2. Eligibility

You must be old enough to use social platforms without parental consent under the laws of your country. The Service is aimed at adults and older teenagers. Parents/guardians are responsible for younger users.

3. Behaviour and conduct

You may not use the Service to:

• harass, abuse, threaten, impersonate, or intimidate individuals or groups;
• engage in hate speech, extremist propaganda, or targeted abuse;
• upload illegal content, including anything violating copyright or local law;
• doxx, stalk, or endanger others;
• run bots, scrapers, or automated posting systems without permission;
• operate spam accounts or engage in growth-hacking behaviours;
• promote scams, fraud, or malicious software.

Decisions are based on behaviour, not geolocation. Using a VPN or Tor is permitted provided you follow the rules.

4. Moderation policy

We reserve the right to:

• remove content that violates these Terms;
• suspend, silence, or remove accounts engaged in harmful behaviour;
• defederate from remote instances that pose security, spam, or safety risks;
• take action to maintain a safe and peaceful environment for our users.

Moderation decisions are final. This is a calm, respectful community — not a free-for-all.

5. Federation and data distribution

Using Mastodon means your public posts may be copied to other servers (“instances”) around the world. These remote servers may store, cache, or archive your content according to their own policies.

We cannot compel remote instances to delete or correct data once federated. You may request deletion on our server, but copies may still exist elsewhere.

Direct messages (DMs) are not end-to-end encrypted and should not be considered private.

6. Account data and privacy

Account data is handled according to our Privacy Policy.

We store:

• your email address;
• username and profile data;
• posts, media uploads, lists, favourites, boosts;
• logs for security and troubleshooting (IP address, timestamps, etc.).

We retain backups for disaster recovery. Backups have a limited lifespan and are not used for any other purpose.

7. Uploads and storage

Media files (images, videos, audio, avatars) are stored via a secure object storage backend. Remote media from other instances may also be cached.

We may remove cached remote media to manage disk usage or comply with takedown requests.

8. Third-party content and defederation

You may view content from thousands of remote communities. We do not control remote servers and are not responsible for their content or policies.

We may block or limit access to remote instances that pose risks such as:

• harassment or hate networks;
• spam factories;
• malware distribution;
• federation instability or technical abuse.

9. Availability and maintenance

We aim to provide a reliable, well-maintained service with strong backups and documentation. However, the Service is provided on a best-effort basis:

• we do not guarantee uninterrupted availability;
• we may perform maintenance at any time;
• we may need to suspend the Service for upgrades or emergencies;
• your data may not always be instantly retrievable from federation.

10. Account suspension or removal

Your account may be restricted or removed if you:

• violate these Terms;
• engage in harmful or disruptive behaviour;
• attempt to compromise the system’s security;
• ignore reasonable moderator requests;
• operate bots or automations without permission.

We also reserve the right to remove inactive accounts after a long period of dormancy.

11. Data deletion and account closure

When you delete your account, we remove your data from our server within a reasonable timeframe. Federated copies on remote instances may persist according to the policies of those servers.

12. Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, The Haunted Lighthouse Limited is not liable for:

• loss of data, downtime, or interruptions;
• third-party actions via federation;
• harm caused by users or remote servers;
• consequential or indirect losses;
• issues arising from the use of VPNs, Tor, or privacy tools.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability where doing so would be unlawful.

13. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. Continued use of the Service after changes take effect indicates acceptance.

14. Governing law

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Isle of Man. Disputes shall be resolved by the Isle of Man courts, except where otherwise required by law.

15. Contact

Questions about these Terms may be sent to contact@haunted.lighthouse.co.im.