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Acceptable Use Policy

Last updated: 2026-06-04
Plain summary Open America is a civic-tech tool. Use it like one. Don't harass legislators or other users, don't crawl us so hard that we go down for everyone else, don't use the AI letter feature for satire or threats. Respect rate limits when you use the API. If you find a vulnerability, report it instead of exploiting it.

This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") describes uses of Open America that are prohibited. It applies to everyone who uses the Service, including anonymous visitors, registered users, paid subscribers, and API consumers. It is incorporated by reference into our Terms of Service.

1. Prohibited conduct

You may not:

  • Harass, threaten, or intimidate any person — including elected officials, their staff, other users, or anyone else. This applies in every input field: AI letter topics, donation messages, support form, comments, anywhere a human will read what you wrote.
  • Use the AI letter feature to draft content that expresses or implies physical harm, sexual harassment, hate speech, threats of violence, or doxxing. The Service's safety screens enforce this; circumventing them is a separate violation.
  • Submit content that is defamatory, fraudulent, deceptive, or unlawful.
  • Impersonate any person, including a real elected official, journalist, or another user, in any input field or account.
  • Submit satire or joke content dressed as genuine constituent communication. Satire is fine to discuss; we don't host it as if it were real.

2. Technical abuse

You may not:

  • Crawl, scrape, or automate access in a way that degrades service for other users, exceeds posted rate limits, or circumvents our anti-abuse controls. A reasonable, polite crawler is welcome; a thundering herd is not.
  • Reverse engineer, decompile, or extract source code from the Service, except as expressly permitted by law (e.g., interoperability under specific statutes).
  • Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of any system or network without our written permission. Coordinated, good-faith vulnerability research that follows our security.txt is welcome.
  • Distribute malware, host phishing, or use the Service as part of an attack chain on any third party.
  • Circumvent rate limits, paywalls, or quota counters by sharing accounts, multi-accounting, or token reuse.

3. API conduct

When using our API (current or future):

  • Respect documented rate limits. Implement exponential back-off when you receive a 429 or 5xx response.
  • Identify your application via a descriptive User-Agent. Generic or absent UAs may be rate-limited more aggressively.
  • Cache responses when reasonable. The data we surface from congress.gov doesn't change as often as you might think.
  • Attribute Open America in user-visible places if your application surfaces our data.

4. Account conduct

  • One account per person. Don't create multiple accounts to circumvent quotas or bans.
  • Keep your password and any API keys private. You're responsible for activity under your account.
  • Don't share accounts with people outside your household; team accounts (Newsroom tier) have separate rules at the point of provisioning.

5. Civic content quality

Open America is a primary-source platform. You may not submit content (in supporter messages, public profile fields, or anywhere else) that is paid promotion, undisclosed advocacy, or disinformation designed to mislead. If you are paid to promote a position on a piece of legislation, disclose it.

6. Enforcement

We may, at our discretion: remove offending content, suspend or revoke quota allowances, restrict access to specific features (e.g., the AI letter feature), close an account, or refuse service. We aim to give notice and reason when the violation isn't urgent. Severe or repeat violations may be reported to law enforcement where appropriate.

Three or more violations of the AI letter safety screen in a seven-day window will trigger an automatic letter-feature restriction. A single HIGH-severity violation (threat of violence, dehumanizing harassment) will trigger an immediate restriction.

7. Reporting violations

If you see content that violates this AUP, email abuse@openamerica.io with the relevant URL and a short description. If you believe content infringes your copyright, see our DMCA Policy.

8. Changes

We may update this AUP. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the current version. Material changes will be flagged for at least 14 days.

9. Contact

Questions: abuse@openamerica.io.