Content Policy

This policy document applies to all content on the Softonic websites as well as Softonic´s other proprietary pages and covers not permitted content that is sometimes legally or culturally sensitive. According to this policy, the content of any software, application, products or services and any advertisement or the offer, or any landing page to which the advertisement/offer links to and the underlying software, application, product or service may not relate to any of the following content (as determined in Softonic´s discretion).

A) Prohibited content

Sexual and adult content

Any type of content that refers to pornography, nudity or eroticism (sex shops, erotic blogs, webcams, etc.) is not permitted.

Illegal, potentially damaging substances or miracle products

Any content referring to illegal or not-approved substances of any type or products or that refers to products or services that may cause damage, harm, or injury, for instance, to increase body mass, whether they are anabolic steroids or not, is not permitted.

Violence or discrimination

Any content that incites violence or is related to, or encourages, opinions about race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disabilities, gender, age or sexual orientation is strictly forbidden. This includes obscenity of other forms (including defamatory, libelous, threatening or other material that advocates against any individual or group).

Piracy

Any content that infringes any third party rights such as but not limited to copyright, trademark rights is not allowed. Additionally, advertising of websites that promotes media (software, movies, music) piracy, mod chips, mobile unlocking, etc. is not permitted.

Prostitution and escorts

Any type of content associated with prostitution or escort services is not permitted.

Tobacco and alcohol

Any content referring to tobacco, tobacco brands and / or promotions associated with such brands is not permitted.
Content referring alcoholic beverages and drinks that resemble alcoholic beverages is not permitted. Should Softonic extraordinarily and in case by case basis, allows so, such content must abide by the local laws and industry standards of any location your content targets and be responsible in how you promote alcohol. For example, don’t advocate excessive or competitive drinking, target underage people, promise physical or social benefits of alcohol consumption, or condone drinking and driving.

Firearms and explosive materials

Any content referring to firearms, explosive materials or promotions associated with brands that manufacture or distribute such content is not permitted.

Gambling

Any content referring to gambling either with real money or through any virtual currency is not permitted. Should Softonic extraordinarily and in case by case basis, allows so, such content must abide by the local laws and industry standards of any location your content targets and be responsible in how you promote gambling.

Financial services

Softonic reserves the right to refuse or take down content that relates to the management and investment of money, including personalized advice. Should Softonic extraordinarily and in case by case basis, allows so, content must comply with the local regulations for any region that your content targets — for example, include specific disclosures required by local law.

Enabling dishonest behavior

Any content that promotes products or services that are designed to enable dishonest behavior, including without limitation, hacking software or instructions; services designed to artificially inflate ads or website traffic; fake documents; academic cheating services, is not permitted.

Inappropriate content

Any content allowing the promotion of any of the following is not permitted:
• content that’s likely to shock or disgust
• content that’s exploitative or appears to unfairly capitalize at the expense of others
Examples include but are not limited to: graphic crime scene or accident images, cruelty to animals, murder, self-harm, extortion or blackmail, sale or trade of endangered species, content using profane language.

Abusive content

Any of the following content is not permitted: malicious ads, sites, or apps, content promoting sites or apps that offer little unique value to users and are focused primarily on traffic generation, businesses that attempt to gain an unfair advantage in the ad auction.

B) Additional specifications for ads

Pharmaceutical products

Softonic reserves the right to refuse content relating to pharmaceutical products. Content featuring legally available pharmaceutical products in the country in which the content is displayed could be permitted by Softonic on case by case basis, provided in any case that the content directs a user to a URL of the webpage of the manufacturer or brand.

Mobile content

Softonic reserves the right to refuse mobile content. Mobile content maybe permitted by Softonic on a case by case basis if the price of the download is clearly disclosed.

Exaggeration

Alarming, aggressive or excessive wording and/or punctuation is NOT permitted.
Softonic reserves the right to immediately and without previous notice reject, take down or remove any content considered in its sole discretion that infringes its policies or that can be considered harmful to its users, its image or its interests. All content is subject to the final approval of Softonic.

C) Advertising of crypto-assets

Softonic is committed to comply with all applicable advertisement laws, specifically when the advertising refers to crypto-assets; advertising of products and services must abide by the local laws and industry standards of any location your content targets and be responsible in how you promote crypto-assets. In any event, advertising of crypto-assets must include information on the risks of the product they advertise, specifically:

a) The following warning shall be included in the commercial communication, using a format and positioning that ensures its relevance in the advertising piece and not as secondary information or as a footnote: Investment in crypto-assets is unregulated, may not be suitable for retail investors and the entire amount invested may be lost.

b) A link or reference to the location of the additional information shall be included, in accordance with the provisions of point 8 of Annex I below, which shall, as a minimum, refer to the information and risks identified in the link included in Annex II below, when they apply to the advertised product. The link must be identified with the following text: It is important to read and understand the risks of this investment, which are explained in detail in this site. When the medium used only allows for a reference, an indication must be given of where information about the risks can be found and the importance of reading that information.

When the medium used only allows for a reference, an indication must be given of where information about the risks can be found and the importance of reading that information.

ANNEX I

General principles and criteria of crypto-assets advertising:

1. Advertising on crypto-assets must be clear, balanced, impartial and not misleading. To this end, it shall use simple and easy to understand language and the omission of relevant information or the inclusion of ambiguous, biased, incomplete or contradictory information that may lead to confusion must be avoided. Articles published using any media or communications that are sponsored or endorsed must include a clear and visible mention of this fact. In the case of videos or audios, it shall be indicated at the beginning.

2. The information contained in commercial communications must be coherent and must not contradict the information or warnings that client provide to customers when marketing crypto-assets.

3. Commercial communications and advertising pieces that provide information on the cost or return of a crypto-asset shall contain clear, accurate, sufficient and updated information, in a manner appropriate to its nature and complexity, the characteristics of the medium of dissemination used and the target audience.

4. Commercial communications shall make no reference to substantial past returns and if they do so:

a) Any quantitative information on the cost or past performance of the crypto-asset included in the advertising message must expressly indicate the period of time to which it refers. If revaluations are indicated for this period, the same information for the interim period, before or after, in which there would have been higher percentage depreciation shall also be indicated, with the same prominence. When two or more quantities are included, they must refer to the same period of time.

b) Information about past performance should not be partial or biased. Returns on periods of less than 12 months must not be included.

c) Likewise, returns on periods greater than one year may be provided if it is additional information to the minimum data required in this section. These returns must not appear in a prominent position compared to the rest of the text. The years that have been used to calculate the performance must be clearly and visibly identified (these years shall be the most recent and be consecutive).

d) The terms in which the return is expressed must be indicated in a sufficiently visible manner as well as the period of time to which it refers.

e) Historical performances must not be the most prominent feature of the communication and must not be presented in a larger font size or highlighted. Furthermore, it should be clearly stated that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

5. The advertising messages and the way they are presented must allow the advertising piece to be properly understood and not create disproportionate or false impressions or expectations that could be deemed an incentive to trade with the crypto-asset or provide an unrealistic view of the characteristics or duration of the offer.

6. When messages of a secondary or less prominent nature are included in the advertising piece, they shall not contradict the main message.

7. Taking into account the characteristics of the advertising medium used, commercial communications and advertising pieces must be designed in such a way that no information that could be used in the decision-making of the potential investor is omitted or concealed.

8. When the means of communication or the advertising format used imposes space or time limitations so that it is not possible to include all the relevant information or warnings about the crypto-asset in the initial advertising piece, a referral must be made to alternative sources of information or the information must be shown in a secondary advertising piece, to ensure that all the relevant information or warnings about the crypto-asset can be quickly and easily accessed.

When the commercial communications issued through digital or social media, include relevant information in the form of images, videos or other visual, audio or audio-visual formats in order to overcome limitations of space or time, its viewing by the recipient shall be encouraged via the indications included in the advertising message (e.g. “click on the image” or “see this address for more information”, a QR code or similar formulas), and include the following message: It is important to read and understand the risks of this investment, which are explained in detail here.

9. In audio-visual, radio or any other media in which an advertising message is disseminated, the relevant information must be played for a sufficient amount of time to ensure it is properly perceived.

10. No mention shall be made of limitations or exemptions from responsibility of parties.

D) Policy relating to ad blockers

“Ad blockers” is defined to mean any software (including apps) whose main functionality is ad blocking. Softonic will not permit direct advertising campaigns for the promotion of ad blockers Softonic will not publish articles or videos in respect of ad blockers. This includes Softonic web, mobile and Softonic´s FB fan page and Softonic´s Twitter feed. Softonic will continue to maintain review pages in respect of ad blockers, and will continue to distribute them via the catalogue.
Exceptions will only exist on a case by case basis, and will mainly depend on whether Softonic has a specific contractual deal with the authors of ad blockers.

E) Material Connections Disclosure

Softonic is committed to ensuring that its properties comply with the applicable advertisement laws, specifically in the fields of endorsements and hidden advertisement, so that users have an informed choice. Any content will reflect the basic truth-in-advertising principle that endorsements must be honest and not misleading; If there’s a connection between a client and Softonic that users would not expect and it would affect how consumers evaluate the endorsement, that connection will be disclosed. Reason is obvious: Knowing about the connection is important information for anyone evaluating the endorsement, which serves us to build users’ trust on our editorial content. Accordingly, Softonic will disclose any material connection with the client. The disclosure will appear prominently at the beginning of the relevant article.

F) External Linking:

Softonic reserves the right to mark links pointing to the client’s product or services as “rel=nofollow” in the source code.

Last update January 28th 2022