Community safety and moderation on Fortify Cast

By Trust & Safety Team · 9 min read

Fortify Cast is designed to be a place where creators can host bold conversations without those conversations turning into a free-for-all. This guide explains the moderation tools available to you as a host, how our safety team works, and what to do if something goes wrong.

Layer 1: What hosts and co-hosts control

Live chat moderation

Hosts and co-hosts of a live session — and authors of a recorded episode — can delete any chat message with one tap. Deleted messages disappear for everyone in the room in real time. If a chat participant repeats abusive behavior, hosts can remove them from the room and block them from re-entering.

Speaker management

Only invited co-hosts and accepted call-in guests can talk in a live room. Everyone else is a listener. When a listener raises their hand, you review the request before letting them speak. If a caller misbehaves once they're on stage, one tap moves them back to the audience.

Session visibility

Every live session can be public (appears in discovery) or private (accessible only via direct link). Private sessions are the right choice for closed community meetings, church small groups, or paying-member calls.

DM privacy modes

You control who can message you. Options:

• Everyone — any Fortify Cast user can start a DM (subject to platform-wide DM eligibility rules).
• Followers only — only people who follow you.
• Nobody — DMs disabled; existing threads still work.

Blocked users cannot DM you, appear in your live rooms, or gift you.

Layer 2: Platform-wide protections

DM eligibility

Starting a new DM thread requires either a Fortify Plus/Pro subscription, an active preview trial, or being a host (owning at least one show). This dramatically reduces spam DMs from throwaway accounts. Replies within an existing thread are always free.

Automatic DM retention

DM threads auto-purge based on the stricter retention of the two participants (default 14 days). This is not a moderation feature per se — it just means old conversations do not accumulate forever.

Live chat auto-purge

Live chat messages are auto-deleted 7 days after the session ends. Recordings, gift history and poll results are kept.

Recording retention

Unsaved live recordings are auto-purged after 30 days. If a recording contained something you want to preserve as evidence for a moderation case, notify us before that 30-day window closes.

Layer 3: Our safety team

What we review

• Reported shows, episodes, live sessions, profiles, chat messages, DMs and clips.
• Automated flags on suspected policy violations.
• Bulk-reported accounts.

Our response times

• Reports of imminent harm (threats of violence, exploitation of a minor) — reviewed within hours.
• Reports of severe policy violations (harassment, hate, non-consensual imagery) — reviewed within 24–48 hours.
• General policy reports — reviewed within 3–5 business days.

Actions we take

Depending on the violation and history, we may issue a warning, remove specific content, restrict features (temporary DM/live/coin gift ban), suspend the account temporarily, or terminate the account permanently. Severe violations skip the warning step.

What's not allowed anywhere on Fortify Cast

The full Community Guidelines is the authoritative list. Summary of the categories that get accounts removed on first offense:

• Content sexualizing minors, in any form, at any level.
• Credible threats of violence against specific people or groups.
• Doxxing (publishing someone's private information to enable harassment).
• Coordinated inauthentic behavior (bot networks, fake accounts, spam rings).
• Content that facilitates violent extremism or terrorism.
• Non-consensual intimate imagery.

How to report

1. On the content itself, tap the "…" menu → Report.
2. Choose the closest matching category and add specifics.
3. Submit. You'll get a confirmation and a case reference.

For urgent safety concerns that can't wait, email trust@fortifycast.com with the URL of the content and a brief description. Do not use general support channels for urgent safety issues — the trust address is monitored more aggressively.

How to appeal

If we took action on your account and you believe it was in error, reply to the moderation email you received with:

• The case reference.
• Your account username.
• A short, specific explanation of why you believe the decision was wrong.

Appeals are reviewed by a different team member than the one who made the original decision. If the appeal is granted, restrictions are lifted immediately and any removed content that was appealed successfully is restored.

What we won't do

• We won't share your DMs with third parties except when compelled by valid legal process, and we will notify you unless legally prohibited from doing so.
• We won't reveal the identity of a reporter to the reported account.
• We won't take action based on unverified out-of-app accusations.

Safety on a live audio platform is a partnership between hosts, listeners and us. The tools above only work if you use them — mute the troll instead of arguing with them, delete the abusive message instead of pinning it, report the credible threat instead of screenshotting it. We handle the rest.