Terms of Service

Effective date: October 29, 2026 · Last updated: October 29, 2026

These Terms are a contract between you and Brilliant Technica LLC, a California limited liability company doing business as SoapBox Republic, 150 4th Street #534A, Oakland, CA 94607 ("SoapBox Republic," "we," "us"). They cover the SoapBox Republic apps, the website at soapboxrepublic.com, and our related services (together, the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms, including our Community Guidelines (https://soapboxrepublic.com/guidelines) and our Poll Terms, which are part of these Terms. Our Privacy Policy (https://soapboxrepublic.com/privacy) explains how we handle your information. Section 21 explains which law applies and where disputes are decided.

1. Who can use SoapBox Republic

• You must be 18 or older and able to form a binding contract. We check your age at sign-up. If you are under 18, you may not use the Service.
• The Service is meant for people in the United States.
• One real person, one account. No bots, fake personas, or shared accounts. You may not use the Service if we have banned you before, or if the law forbids it.

2. The Service

SoapBox Republic is a civic-participation app. At launch, members can read and write posts on topics; report posts and block authors; answer SoapBox Republic polls and a profile quiz; suggest polls; see group results; and, when available, submit their own Community polls for review and earn private participation points and badges. Some features may be limited, change, or end (Section 19). SoapBox Republic is not affiliated with any government, party, candidate, campaign, or election office, and it is not a place to vote in real elections.

3. Your account

• Sign up with an email address and password, or with Google, Apple, or Facebook. You must give accurate information and keep it current.
• We may ask you to confirm your email address before you can vote, post, or create polls.
• Keep your password and sign-in secure. You are responsible for activity on your account. Tell us right away at support@soapboxrepublic.com if you think your account has been compromised.
• You may not sell, transfer, or lend your account.
• If you sign in with another company's account, that company's terms also apply to that sign-in.

4. Your content, and the license you give us

• You own what you create. "Your content" means posts, polls you write (the question, choices, and note), reports you write, and anything else you submit. You keep ownership of it.
• The license you give us. You give SoapBox Republic a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, display, format, translate for accessibility, moderate, and distribute your content in order to operate and improve the Service. That includes including your content, without your name, in aggregated, de-identified results and in the reports we publish, sell, or license. A licensed report may quote a poll's question and choices, but it never names or identifies the member who wrote it. We may let service providers exercise this license only to help us run the Service. This license does not let us sell your content on its own, or claim that you endorse anything.
• No marketing use without permission. We will never use your own content or your name in SoapBox Republic marketing or advertising without your permission. Our marketing may use aggregated results and polls that SoapBox Republic wrote.
• How long the license lasts. It ends when your content is deleted, except: (a) Community polls that went live, which stay up without your name after you delete your account, because other members voted on them; (b) results and reports already released; (c) copies in backups until they are overwritten; and (d) what we must keep for safety or legal reasons, as described in the Privacy Policy.
• Your promises. You have the rights needed to submit your content, and it doesn't break the law or these Terms.
• Your opinions are yours. We don't claim ownership of your political views. Polls you answer are covered by the Privacy Policy, not by this license.
• Feedback. If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them without owing you anything.

5. Community Guidelines

You must follow our Community Guidelines at https://soapboxrepublic.com/guidelines. They are part of these Terms. They set out what you may and may not post or do, the extra rules for polls, how reporting and blocking work, and how we enforce the rules. In short: disagree about ideas, but no threats, harassment, doxxing, hate, sexual content, anything that endangers minors, illegal content, impersonation, spam, fake accounts, or manipulation. We enforce the Guidelines based on behavior, not viewpoint. Breaking them is breaking these Terms.

6. Rules for polls

Every poll, including Community polls and "Suggest a poll" submissions, must follow the poll rules in the Community Guidelines (Section 4) and the Poll Terms. Among other things, those rules prohibit push polls; disguised campaign ads and polls written for, paid for, or coordinated with a candidate, campaign, party, PAC, or ballot-measure committee; paid or sponsored political polls; anything that imitates official voting or election materials; election misinformation; and polls targeting private people. Community polls must be on an approved everyday topic, use neutral wording, and include "Not sure," which we add automatically. Only SoapBox Republic writes candidate, party, or ballot-measure polls.

7. Review before publishing, and our right to remove

• Every Community poll is reviewed by a person before it goes public. An automatic wording check gives you tips, but a reviewer decides. We aim to decide within about 24 hours.
• Reviewers may approve a poll, ask you for changes, or reject it with a reason. We don't silently rewrite your words. The only thing we add is the "Not sure" choice.
• We may remove, hide, limit, or label any content (posts or polls, before or after publishing), remove votes or points, and limit or suspend accounts, if we reasonably believe it breaks these Terms, the Poll Terms, or the law, or puts people or the Service at risk. A live poll that 3 different members report is hidden automatically until a reviewer looks at it.
• Moderation won't be perfect or instant, and we aren't obliged to monitor everything. We make decisions in good faith under these rules.

8. Neutral labels

Community polls are labeled "Community poll · reviewed by SoapBox Republic" and appear without the creator's name. A label means a person checked the poll against our rules. It does not mean SoapBox Republic agrees with the question, and it is not an endorsement. All polls use the same neutral design, and results never use party colors.

9. Reporting, blocking, and how fast we act

• You can report any post or poll in the app, block a post's author, and hide polls from a member (when Community polls are available). Reporters' identities are never shown to the person they report.
• We aim to review reports of objectionable content within 24 hours, and to remove content and remove or suspend the people responsible when it breaks these Terms. Reports about immediate danger go first. The Community Guidelines (Section 6) explain this in more detail.
• You can also reach us at support@soapboxrepublic.com, or by mail at 150 4th Street #534A, Oakland, CA 94607. For emergencies, contact local authorities first. SoapBox Republic is not an emergency service.

10. Appeals

If we remove your content, reject your poll, take away points, or limit or suspend your account, we will tell you why where we reasonably can. You may appeal by emailing support@soapboxrepublic.com with "Appeal" in the subject line within 30 days. Where possible, someone other than the original reviewer will look at it, and we will reply within 14 days. Appeals are by email for now. We may skip appeals for spam, legal requirements, or content that endangers people.

11. Copyright and the DMCA

We respect intellectual property rights and respond to valid notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. §512). If you believe content on SoapBox Republic infringes your copyright, send our designated copyright agent a notice that includes: (1) your physical or electronic signature; (2) the copyrighted work; (3) the material you say infringes, and where it is on the Service; (4) your contact information; (5) a statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorized by the owner, its agent, or the law; and (6) a statement, under penalty of perjury, that your notice is accurate and you are authorized to act for the owner.

Designated copyright agent: Copyright Agent, SoapBox Republic (Brilliant Technica LLC), 150 4th Street #534A, Oakland, CA 94607 · support@soapboxrepublic.com (subject line "DMCA notice") · 415-728-2741.

Counter-notice: if your content was removed and you believe that was a mistake, you may send our copyright agent a counter-notice with your signature; the material and where it was; a statement, under penalty of perjury, that you believe in good faith it was removed by mistake or misidentification; your name, address, and phone; and your consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court for your district (or, if you are outside the U.S., any judicial district in which SoapBox Republic may be found, including the Northern District of California). We may restore the material after 10 to 14 business days unless the person who complained tells us they have filed a lawsuit.

12. Repeat infringers

We will, in appropriate circumstances, disable or terminate the accounts of members who repeatedly infringe others' rights. An account that receives 3 valid infringement notices within 12 months is terminated. We keep a simple internal log of notices and outcomes.

13. Civic participation points and badges

This section applies when points and badges are available in your app.

• SoapBox Republic never ranks people or political views. You can see your own private participation points. Anything public shows badges only. Badges are private by default and appear publicly only if you turn on "Show my badges."
• You may earn private civic participation points, and badges, for activity such as creating Community polls that are approved and answered by real members, as the Poll Terms describe.
• Points have no cash value. They are not money, currency, property, or a security, and you have no ownership or property right in them. They are a feature of the Service that we provide under these Terms.
• Points are non-transferable. You can't sell, trade, gift, or move them to another account. They can't be redeemed for money, prizes, goods, services, or anything else, inside or outside the Service.
• We can change or end the program, including point values, badges, caps, and rules, at any time, with notice in the app for material changes. If we end it, no compensation is owed.
• Forfeiture: points and badges end when your account is deleted. We may remove or reverse points, or close the program for an account, for abuse, fraud, rule-breaking, or an error.
• No gaming: no fake or extra accounts, vote rings, trading answers, self-voting schemes, bots, or any other way of inflating points. We use automatic checks and human review to enforce this.
• Points and badges never change how much any vote counts, and they never depend on how anyone answers a poll.

14. No rewards for voting, registration, reviews, or prizes

• SoapBox Republic does not give points, badges, or anything else of value for registering to vote, voting, or not voting in any real election, or for how anyone votes. Our polls are not elections.
• We don't reward ratings or reviews of our app in any app store, or reward you for sharing personal information.
• No prizes or sweepstakes. SoapBox Republic runs no contests, sweepstakes, lotteries, or giveaways, and nothing in the Service is a chance to win a prize. If that ever changes, it will have separate official rules.

15. Tips

You may choose to leave an optional tip to support SoapBox Republic through our payment processor, Stripe. A tip is a voluntary payment to Brilliant Technica LLC. It is not a donation to a charity, is not tax-deductible, and doesn't unlock any feature, points, or influence over polls or moderation. Tips are voluntary and non-refundable, except for a duplicate or mistaken charge that you report to support@soapboxrepublic.com within 30 days of the charge. Stripe's terms apply to the payment.

16. Other companies' services

The Service may link to or work with services from other companies (for example, Google, Apple, Facebook, Stripe, or official election websites). We don't control them and aren't responsible for them. Their terms and privacy policies apply.

17. Privacy

Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information, including poll votes, which we treat as sensitive. We never sell your personal information. You can delete your account at any time in Settings → Delete account, or by email as described on our Delete Your Account page, https://soapboxrepublic.com/delete-account.

18. App store terms

If you downloaded the app from Apple's App Store: these Terms are between you and SoapBox Republic, not Apple. Apple is not responsible for the app or its content and has no obligation to provide maintenance or support. If the app fails to meet any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple may refund the purchase price (if any). To the maximum extent the law allows, Apple has no other warranty obligation. SoapBox Republic, not Apple, is responsible for any claims about the app (product liability, failure to meet legal or regulatory requirements, and consumer-protection or privacy claims) and for investigating and defending any claim that the app infringes a third party's intellectual property. You confirm that you are not in a country subject to a U.S. government embargo and are not on any U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties. You must follow any applicable third-party terms (such as your mobile carrier's) when using the app. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms and may enforce them against you. Your license to use the app is limited to Apple-branded devices you own or control, as the App Store's Usage Rules allow. If you downloaded the app from Google Play, Google Play's terms also apply.

19. Changes to the Service; suspension and termination

• We may change, pause, or end any part of the Service. We'll give reasonable notice of material changes where we can.
• You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time.
• We may suspend or terminate your account, or limit features, if you break these Terms, create risk or legal exposure for us or others, or if we must by law. Where appropriate we will tell you why and how to appeal (Section 10).
• Sections 4 (for the license periods described there), 11–14, and 20–24 continue after your account ends.

20. Disclaimers, limitation of liability, and indemnity

Disclaimers. Poll results are opt-in opinion polls of members who chose to answer. They are not scientific samples, predictions, or official results. Civic and news information can be incomplete or change. Nothing on the Service is legal, financial, medical, or voting advice. THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE." TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT, and we don't promise the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free. We are not responsible for content that other members post.

Limitation of liability. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT THE LAW ALLOWS, SOAPBOX REPUBLIC AND BRILLIANT TECHNICA LLC WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR LOST PROFITS, DATA, OR GOODWILL, ARISING FROM THE SERVICE OR THESE TERMS. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY FOR ALL CLAIMS IS LIMITED TO THE GREATER OF $100 OR THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US (INCLUDING TIPS) IN THE 12 MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM. Some states don't allow these limits, so they may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that can't be limited by law, including for fraud, gross negligence, or willful misconduct.

Indemnity. To the extent the law allows, you will defend and indemnify SoapBox Republic and Brilliant Technica LLC against third-party claims arising from your content, your misuse of the Service, or your violation of these Terms or the law, except to the extent caused by our own willful misconduct or gross negligence.

21. Governing law and where disputes are decided

Governing law. California law governs these Terms and any dispute between you and us about the Service, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except where federal law (such as the DMCA) applies.

Talk to us first. If you have a problem, please email support@soapboxrepublic.com with "Dispute" in the subject line first, so we can try to fix it informally.

Courts. Any dispute that isn't resolved informally will be decided only in the state or federal courts located in Alameda County, California. You and we consent to the personal jurisdiction of, and venue in, those courts. Either of us may instead bring a claim that qualifies in small-claims court. These Terms do not require arbitration.

22. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. We will change the "Last updated" date, and for material changes we will notify you in the app or by email at least 30 days before they take effect, unless a change is needed sooner for legal or safety reasons. If you keep using the Service after the effective date, the updated Terms apply. If you don't agree, you may delete your account. We will not apply a change to the dispute section to a dispute you already told us about.

23. General

These Terms, together with the Community Guidelines and the Poll Terms, and read with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and us about the Service. If any part is unenforceable, the rest stays in effect. Our not enforcing a provision is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms. We may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets. Neither of us is liable for delays caused by events beyond reasonable control. Notices to you may be sent in the app or to your account email.

24. Contact

support@soapboxrepublic.com

SoapBox Republic (Brilliant Technica LLC, dba SoapBox Republic), 150 4th Street #534A, Oakland, CA 94607