Terms of Service

Last updated 26 October 2026

These terms are an agreement between you and Black Forest Labs CC, a close corporation registered in South Africa that runs Debatable (“Debatable”, “we” or “us”). They cover the Debatable app and debatable.io. Our Privacy Policy and the Community Rules (in the app, under Settings › Community Rules) are part of them. By using Debatable, you agree to all three.

1. Who can use Debatable

You can use Debatable if you:

• are at least 18 years old;
• can form a binding contract;
• aren’t barred from using it by any law that applies to you; and
• haven’t been banned from Debatable before, unless we’ve agreed you can come back.

Accounts are for individual people, one each. Organisations that arrange debates on Debatable (“hosts”) also sign a separate agreement with us. Debatable is offered in the United States. If you use it from somewhere else, you’re responsible for following the laws there.

2. Your account

You sign in with Apple, or another way we offer. Keep your sign-in secure. You’re responsible for what happens on your account, so tell us at support@debatable.io if you think someone else is using it.

Give us accurate information, including your date of birth, which we use to confirm you’re old enough and never show to anyone. Your name and username can’t pretend to be someone else, break the Community Rules or infringe anyone’s rights. We may change or reclaim a username that does.

3. How debates work

Debatable runs live, one-on-one debates with turns timed by our servers. Only the person who has the floor can be heard, and in a hosted debate that includes the moderator during their slots. The audience votes before and after. The result shows how many minds changed among listeners who voted both times. It measures persuasion in that room, not who is right.

A live debate can end early: for example, when someone’s connection drops, someone doesn’t show up or forfeits, or we act under the Community Rules. We may add, change or remove features, formats and limits (such as how many open challenges you can have at once).

4. Debates are public and recorded

When you take part in a debate as a debater or moderator, you agree that:

• it’s broadcast live to anyone listening in the app;
• it’s recorded: the sound, and the video too in a video debate;
• the recording is kept as a replay that anyone can play in the app; and
• people can make clips of it and share them, and share links to it.

Before a debate starts, the app reminds you of this, and you confirm. A hosted debate may also be streamed live to the host’s own channels, such as YouTube, X or a website.

Listeners never broadcast sound or video. Your vote counts towards the totals, but it isn’t shown to anyone with your name.

Only show, play or share things you have the right to. Don’t record, rebroadcast or copy other people’s debates except through Debatable’s own features, or as section 5 allows.

5. Your content and the permissions you give

“Your content” means what you say and show in debates, the statements you write, your profile (name, username, photo, bio, link and topics), and anything else you put on Debatable. You keep ownership of it.

Permission for us. You give us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to use your content to run, improve and promote Debatable. We may pass this licence on to the companies that help us run Debatable, and to the host of a hosted debate you take part in. It covers hosting, storing, recording, broadcasting, streaming, copying, adapting, displaying and distributing your content, in any medium. Adapting includes formatting, resizing, transcribing, captioning and cutting clips. Promoting includes, for example, featuring a debate in the app or sharing a clip on our social channels.

Permission for other people. You let people use Debatable’s features to listen to, watch and vote on your public debates, share links to them, and make clips of them that they may share anywhere.

Downloads. Both debaters may download the video of their own video debates, and so may a host’s team for that host’s debates. They may repost it anywhere, as long as the Debatable watermark and end card stay in.

How long the licence lasts. It lasts while your content is on Debatable. When a replay is deleted (for example, because one of its debaters deleted their account), we stop showing it. Clips and downloads that people have already made may still exist, and we may keep copies as our Privacy Policy describes.

Taking a debate down. If both debaters, and for a hosted debate its host, ask us to take a finished debate down, we remove it from Debatable and delete its replay. Clips and downloads people have already made may still exist.

Your promise. You confirm that you have the rights needed for your content, and that our use of it under these terms won’t break the law or infringe anyone’s rights.

Feedback. If you send us ideas or suggestions, we may use them without owing you anything.

6. The Community Rules

Free speech, fair fights: say what you believe, however unpopular, and win with arguments, not abuse. The Community Rules in the app are the full version. In short, these aren’t allowed:

• threats, or urging people to hurt someone;
• doxxing: sharing someone’s private details, such as their address, workplace or phone number;
• slurs used to attack a person or a group for who they are (quoting or discussing a word is fine);
• targeted harassment;
• spam and scams;
• explicit sexual content (debating sex is fine);
• impersonation; and
• anything illegal.

Facts get checked, not censored. Nobody is removed for being wrong.

Don’t misuse Debatable either. In particular, don’t:

• hack it, overload it or interfere with it;
• scrape it, or use bots or automated accounts;
• get around its limits, a block or a ban, including by making new accounts;
• sell or transfer your account; or
• copy or reverse-engineer the app, except where the law allows.

7. How we enforce the rules

We don’t watch every debate live. We act on reports after a debate, and aim to do so within 24 hours. Reports are made from a finished debate’s replay. The person reported is never told who reported them. Anything that doesn’t fit a report, including illegal content, can go to support@debatable.io.

Our response depends on how serious the breach is:

• Limit a debate’s reach: it stays up, but isn’t featured or recommended.
• Remove a debate from public view.
• Warn someone.
• Suspend an account for a time.
• Ban an account. Threats and doxxing mean an immediate ban.

When an account is suspended or banned, its upcoming debates are cancelled, and a debate it’s in at the time may end.

In a hosted debate, the host’s moderator can use a Safety Mute. It closes a speaker’s microphone for the rest of their turn, and it’s reported to us so we can review it.

We may also remove content or restrict an account when the law requires it, or to protect people from harm. If you think we got a decision wrong, email support@debatable.io. We’ll look again, and reverse it if we were wrong. You can also block anyone, at any time.

8. Hosted debates

Hosts are organisations that arrange debates on Debatable under their own agreement with us. Their producers and moderators must follow these terms and the Community Rules too.

When you accept a host’s invitation, any terms the host sets out in it, such as their rules or an appearance fee, are between you and the host. We aren’t a party to them, and we aren’t responsible for payments between you and a host.

A moderator can’t change the clock or the votes. If a host streams a debate to its own channels, those platforms’ terms apply there.

Some hosted and featured debates include a short sponsor message between rounds. Sponsors don’t control debates.

9. Debatable+

Debatable+ is an optional subscription, bought in the app through Apple. With it you can create video debates, and the video debates you create are shown to their audience in higher quality and recorded in Full HD. Members also get the + mark beside their name. Audio debates, listening and voting stay free, and whoever accepts your video debate doesn’t need Debatable+. For a while, video debates may be free for everyone; once that ends, creating one needs Debatable+.

• Price and renewal: the price and period (monthly or yearly) are shown before you buy, and Apple charges your Apple Account. Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each period unless you cancel at least 24 hours before it ends.
• Cancelling: in Settings › Debatable+ › Manage Subscription, or your iPhone’s Settings › your name › Subscriptions. You keep Debatable+ until the end of the period you’ve paid for.
• Refunds: Apple handles payments and refunds under its own terms. Ask Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.
• One account: a subscription belongs to the Debatable account that bought it.
• Changes: we may change what Debatable+ includes or what it costs. Apple tells you before a price change affects your subscription, and you can cancel.
• Your account: deleting your Debatable account doesn’t cancel your subscription with Apple, so cancel it first. A subscription doesn’t stop us acting under section 7 when the rules are broken.

10. Results and other information we show

We show results, statistics and other information alongside debates. We try to get it right, but it may be incomplete or wrong, and it isn’t professional advice of any kind. What debaters say is their own view, not ours, and we don’t endorse it.

11. Other companies’ services

Debatable works with services from other companies, such as Sign in with Apple and the App Store, and the platforms hosts stream to. Their own terms and policies apply when you use them, and we aren’t responsible for them.

12. Our name and app

Debatable’s name, logo, designs and software belong to us or the people who license them to us. We give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence, which we can withdraw, to use the app as these terms allow.

Don’t use our name or logo without our permission. The exception is the watermark and end card in reposts that section 5 allows.

13. Copyright complaints

If you believe something on Debatable infringes your copyright, send a notice to our designated agent with:

• your name and contact details;
• the work you believe is infringed;
• where it appears on Debatable: the debate’s link, and the time in the replay;
• a statement that you believe in good faith the use isn’t authorised;
• a statement that your notice is accurate, and that you own the copyright or are authorised to act for the owner, under penalty of perjury; and
• your physical or electronic signature.

Our designated agent (registered with the US Copyright Office, DMCA-1083080):
Andrew Schär, Black Forest Labs CC
PO Box 1117, Dundee, 3000, South Africa
+27 34 218 2488 · support@debatable.io

We may remove the content and tell the person who posted it. They can reply with a counter-notice. We close the accounts of people who repeatedly infringe.

14. Deleting your account, and suspending or ending access

You can delete your account at any time in Settings › Delete Account, except during a live debate you’re in. What we delete and keep is explained in our Privacy Policy.

We may suspend or end your access if:

• you break these terms or the Community Rules;
• the law requires it; or
• we need to, to protect other people or Debatable.

We’ll tell you why, unless doing so would be unsafe or unlawful.

Parts of these terms that by their nature should continue after your account ends still apply afterwards. These include the licences for content that was already shared, and sections 14 to 21.

15. Disclaimers

We work hard to make Debatable reliable, but we provide it “as is” and “as available”. As far as the law allows, we make no promises about it, including that it will:

• be uninterrupted or error-free;
• be fit for a particular purpose; or
• not infringe anyone’s rights.

Live debates depend on networks and devices, so they can drop or end early. Debates are made by the people in them, not by us.

16. Limits on our liability

As far as the law allows:

• Black Forest Labs CC, its members, employees and partners aren’t liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for lost profits, data or goodwill;
• our total liability for all claims about Debatable is limited to US$100, or what you paid us in the 12 months before the claim, whichever is greater.

Some places don’t allow these limits. Where that’s so, they apply only as far as the law there allows.

17. If you break these terms

If your use of Debatable breaks these terms or the law, and that leads to a claim against us, you agree to cover our reasonable costs of it, as far as the law allows.

18. Changes

We may change Debatable, or stop offering it. We may also update these terms. If a change is significant, we’ll tell you in the app, or another reasonable way, before it takes effect.

If you keep using Debatable afterwards, you accept the new terms. If you don’t agree, stop using Debatable and delete your account.

19. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. If you have a problem with Debatable, please contact us first at support@debatable.io, so we can try to resolve it within 60 days.

If that doesn’t work, disputes go to the courts of South Africa. If you use Debatable as a consumer, nothing in these terms takes away protections you have under the laws of the place you live that can’t be waived, including any right those laws give you to bring a claim in your local courts.

20. If you got Debatable from Apple’s App Store

• These terms are between you and us, not Apple. We, not Apple, are responsible for the app and its content.
• You may use the app on Apple devices you own or control, as the App Store’s Usage Rules allow.
• We, not Apple, are responsible for maintaining and supporting the app.
• If the app doesn’t meet a warranty that applies to it, you can tell Apple, and Apple may refund what you paid for it, if anything. Beyond that, and as far as the law allows, Apple has no warranty obligation for the app.
• We, not Apple, are responsible for dealing with any claims about the app, including:
  • product liability;
  • failing to meet a legal or regulatory requirement;
  • consumer protection or privacy law; and
  • a claim that the app infringes someone’s intellectual property.
• You confirm that you aren’t in a country under a US government embargo, or one the US government has designated as supporting terrorism, and that you aren’t on any US government list of prohibited or restricted parties.
• You must follow any third-party terms that apply when you use the app, such as your mobile network’s.
• Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms, and may enforce them against you.

21. General

These terms, the Community Rules, the Privacy Policy and any extra terms we show for specific features are the whole agreement between you and us about Debatable.

• If part of these terms can’t be enforced, the rest still applies.
• If we don’t enforce a part straight away, we haven’t given up the right to.
• We may transfer these terms as part of a merger, sale or reorganisation. You may not transfer them.
• We aren’t responsible for delays or failures caused by things outside our reasonable control.
• We may send you notices in the app or by email. You can send notices to the address below.

22. Contact

Black Forest Labs CC, trading as Debatable
PO Box 1117, Dundee, 3000, South Africa
support@debatable.io