Last Updated: June 23, 2026

Operator: Joseph S Apps, LLC

Support Contact: itsjosephsapps@gmail.com

1. Acceptance of These Terms

These Terms and Conditions (the "Terms") are a legal agreement between you and Joseph S Apps, LLC ("Rise Up," "we," "us," or "our") governing your access to and use of the Rise Up mobile application, websites, features, services, content, groups, messaging tools, business pages, verification features, and any related services that link to these Terms (collectively, the "Service").

By creating an account, accessing the Service, posting content, sending messages, creating or joining groups, creating a business page, or otherwise using Rise Up, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

If you use Rise Up on behalf of a business, organization, group, or other entity, you represent that you have authority to bind that entity to these Terms. In that case, "you" and "your" include that entity.

2. About Rise Up

Rise Up is a social media platform built to celebrate, connect, and uplift African American communities, creators, families, professionals, entrepreneurs, businesses, and allies. The Service allows users to post everyday updates and photos, interact with posts, share public posts, create and join groups, message other users, follow business pages, and maintain personal and business presences under one account.

Rise Up is a community platform. We do not guarantee that any post, group, business page, message, recommendation, opportunity, or user-generated content is accurate, safe, legal, complete, or appropriate for every person. You are responsible for your own interactions and decisions.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use Rise Up. If you are under the age of majority where you live, you may use Rise Up only with permission and supervision from a parent or legal guardian who agrees to these Terms.

You may not use Rise Up if you are prohibited from using the Service under applicable law, if we previously terminated your account for serious violations, or if you are required to register as a sex offender in any jurisdiction.

You agree to provide accurate account information and to keep your information reasonably current.

4. Accounts, Security, and Verification

To use certain features, you must create an account. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account.

Rise Up may offer a verification badge. At launch, verification is intended to show that a user has verified both an email address and a phone number through the app. Verification does not mean that Rise Up endorses the user, confirms legal identity, confirms a business license, confirms that a person represents a company, or guarantees the truth of anything posted by that account.

You may not sell, transfer, share, or allow another person to use your account without permission from Rise Up. You must notify us promptly if you believe your account has been accessed without authorization.

We may require additional verification, safety review, or account information before allowing certain features, restoring accounts, or resolving disputes.

5. Personal Profiles and Business Pages

A user may maintain a personal profile and may also create one or more business pages from the same account if the feature is available. Business pages are intended for brands, studios, stores, services, organizations, and similar professional or community uses.

You are responsible for all information on your personal profile and business pages, including names, photos, descriptions, prices, contact information, website links, business claims, and promotions. You may not impersonate another person or business, misrepresent affiliation, or create a misleading page.

Business pages may be followed automatically by users without a friend request approval process. Business page owners are responsible for managing their followers, messages, and content in compliance with these Terms and all applicable laws.

6. User Content

"User Content" means anything that users create, upload, submit, post, share, send, display, or otherwise make available through Rise Up, including text, photos, captions, comments, replies, direct messages, group messages, profile information, business page information, links, usernames, group names, and reports.

You keep ownership of your User Content. However, by submitting User Content to Rise Up, you grant Rise Up a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable license to host, store, copy, process, display, publish, distribute, transmit, resize, format, moderate, remove, and otherwise use that User Content as necessary to operate, improve, secure, promote, and provide the Service.

For public posts, you also grant other users permission to view, interact with, share through iOS share tools, and repost the content if you allow reposting. When a post is reposted, Rise Up may display original creator credit. If you disable reposting on a post, other users should not use Rise Up's repost feature for that post, but you understand that users may still screenshot or otherwise copy content outside our control.

You represent and warrant that you own or have all rights needed to submit your User Content and to grant the license above. You are solely responsible for your User Content and the consequences of posting or sharing it.

7. Community Standards and Prohibited Conduct

Rise Up is built to support expression, connection, cultural pride, and healthy community discussion. To protect the community, you agree not to post, send, upload, create, promote, encourage, coordinate, or assist with any of the following:

·       Hate or dehumanizing content: hateful slurs, calls for harm, intimidation, or dehumanizing attacks against people or groups based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, caste, immigration status, veteran status, or similar protected traits.

·       Harassment and bullying: targeted abuse, stalking, repeated unwanted contact, threats, humiliation, sexual harassment, doxxing, or coordinated harassment.

·       Violence and threats: direct threats, encouragement of violence, celebration of serious harm, instructions to harm others, or content intended to intimidate.

·       Sexual exploitation and minors: sexual content involving minors, grooming, requests for intimate images from minors, non-consensual intimate content, or sexual exploitation of any person.

·       Self-harm encouragement: content that encourages, pressures, instructs, or glorifies suicide, self-harm, or eating disorders in a way that could cause harm.

·       Private or sensitive information: Social Security numbers, payment card numbers, account passwords, private addresses, private phone numbers, medical records, or other sensitive information without lawful authority and consent.

·       Spam, scams, and fraud: phishing, fake giveaways, investment scams, impersonation, deceptive links, mass spam, credential theft, or misleading commercial activity.

·       Illegal activity: content or activity that violates law, facilitates crime, sells illegal goods or services, or infringes intellectual property or privacy rights.

·       Malware and platform abuse: viruses, automated scraping, unauthorized access, interference with security, reverse engineering where prohibited, or attempts to overload or disrupt the Service.

·       We may use automated filters, user reporting, manual review, account restrictions, content removal, blocking tools, and other safety measures to enforce these standards.

8. Content Filtering, Reporting, Blocking, and Moderation

Rise Up may block certain posts, comments, messages, group messages, profile text, group text, and business page text from being submitted when the content appears to include prohibited material, including certain hateful terms, threats, exploitation, scams, or highly sensitive private information.

Users can report content, users, groups, direct messages, group messages, and other concerns through in-app reporting tools. Reports may include copies or previews of the reported content, usernames, account identifiers, timestamps, and related information needed to review the issue.

Users can block other accounts. Blocking is designed to reduce contact, hide content, and restrict interactions between the blocker and blocked account. Blocking may not remove all historical references, screenshots, backups, reports, or content already viewed by others.

We may remove content, limit distribution, hide content from feeds, disable features, restrict messaging, suspend accounts, terminate accounts, preserve evidence, or take other action at our discretion when we believe these Terms, our safety standards, or law may have been violated.

We are not obligated to monitor every piece of User Content before it appears. We may make moderation decisions with or without notice. Mistakes can happen, and users may contact support if they believe content or an account action was made in error.

9. Groups and Group Administration

Users may create groups for specific topics and may choose whether a group is public or private if the feature is available. The creator or designated user may become the group administrator.

Group administrators may manage group settings, membership, and discussions according to available tools, but administrators must still follow these Terms. Rise Up may remove, restrict, or reassign groups or administrator privileges if necessary for safety, legal compliance, or platform integrity.

Private groups are intended to limit visibility, but they are not a guarantee of secrecy. Members may copy, screenshot, report, or disclose content, and Rise Up may access content as needed for safety, support, legal, or operational reasons.

10. Direct Messages

Rise Up may allow direct messaging between users and business pages. Direct messages are intended for respectful communication and are subject to the same safety rules as public content.

Direct messages are not guaranteed to be end-to-end encrypted. We may access, preserve, or review direct messages when a user reports them, when needed for support or safety, when necessary to operate the Service, or when required by law.

If two users are friends or otherwise allowed to message under current app settings, messages may be delivered without a separate message approval request. Users can still block or report abusive messages.

11. Intellectual Property

Rise Up, including the app name, designs, logos, interface, code, features, and other materials provided by us, is owned by Rise Up or its licensors and is protected by intellectual property laws. You may not copy, modify, distribute, sell, lease, or reverse engineer any part of the Service except as allowed by law or with our written permission.

You may not use Rise Up's name, logo, branding, screenshots, or promotional materials in a way that suggests endorsement or affiliation without written permission.

12. Copyright Complaints

If you believe content on Rise Up infringes your copyright, contact us at the email below with: (1) your name and contact information; (2) a description of the copyrighted work; (3) the specific content or URL you believe is infringing; (4) a statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized; (5) a statement that the information is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act for the owner; and (6) your physical or electronic signature.

Contact for copyright complaints: itsjosephsapps@gmail.com. We may remove allegedly infringing content and may terminate repeat infringers when appropriate.

13. Third-Party Services and Links

Rise Up may use third-party services for authentication, data storage, media storage, push notifications, app distribution, and other operations. Third-party services may have their own terms and privacy practices.

The Service may contain links to websites, social profiles, business pages, booking pages, or other third-party resources. We are not responsible for third-party content, products, services, availability, accuracy, or safety.

14. Purchases, Promotions, and Business Offers

If Rise Up later offers paid features, subscriptions, advertisements, boosted content, or in-app purchases, additional terms may apply. At launch, business pages and posts may include promotional content created by users. We do not guarantee any product, service, price, appointment, job, opportunity, or offer posted by a user or business page.

Businesses and users are responsible for complying with advertising, consumer protection, tax, licensing, employment, and other applicable laws.

15. Account Suspension and Termination

You may stop using Rise Up at any time. Account deletion tools may be available in the app. Some information may remain in backups, safety reports, legal records, logs, or content shared by others as described in the Privacy Policy.

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate your account or access to the Service at any time if we believe you violated these Terms, created risk or legal exposure, abused the Service, infringed rights, or used the Service in a way that could harm others or Rise Up.

After termination, these Terms will continue to apply where reasonably necessary, including provisions about User Content licenses, safety, intellectual property, disclaimers, limitations of liability, indemnification, disputes, and governing law.

16. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available." To the maximum extent allowed by law, Rise Up disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, availability, accuracy, safety, and uninterrupted operation.

We do not guarantee that the Service will be secure, error-free, always available, free of harmful content, or that any content will be preserved. You use the Service at your own risk.

17. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent allowed by law, Rise Up and its owners, officers, employees, contractors, partners, service providers, and affiliates will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, punitive, or lost-profit damages, or for loss of data, goodwill, reputation, business opportunities, or other intangible losses arising out of or related to the Service or these Terms.

To the maximum extent allowed by law, our total liability for any claim relating to the Service or these Terms will not exceed the greater of: (a) the amount you paid to Rise Up for the Service in the six months before the claim; or (b) $100. Some jurisdictions do not allow certain limitations, so some of these limitations may not apply to you.

18. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Rise Up and its owners, officers, employees, contractors, partners, service providers, and affiliates from and against claims, damages, liabilities, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising from or related to: your use of the Service; your User Content; your violation of these Terms; your violation of law; your violation of another person's rights; or your business, products, services, offers, or promotions.

19. Changes to the Service or Terms

We may change, suspend, or discontinue all or part of the Service at any time. We may also update these Terms from time to time. If changes are material, we will provide notice through the app, website, email, or another reasonable method. Your continued use of the Service after updated Terms become effective means you accept the updated Terms.

20. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of North Carolina, without regard to conflict-of-law rules, except where your local law requires otherwise. You agree to try to resolve disputes informally by contacting us before filing a claim. If a dispute cannot be resolved informally, the parties may pursue available legal remedies in a court with proper jurisdiction, unless another process is required by applicable law.

21. Contact Information

Questions, safety concerns, copyright complaints, privacy requests, or support requests may be sent to: itsjosephsapps@gmail.com.

Operator: Joseph S Apps, LLC. App: Rise Up.