Media.net Inventory Policies

Media.net is committed to providing a fair value exchange between buyers, sellers and users and to that purpose, Media.net uses commercially reasonable efforts to provide participating buyers and sellers with a safe, transparent, and fair marketplace. Media.net uses a combination of proprietary tools, third party partners and manual monitoring teams to review, approve and monitor the quality of inventory. Inventory may include websites, mobile applications and/or other digital media properties made available for sale of inventory via Media.net’s platforms and services (“Sites”).

By using the Media.net platform and services, each Publisher (ie. owner or authorized operator of Sites) agrees to these Policies, which may be updated at any time by posting notice of such changes on our website or by otherwise providing notice. All publishers understand that it is their sole responsibility to keep themselves updated on all policies available here. Media.net reserves the right to reject, suspend, or remove from its platforms any site(s) at its sole discretion, regardless of whether a basis for removal is listed here. These policies do not limit Media.net’s discretion in any way.

I. Platform Policies

• Each Publisher must own the Site on which ads are served via the Media.net platform; or have a direct, contractual relationship with the owner of each such Site on which such ads are served.
• Each Site must publish a Media.net authorized ads.txt or app-ads.txt file prior to sending inventory to Media.net.
• Media.net prides itself on being one of the most direct paths to inventory. Resale of inventory from other intermediaries not approved by Media.net is strictly prohibited and will be subject to termination.
• All account information and details provided by each Publisher must be correct and complete, including any descriptions of the characteristics of the inventory and related data, and may not be misrepresented in any way.
• Sites shall not install nor distribute malware, viruses, or other similar malicious code.
• All Sites must comply with the Better Ads Standards, and sites or apps may not engage in any of the “least preferred ad experiences” as identified by the Coalition for Better Ads.

II. Site Policies

Site Structure: Sites must have original content filled, navigation-friendly site design without excessive advertising. Sites pertaining to the following shall not be approved:

• Lack original content (e.g., copied stories, content without appropriate authorship or written by fictional authors, boilerplate information, syndicated content without attribution)
• Have mostly ads with little content or are sites developed primarily for advertising
• Deceptive or manipulative content or construction of sites to improve search-engine ranking
• Free hosted pages or blank websites
• Sites that contain hidden links and text
• Under construction, parked pages or pages without content
• Sites that redirect traffic to another site
• Promote activities generally understood as Internet abuse, including but not limited to, the sending of unsolicited bulk electronic mail or the use of spyware

III. Content Policies

Media.net’s platform focuses on sites with premium content. Sites that promote, contain, or link directly to the following types of content shall not be approved.

• Adult, Pornographic or any illegal content
• Tobacco, ammunition, hazardous substances, illegal drugs
• Sites that promote illicit or harmful activity, including sites that provide “how-to” information on bomb-making, lock-picking, and similar topics
• Death, injury or gory content
• Content that promotes crime, hate speech, acts of aggression or other harmful acts that contains profanity and/or discriminates or is offensive to any section of people
• Online Piracy, pirating, copyright infringement, and counterfeiting
• Content that promotes any armed conflicts, terrorism or is intended to provoke military aggression
• Content that promotes sale of drug paraphernalia and/or illegal drug use, including abuse of prescription drugs prohibited by applicable laws
• Sale of counterfeit products, imitations of designer or other goods, stolen items or any products that infringe intellectual property rights of other parties
• Sites related to gambling
• Sites that contain forums, discussion boards, chat rooms, or any content area that is open to public updates without adequate moderation
• Contain programs which promote invalid click activity by paying users to click on ads, browse websites, read email etc.
• Manga/Anime, unless you own the intellectual property rights to such content
• Graphic or excessively violent content (games and music may be allowed on a case-by-case basis, with Media.net’s prior express consent)
• Harassment, bullying, threats, or similar content that advocates against any group, organization, or individual
• Sites deemed unsafe by reputable third-party malware-detection services/invalid traffic measurement/Disinformation identification services(including fake news, extremist views etc), and/or other validation methods
• Disrespectful and harmful treatment of sensitive social topics (e.g. abortion, extreme political positions)
• Acts, language, and gestures deemed illegal, not otherwise referenced above (e.g. harm to self or other and animal cruelty)
• Targeted harassment of individuals and groups
• File-sharing or torrent sites
• Any other content that we believe in our sole discretion to be illegal

Although legal in most regions, restricted content may be considered prohibited content, depending on the nature of the content and the context in which the restricted content is displayed on the site.

• Adult humor;
• Fantasy sports and/or daily fantasy sports under some state laws;
• Suggestive content;
• Sexual health;
• Sale of alcohol; and/or
• Sale of prescription drugs.
• Cannabis related content
• Cryptocurrency related content

IV. Traffic Policies

Invalid Traffic:

• All impressions must be legitimate and clicks on ads must be genuine and made purely based on user interest.
• Publishers shall not drive traffic to their sites through incentivized click programs, spam email marketing, paid-to-surf, autosurf, click-exchange programs, unwanted advertisements on third-party websites, toolbars and other unsolicited software downloads or from pop-ups, pop-unders, forced redirects, or similar means.
• The Publisher must acquire traffic primarily from organic sources and shall use best efforts to ensure that none of such traffic is fraudulent. If a Publisher and/or Site has more than an acceptable threshold of purchased/acquired traffic or in the event that Media.net’s fraud monitoring tools indicate such behavior that is not commensurate to industry standards Media.net reserves the right to suspend or terminate such Publisher and or Site until resolved.
• Publisher Inventory from applications, including browser plug-ins and toolbars, that insert ads into the body of third-party or other online properties without written permission, is not acceptable.
• The Publisher and/or Site may not mask or cloak the Site URL or employ any other means to obscure the true source of traffic.

Incentive Programs:

• Publishers shall not provide any text in or around the ad units, or include phrases that may mislead a user or encourage them to click the ads. Any ads that are disguised within the content and/or placed in a manner which cannot be distinguished from content are prohibited.
• Publishers may not offer any compensation or incentivize any person in any manner to view/click ads.
• Participating in or using any automated click and impression generating tools, use of bots, open proxies or software that can lead to false impressions and clicks is not permitted.
• Clicks made by the Publisher on his own ads will be considered invalid.

Misleading Users:

• Publishers shall not provide any text in or around the ad units, or include phrases that may mislead a user or encourage them to click the ads. Any ads that are disguised within the content and/or placed in a manner which cannot be distinguished from content are prohibited.
• Ads may not be obscured or altered in any way. You may not make inventory available in double iframes.
• Deceiving Images: Placing images or thumbnails around the ad unit which may deceive a user is prohibited.

V. Implementation Policies

Ad Placement

• The Publisher may place the ad only on his site or the sites that were approved. Any revenue generated by the ads on unapproved sites will not be paid to the Publisher.
• All attributes pertaining to your sites, including referring URLs, app store identification data (which includes but is not limited to app bundles, app names, store IDs, and store URLs), ad formats, positions, placements, and sizes, client characteristics (IP addresses, user agents, device IDs, visitor IDs, geolocation data, as applicable), and Payment ID (pchain) or Supply Chain Object (schain) data, must be correct in ad requests you send to Media.net’s platforms.

Publishers shall not:

• Sell, rent, lease, sublicense, sub-syndicate, transfer, distribute or otherwise use or make available the ad tags or creatives or any copies thereof to any third party
• Place ads on non-approved websites or web pages, or in such a fashion that may be deceptive to the user
• Place ads in unapproved toolbars, software or applications
• Publishers and/or Sites must not edit or modify ads in any way, including but not limited to, resizing the ads.
• Stack ads in a manner that places advertisements on top of one another
• Cache or otherwise store the ads in any form or manner
• Place ads in emails or newsletters
• Make modifications or in any way block visitor IP, referrer or page URL from being provided to Media.net
• Transfer or provide any of the following personal data of their visitors/users to Media.net:
  • full name, direct contact information including address, telephone number, or email address (but excluding device identifiers); social security number, driver’s license number, other state or government identification number, biometric data, or account or payment card number; and sensitive or special categories of personal data (as defined in applicable privacy and data protection laws and regulations).

Ad Code manipulation

The Publisher may not:

• Alter the Ad Code in any way that changes the appearance of an ad, or manipulates the standard behavior, targeting or delivery of ads.
• Attempt in any way to alter, modify, eliminate, conceal, or otherwise render inoperable or ineffective the ad tags, source codes, links, pixels, modules or other data.
• Load any software that can trigger pop-ups, redirect users to unwanted websites, modify browser settings or otherwise interfere with site navigation.
• Obscure or otherwise interfere with any such attempts to remove any third party tags or services (ex: tags that check for brand safety, determine viewability, malware detection etc.).

VI. Supply Chain Transparency

• Media.net prioritizes transparency in the supply chain, the quality of our supply, and instilling confidence in our customers that they are buying in a healthy ecosystem.
• Media.net rigorously employs standard industry efforts to support our publishers and buy-side customers including ads.txt, sellers.json, and SupplyChain (schain). We work with our publishers to ensure precise implementation of these tools and resources to ensure and improve transparency across the industry. Media.net strictly adheres to the guidance, direction, and recommendation from the IAB with respect to objects in the bid request.
• Media.net is certified by Trusted Accountability Group which ensures that we abide by the latest industry standards to provide the highest level of transparency.

VII. Enforcement

Any buyer or user can raise a concern about a Publisher or Site that may be violating these policies by contacting Media.net at compliance@media.net.

Media.net has the right to temporarily pause or terminate monetization of any Publisher and/or Site found in violation of these policies at any time. Monetization may not commence until Media.net is satisfied that the policy is no longer in violation.