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Social media is an unavoidable part of modern life, with data showing that over 58% of the world’s population — 4.6 billion people — currently use at least one social media platform. Between phones and computers, billions of people are spending hour after hour posting, scrolling, liking, and commenting on social media, with more people signing up for these platforms every day.
But how many people actually know what they are signing up for?
While the terms of service for social media sites and apps are available for review, how many people actually look at them before signing up? More importantly, how many could actually understand them if they did?
Terms of service for all sorts of things are notoriously difficult to read and understand. They’re full of page after page of legalese and jargon that is inaccessible to the average person. When it comes to social media, these statements are just as confusing.
To better understand social media terms of service, All About Cookies looked at 10 of the most popular social media platforms, evaluating how many words are in the terms of service for each platform as well as the reading level necessary to fully comprehend what each agreement means.
| Social media platform | Terms of service word count | Reading level by grade |
| 5,007 | 16 | |
| TikTok | 7,595 | 15 |
| 6,053 | 15 | |
| Twitch | 6,753 | 14 |
| 5,237 | 14 | |
| Discord | 5,150 | 13 |
| 4,002 | 13 | |
| 7,251 | 12 | |
| Snapchat | 10,497 | 12 |
| YouTube | 3,866 | 11 |
| Average: | 6,141 | 14 |
For this analysis, we found the publicly available terms of service agreements for each social media platform and pasted the full text of each agreement into the Hemingway Editor. This app scores the reading comprehension level needed to read and understand a piece of writing by assigning a grade level based on the vocabulary and sentence complexity of the text.
Facebook has the most difficult terms of service to read, requiring the reading comprehension of a college senior (grade 16). Despite featuring shorter-than-average terms of service, the language is dense and complicated enough to fit right in with texts assigned in 400-level college courses.
It's important to keep in mind that the average American reads at a level between seventh and eighth grade, according to the Center for Plain Language. That means the average U.S. social media user would have a very difficult time making sense of the terms of use for any of these sites.
Across the 10 platforms, we found that only three social media platforms — Snapchat, Reddit, and YouTube — have terms of service that can be understood by someone who does not read at a collegiate level.
For our primary analysis we used a future version of Facebook’s terms of service. These updated terms go into effect on July 26, 2022, but they are available for review already. This also allowed us to compare Facebook’s current agreement with the one that will become official at the end of the month.
| Facebook terms of service version | # of words | Reading level (grade) |
| Current | 4,118 | 15 |
| Updated (effective 7/26/2022) | 5,007 | 16 |
The new user agreement going into place at the end of July 2022 is around 900 words longer, and is harder to read and understand by a full grade level. When comparing the raw text of the two agreements side-by-side, we found that between text additions and subtractions, around 31% of the new agreement is different from the previous version, with just shy of 70% of the text remaining unchanged between the two.
YouTube has the shortest terms of service at “just” 3,854 words. The average reader would still need more than 15 minutes to read the entire document. Instagram is the only other site to use fewer than 5,000 words, coming in at 4,002 words.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the terms of service for Snapchat is over 10,000 words long.
Think you can understand the terms of these sites? Below are some of the most complicated and structurally complex passages we encountered, as identified by the Hemingway app.
96 of 180 sentences identified as “very hard to read”
“Our Products, however, are provided "as is," and we make no guarantees that they always will be safe, secure, or error-free, or that they will function without disruptions, delays, or imperfections. To the extent permitted by law, we also DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.”
133 of 295 sentences identified as “very hard to read”
“You irrevocably grant us perpetual and unlimited permission to reproduce, distribute, create derivative works of, modify, publicly perform (including on a through-to-the-audience basis), communicate to the public, make available, publicly display, and otherwise use and exploit the Feedback and derivatives thereof for any purpose and without restriction, free of charge and without attribution of any kind, including by making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing, and promoting commercial products and services that incorporate or embody Feedback, whether in whole or in part, and whether as provided or as modified.”
105 of 248 sentences identified as “very hard to read”
“By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods now known or later developed (for clarity, these rights include, for example, curating, transforming, and translating).”
134 of 373 sentences identified as “very hard to read”
“Except to the extent prohibited by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold Reddit, its affiliates, and their respective, directors, officers, employees, affiliates, agents, contractors, third-party service providers, and licensors (the “Reddit Entities”) harmless from and against any claim or demand made by any third party, and any related liability, damage, loss, and expense (including costs and attorneys’ fees) due to, arising out of, or in connection with: (a) your use of the Services, (b) your violation of these Terms, (c) your violation of applicable laws or regulations, or (d) Your Content. We reserve the right to control the defense of any matter for which you are required to indemnify us, and you agree to cooperate with our defense of these claims.”
67 of 210 sentences identified as “very hard to read”
“The licenses granted by you continue for a commercially reasonable period of time after you remove or delete your Content from the Service. You understand and agree, however, that YouTube may retain, but not display, distribute, or perform, server copies of your videos that have been removed or deleted.”
The Pew Research Center found that over 70% of people in the United States currently use at least one social media site or platform. And over 50% of users of sites such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube visit those sites on a daily basis. With so many people regularly spending time on these platforms and sharing information that the sites monetize, it’s more important than ever for users to understand what they are agreeing to when they sign up for an account.
Unfortunately, even if you wanted to know how sites use your information, it's nearly impossible for most Americans to read and understand these documents without the help of a lawyer. Still, there are ways to help protect yourself and your data online, no matter what a site’s terms of service may be. Some top tips include:
The official terms of service for each social media platform were copied and pasted into the Hemingway Editor App, which evaluated them for readability and length. Evaluations were performed July 5, 2022. Current and updated Facebook terms of service were evaluated using the Compare Text function of CountWordsFree.com.
Excellent identity theft protection service
Includes a password manager and VPN
Robust tools for children’s security
Provides VantageScore and not FICO score updates
