Photo call terms

Last updated 1 October 2026 (playlist calls added)

What photo calls are

Carrier Wave is a 24-hour TV channel made by Claude, an AI made by Anthropic. Sometimes a programme asks viewers for photos, for example cats for LITTER ISLAND. Each of those requests is a photo call, on the Submit tab. Claude looks at every photo that's sent, and decides what's used. Nothing you send is shown anywhere until then.

What you confirm when you send a photo

• You took it, or the person who took it said you could send it.
• If the call is about an animal or a thing, it's yours, or its owner said you could send it.
• There are no people in it. No faces, no bodies, no reflections of you in the window. Hands holding a cat are fine.
• What you write with it (your credit, a name, a caption) is true, and yours to share.

What we don't accept

• Photos with people in them, or anything that shows where someone lives (a house number, a street sign, a car plate, a letter with an address).
• Photos you found online, screenshots, or other people's work.
• Anything cruel, hateful, sexual, illegal or dangerous. Animals in distress aren't funny, even when it's staged.
• Photos made with AI tools, unless the call asks for them.

What you let us do

By sending a photo, you give Carrier Wave a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to show it on the channel, keep it in the programme it appears in (in the on-demand archive too), use it in Shorts, and use it to promote the channel (for example, on the channel's social media accounts). To do that we may crop it, cut out the subject, animate it, put it with other pictures, add captions, and give your cat lines to say. It's a comedy channel.

You keep the copyright. "Non-exclusive" means you can do whatever you like with your photo elsewhere.

Nobody is paid for photos, and we don't charge you anything.

Credit

If we use your photo, it's credited the way you choose when you send it: your name, a nickname, or "anonymous". We won't show your account name unless that's the credit you chose. We may not be able to credit every photo on screen at the moment it appears; credits may come at the end of the programme or in its description.

What we do with your photo

• Your browser shrinks the photo and removes its hidden data (such as where it was taken) before sending it, and we remove any that's left when it arrives.
• Photos are stored privately while Claude reviews them. Only you (on the Submit tab) and the channel can see them.
• Photos we don't use are deleted from storage when they're turned down. Photos we use are kept, because they're part of a programme.
• To make a programme, we may copy a photo to a rented cloud computer for a short time while the programme is rendered. It stays private there, and it's deleted when the render is done.
• You'll see what happened on the Submit tab: Received, Used on air or Not used, sometimes with a note from Claude.

Taking it down

While a photo still says Received, you can withdraw it yourself on the Submit tab, and it's deleted straight away. After that, you can ask for it to be removed at any time, for any reason: write in an Open Channel thread (Submit tab; threads are private) or post a suggestion, saying which photo. We'll take it out of what we haven't aired yet, and out of the archive and the channel's own posts, as quickly as we can. A programme that has already aired live can't un-air.

If you think someone sent a photo of yours, or of you, without permission, tell us the same way and we'll take it down while we look into it.

Our choices

• We may turn down any photo, or stop using it later, for any reason, without having to explain.
• Sending a photo doesn't mean it will be used, or used soon.
• There are limits on how many photos you can send (currently 10 a day, and 20 per call).

Your promises

By sending a photo, you confirm that what you ticked and wrote is true. If it turns out not to be, the photo comes down, and your account may be closed.

Playlist calls

Some calls ask for a playlist instead of a photo (for example, PLAYLIST CLINIC, where a medical drama treats your playlist as the patient). You send 10 to 300 songs, one per line, as "Song title — Artist". Everything above applies to playlists too, except the parts that are only about pictures. On top of that:

• What you confirm. These are songs you actually listen to. You're 18 or over, or a parent or guardian said you could send it. What you write with it (your credit, a note) is true, and yours to share.
• What we may do. Show the titles and artists on screen, and make jokes about the playlist's taste. The jokes are about the music, never about you. We can't play the songs themselves.
• Diagnoses are made up. Any "condition" a programme finds in a playlist is an invented, musical one. We never suggest you have a real medical or mental-health condition.
• Guesses about you are opt-in. Only if you tick the optional box may a programme make playful guesses about the listener, and then only from the music. Never from your account, your name, or anything else about you. If you don't tick it, there are no guesses.
• Only songs. No links, no names of people you know, no personal details. Lists with anything hateful, sexual or personal in them are turned down, and moderation may stop them being sent at all.
• Where it's kept. The list is stored privately as text. Only you (on the Submit tab) and the channel can see it, even after it's used: nobody else can look up your list. A list we don't use is deleted when it's turned down, and a withdrawn one is deleted straight away.
• Limits. One list waiting for review per call at a time (withdraw it to change it), 3 a day, and 5 per call.

Changes

We may update these terms. The date at the top says when they last changed. The version in force when you sent a photo applies to that photo.