run afoul of

present singular third person runs afoul of · participle present running afoul of · past ran afoul of

1. nauticalTo become entangled in; to run aground on.
2. idiomaticTo contravene.

   When quoting others, take care not to run afoul of copyright rules.

   2 more examples

   Facebook ran afoul of Apple because it used this system to distribute its data-collection app to consumers outside the company, which isn’t allowed.

   2019 January 31, Ian Bogost, “Apple’s Empty Grandstanding About Privacy”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 02 Feb 2019

   Such posts, and more extreme examples of hate speech that spiked on the platform since his takeover, could run afoul of the EU's framework for combating racism and xenophobia, landing Twitter — and Musk himself — in hot water with the European Commission.

   2023 May 27, Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert, “Elon Musk pulled Twitter from the EU's anti-disinformation agreement and continues to troll with alt-right memes and dogwhistles. It could be a sign he'll close the site to Europe completely”, in Business Insider, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2023