Moderation Policy

Purpose

This Moderation Policy explains how BookRoar moderates user content, enforces rules, and handles reports. It exists to protect the integrity of the platform, reduce abusive or illegal activity, and make moderation decisions transparent and consistent.


Scope

This policy applies to all User Content on BookRoar including reviews, ratings, comments, profiles, images, and messages.


Prohibited Content and Conduct

  • Illegal content: Material that violates law, including hate speech, threats, or facilitation of criminal activity.
  • Defamation and harassment: False statements presented as fact about a person or business, targeted harassment, or doxxing.
  • Obscene or sexual content: Pornography or explicit sexual material that is not appropriate for the site.
  • Spam and commercial abuse: Unsolicited advertising, repeated promotional posts, or automated posting.
  • Impersonation and fake accounts: Creating accounts that impersonate others or using multiple accounts to manipulate content.
  • Review Manipulation: Any activity intended to distort or inflate reviews or ratings, including review swapping, offering payment or credits for reviews, coordinated review campaigns, creating duplicate accounts to post reviews, or any other deceptive practice aimed at manipulating BookRoar or third‑party platform ratings.
  • Copyright infringement: Posting content that infringes third‑party intellectual property rights.

Moderation Principles

  • Proportionality: Responses to violations will be proportionate to the severity and frequency of the offense.
  • Transparency: We will provide clear reasons for enforcement actions and an avenue to appeal.
  • Consistency: Similar violations will receive similar enforcement outcomes.
  • Privacy and data minimisation: We will use only the data necessary to investigate and resolve issues and will handle personal data in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Detection and Review

Automated detection: We use automated tools to flag likely spam, duplicate reviews, and suspicious patterns. Flags are reviewed by human moderators before enforcement where feasible.

Human review: Moderators review flagged content and reports, applying this policy and documenting decisions.

Evidence retention: We retain logs and metadata (timestamps, IP addresses, account activity) to investigate abuse and to cooperate with third‑party platforms and law enforcement. Retention periods are described in the Privacy Policy.


Enforcement Actions

  • Content removal: Immediate removal of content that violates policy.
  • Warnings: Formal notice to the user explaining the violation and expected corrective action.
  • Temporary suspension: Short term suspension of account privileges for repeated or serious violations.
  • Permanent termination: Account termination for severe or repeated abuse.
  • Reporting: Referral of serious abuse or illegal activity to third‑party platforms (e.g., Amazon, Goodreads) or law enforcement when appropriate.

Review Manipulation Specifics

Zero tolerance for coordinated review swapping, incentivised reviews, or use of multiple accounts to post reviews.

Sanctions for manipulation include removal of affected reviews, suspension or termination of accounts, and reporting to affected third‑party platforms.

Cooperation: We will cooperate with platform investigations and provide logs and evidence when requested.


Reporting Process

How to report: Use the Contact page or the in‑app report function. Provide links, screenshots, and any supporting evidence.

Acknowledgement: We will acknowledge receipt of reports and provide an estimated timeframe for review.

Investigation: We will investigate reports promptly and take action where appropriate. We may contact the reporter for additional information.


Appeals

Right to appeal: Users subject to enforcement may request an appeal by contacting support.

Appeal review: Appeals are reviewed by a different moderator or senior staff member where practicable.

Outcome communication: We will communicate the appeal outcome and any next steps.


Transparency Reporting

Summary reports: We may publish periodic summaries of moderation activity (number of reports, removals, suspensions) while preserving user privacy.

Policy updates: We will update this policy as needed and publish the effective date of changes.


Cooperation with Third Parties

Platform cooperation: We will cooperate with third‑party platforms and provide evidence to support investigations into review manipulation.

Legal requests: We will respond to lawful requests from law enforcement and courts.


Contact

Support and reports: Use the Contact page at https://www.bookroar.com/about/contact-us. Include as much detail as possible when reporting abuse.