Reports, removal and appeals

How to report something, including illegal content, what we do with a report, how long each step takes, and what to do when a decision about you is wrong. Anybody can use this, with or without an account.

Reporting from inside the app

Report from the thing you are reporting, wherever you found it, with its report press: a profile, a message, a post, a picture, a film, a stream, an event or a card. A report says what you saw and where. It does not have to be well argued and it does not have to be right.

Reporting without an account

If you have no account, use the contact form and choose the subject for a legal notice. That form is open to everybody, and it is the point of contact for members, for the public and for authorities.

Reporting illegal content

To report content you believe is illegal, give us:

• where it is, as exactly as you can, for example the address of the page
• why you believe it is illegal, in your own words
• your name and an email address. A report about the sexual abuse or exploitation of a child may be made without your name: choose the subject about something unsafe and leave the name out
• a statement that you believe in good faith that what you say is accurate and complete

A notice that gives all of this lets us find the content and judge it.

What happens after you report

• you are told at once that your report was received, with a reference
• a report is looked at by a person, or first sorted by automated tools that put the most urgent reports first. Where automated tools took part in a decision, we say so
• we decide carefully, objectively and without undue delay, and we tell you what we decided and how you can challenge it
• if we find the content is unlawful in one country only, it is withheld in that country

What goes first

Some reports go ahead of the queue and always will:

• somebody who may be under 21
• a picture or recording of a person who did not agree to be in it or to be published
• somebody being pressured, threatened, exploited or coerced
• a threat to somebody's life or safety

Where we learn of something that suggests a threat to a person's life or safety, we tell the police or the authorities of the country concerned. Material showing the sexual abuse of a child is removed and reported to the authorities where the law requires it.

How long it takes

These are the times we work to. They are aims, not promises, and the most serious reports are handled first.

• a report or notice is confirmed at once, automatically
• a report about a child, about a person shown without agreement, or about a threat to life is looked at as a matter of urgency, and the content is taken down at once while it is checked when the report is credible
• other reports are decided as soon as we can, usually within a few days
• an appeal is decided as soon as we can, usually within two weeks

What a report is, and is not

A report is a promise that it will be looked at. It is not a promise that we will agree with you, and it is not a way to remove somebody you have fallen out with. Somebody who often sends reports that are clearly unfounded is first warned, and may then have reports from their account set aside for a stated time.

You are not told what happened to the other person's account beyond what the law requires, because that is theirs.

When we act on content or an account

We may remove or hide content, limit who sees it, withhold it in a country, hold a payment that is part of the breach, or restrict, suspend or close an account. When we do, we tell the person affected, unless the law forbids it, with a statement of reasons that says:

• what we did, and for how long if it is not permanent
• the facts it was based on
• whether it came from a report or from our own finding
• whether automated tools were used to find it or to decide it
• which rule of our terms, or which law, it was based on, and why
• how to appeal, and the other ways to challenge it

A decision with no reason attached is not a decision anybody can answer, so there is always a reason.

Appealing

You can appeal a decision about your content or account, or a decision on a report you sent, for at least six months after you were told of it. An appeal is free and is made in the app or through the contact form.

An appeal is looked at by a person who did not make the original decision, and never only by an automated tool. You are told the outcome and the reason for it. If the appeal succeeds, the decision is undone without delay.

An account closed because the person is under 21 is not reinstated by appeal, because the age is the reason and no argument changes it. You may still ask for a person to check that the finding about age was right.

Other ways to challenge a decision

If you live in the European Union and you do not accept the outcome of an appeal, you may also take the dispute to an out of court dispute settlement body certified for that purpose. Wherever you live, you keep every right to go to a court, and you may complain to the authority that supervises online services where you live.

Removed first, appealed after

Some material is removed before an appeal rather than after: material claimed to show somebody under 21, and material claimed to show a person who did not consent. Leaving it in place while an appeal runs would be the harm the rule exists to prevent. If the appeal succeeds, it goes back.

Repeated breaches

A member who often publishes clearly unlawful content is first warned, and may then be suspended for a stated time. Before we do, we look at how often it happened, how serious it was, and whether it was meant.

Reaching us

Through the report press in the app, or through the contact form on the contact page. Requests about personal data may also be sent to privacy@kinkeu.com. The contact point document says which subject to choose and which languages we answer in.

Changes

This document carries a version. When it changes the version changes, and a translation is published only when it is complete.