Moderation & Appeals Policy

Last updated: 2 November 2026

This policy describes how Eboona reviews content, how we tell you about decisions and how you can appeal. It supports our Community Guidelines and Publishing Policy and reflects the notice-and-action and statement-of-reasons duties of the EU Digital Services Act and the UK Online Safety Act, while respecting Pakistani law, including PECA.

How content is reviewed

• Before publishing: Drafts submitted by authors undergo automated policy screening and AI review (Google Gemini) against our database-backed Publishing Policy. Submissions scoring 8/10 or higher without policy violations are approved and published automatically. Submissions scoring below 8 or containing policy violations are rejected with specific feedback, and deduct 5% from the author's Honor Score. Authors who dispute an evaluation can submit a formal human appeal through Author Studio to have an administrator evaluate the post.
• After publishing: Content may be reviewed by human moderators when reported by readers, flagged by platform heuristics, or subject to a legal or copyright complaint.

Author standing and Honor Score

Every verified author maintains an Honor Score (0–100%, starting at 100%):

• Approved publications add +2% (capped at 100%).
• Rejected submissions deduct 5%.
• A successfully granted appeal restores +5%.
• Maintaining an Honor Score of 90% or higher is required to submit new drafts or send co-authorship proposals.

How to report content

• Use Report this article on any published article, or report a comment from the comment menu. You can choose a statutory ground, such as illegal content, defamation, child safety, non-consensual intimate imagery, hate or harassment, spam, or other rule violations.
• For copyright, use our dedicated copyright complaint form.
• Reports can be anonymous or include your email for follow-up. Reports made in good faith are never held against the reporter.

What we do with a report (Notice-and-Action Queue)

1. Intake and Tracking: The report is assigned a unique tracking reference and queued in our administrative moderation portal.
2. Prioritized Assessment: A moderator evaluates the report against applicable laws and platform rules. Reports concerning child safety or non-consensual intimate imagery receive expedited emergency handling.
3. Proportionate Action: If a violation is substantiated, the moderator takes appropriate action: requiring revisions, content labelling, unpublishing, or permanent removal. When an article is unpublished, the platform automatically sends a formal statement of reasons email to the author detailing the grounds and resolution notes.
4. Dismissal: If the complaint is unsubstantiated, it is dismissed without penalty to either party.
5. Audit Logging: Every determination and action is immutably recorded in our administrative audit log.

Statement of reasons

When we remove or unpublish content, or restrict an account, the author receives an official statement of reasons specifying:

• what action was taken and when it took effect;
• the legal or policy ground, and the specific facts relied upon;
• whether automated screening tools were used in the evaluation;
• how to submit an appeal.

Appeals and Administrative Review

• Article Appeals: Authors can submit an appeal directly from Author Studio on their My Posts page within 30 days of a rejection. Appeals enter our administrative review queue and are evaluated by an independent administrator.
• Restoration of Standing: If an appeal is granted, the rejection flag is cleared, the article proceeds to publication, and +5% is restored to the author's Honor Score.
• Account or Comment Disputes: If you dispute an account restriction or comment removal, you can contact our moderation team via our contact form.

Copyright Claims and DMCA Compliance

• Formal DMCA takedown notices are processed through our compliance queue. Upon verification of a valid claim, infringing material is unpublished, a strike is logged against the author's record (dmcaStrikes), and formal notice is delivered to the contributor.
• Authors who believe content was removed in error can submit a statutory counter-notification via our counter-notice portal. Counter-notices are reviewed in our legal queue; if valid and uncontested by the claimant, content is restored.
• In accordance with our repeat infringer policy, authors who accumulate three upheld copyright strikes face revocation of publishing access.

Publishing Policy and Rules Management

Platform administrators maintain our active Publishing Policy and category-specific restriction rules (sexual_content, violence_war, abuse_hate, links_not_allowed, custom) through the policy management dashboard. These rules directly govern both automated Gemini AI review heuristics and human editorial decisions.

Trusted reports and abuse of the system

We handle reports from trusted sources, such as authorities and recognised organisations, promptly. We may ignore or limit people who repeatedly submit clearly unfounded reports.

Contact

Use our contact form.