Content Moderation Policy

Last updated: 14 July 2026 · Version 2

StayLocal (operated by Spacelinkers Infotech Private Limited) moderates content to keep the marketplace honest, lawful, and safe — consistent with our obligations as an intermediary under the IT Act, 2000 and the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, including the due-diligence requirements of Rule 3.

1. What gets moderated, and when

• Every listing, before publication — human review of photos (all four required categories, authenticity signals), pricing plausibility for the locality, address/pincode consistency, description accuracy, and contact-number OTP verification, assisted by automated checks (image quality gates, EXIF stripping, duplicate detection via address and photo-fingerprint matching).
• Live listings, continuously — availability freshness rules (ranking penalties, automatic unlisting when stale), duplicate signals, and user reports.
• Reviews and ratings (where enabled) — pre-display moderation under the Review & Rating Policy.
• Reports — anything reported via the Report buttons or /report enters the moderation queue; target review within 48 hours.

2. Standards applied

Content must comply with the Listing Rules, Prohibited Listings Policy, Community Guidelines, and Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT Rules (no content that is obscene, defamatory, invasive of privacy, harmful to children, misleading, impersonating, threatening national security, or otherwise unlawful).

3. Possible outcomes

Action	What it means
Approve	Listing goes live with verification badge
Request information	Specific reviewer question sent by email + shown in your dashboard; fix and resubmit
Reject	Stated reason; correct and resubmit (rejection is not a ban)
Suspend	Live listing taken down (verified report, discovered fraud, stale availability, legal demand); notified with reason
Account action	Repeat or serious violations: feature restriction, plan forfeiture without refund, termination (Terms §14)

4. Repeat offender policy

Violations are tracked per account. Escalation is graduated — warning → listing removal → paid-service forfeiture → termination — except for fraud, safety threats, or unlawful content, which may skip straight to termination and, where warranted, referral to authorities.

5. Takedown on legal demand

Content-removal orders from courts or authorised government agencies under §69A/§79 IT Act and the IT Rules are honoured within mandated timelines after verification, per the Law Enforcement Request Policy. Copyright takedowns follow the Copyright Infringement Policy.

6. Appeals

Every adverse decision states its reason and can be appealed: reply to the decision email or use the Grievance Redressal Policy (acknowledgment 24h, resolution ≤ 15 days). Where feasible a different reviewer re-examines contested decisions.

7. Transparency and accountability

All moderation actions are recorded in tamper-evident, hash-chained audit logs (who acted, when, why). Moderators act under role-based permissions; automated systems flag, humans decide adverse outcomes.