1. Purpose and Scope
These guidelines apply to user-generated content and community participation on India For Tomorrow, including, where applicable:
- Public comments and discussions
- Problem reports
- Community observations
- Research submissions
- Evidence or document submissions
- Photos, videos or other media
- Maps or location-related contributions
- Suggestions and recommendations
- Community questions and answers
- Public-interest experiences
- Other material submitted by users or contributors
Specific features may have additional rules, submission requirements or technical limitations.
2. Our Community Principles
Evidence Over Assertion
Where factual claims are material, contributors should provide reliable supporting information whenever reasonably possible.
Respectful Participation
Disagreement is permitted, but personal attacks, threats, harassment and abusive behaviour are not acceptable.
Transparency
Contributors should not intentionally misrepresent their identity, interests, evidence, affiliations or relationship with an organisation.
Public Interest
Community participation should contribute meaningfully to understanding problems, evidence, solutions or public issues.
3. What Community Members May Submit
Subject to applicable submission rules, users may contribute material such as:
- First-hand observations
- Local conditions and experiences
- Publicly available evidence
- Research references
- Relevant documents or records
- Photographs or videos where the contributor has the necessary rights
- Suggestions for solutions or improvements
- Questions requiring further investigation
- Corrections to potentially inaccurate information
- Relevant contextual information
A submission may be useful even when it has not yet been independently verified. In such cases, it should not be presented as established fact merely because it was submitted through India For Tomorrow.
4. Content That Is Not Permitted
Users must not submit, upload, publish or intentionally distribute material that:
- Is unlawful or facilitates unlawful activity
- Contains credible threats of violence or physical harm
- Promotes terrorism or violent extremist activity
- Encourages self-harm or harm to others
- Sexually exploits or sexualises children
- Contains non-consensual intimate material
- Targets people with severe harassment or intimidation
- Publishes private or sensitive personal information without an appropriate basis
- Impersonates another person or organisation
- Fraudulently misrepresents evidence or sources
- Contains malicious code, malware or harmful technical instructions
- Attempts to manipulate platform systems or security controls
- Is deliberately deceptive or materially misleading
- Infringes intellectual property or other legal rights
- Uses spam, automated submissions or coordinated manipulation
- Is primarily commercial solicitation unrelated to the community purpose
5. Personal Information and Privacy
Community members should avoid submitting personal information that is not necessary for the relevant contribution.
Do not publicly submit:
- Passwords or authentication credentials
- Financial account information
- Government identity numbers
- Private contact information belonging to another person
- Private medical records unless there is a lawful and appropriate reason
- Precise private residential information where unnecessary
- Private communications without appropriate rights or consent
- Information that could expose a person to unnecessary safety risk
Where a submission contains unnecessary personal information, India For Tomorrow may redact, restrict or remove that portion where appropriate.
6. Claims About Identifiable People or Organisations
Public-interest participation may sometimes involve people, businesses, institutions or organisations.
Contributors should distinguish between:
- Directly observed facts
- Documented information
- Personal experience
- Opinion or interpretation
- Allegation or unverified claim
Serious allegations should not be presented as established facts without reliable evidence.
India For Tomorrow may request supporting evidence, qualify language, delay publication, remove material or provide an opportunity for correction where a submission creates a significant risk of unfairly harming an identifiable person or organisation.
7. Evidence and Verification
Community submissions and independently verified editorial material are different categories of information.
Where appropriate, community material may be classified as:
| Category | Meaning | Editorial treatment |
|---|---|---|
| Verified evidence | Information independently established through an appropriate review or reliable source. | May be incorporated into editorial or research material subject to the relevant verification process. |
| Community submission | Information contributed by a user that has not necessarily been independently verified. | Should be identified appropriately and should not automatically be treated as an editorial finding. |
| Partial evidence | Material supported by some evidence but requiring further investigation. | May be qualified or retained for further review. |
| Unverified claim | A factual claim for which sufficient supporting evidence is not currently available. | May be withheld, qualified, restricted or removed depending on context and potential harm. |
Where a material factual claim is used in research or editorial work, the relevant editorial or verification process remains responsible for assessing it.
8. Respectful Discussion and Disagreement
India For Tomorrow welcomes disagreement and critical discussion when it contributes to understanding an issue.
Users should:
- Challenge ideas rather than attack people
- Use evidence where factual claims are material
- Acknowledge uncertainty where appropriate
- Avoid personal intimidation
- Allow reasonable disagreement
- Avoid repeated disruptive posting
Strong criticism is not automatically prohibited. The focus is on whether the contribution remains relevant, lawful, non-threatening and reasonably respectful.
9. Harassment, Threats and Abuse
The following behaviour may result in moderation or account restriction:
- Threats of physical harm
- Persistent targeted harassment
- Stalking or intimidation
- Repeated abusive contact after a reasonable request to stop
- Attempts to expose private information to intimidate someone
- Coordinated attacks intended to silence participation
- Threats against contributors, researchers, moderators or staff
Immediate safety concerns may be escalated for urgent review and, where appropriate, to relevant authorities or service providers.
10. Hateful or Dehumanising Content
India For Tomorrow does not permit content that promotes violence, dehumanisation or severe hostility toward people based on protected or otherwise sensitive characteristics.
Discussion of difficult social, political, religious, cultural or demographic issues may be permitted when it is relevant to public-interest analysis and does not cross into threats, incitement or targeted abuse.
11. Misleading or False Information
Not every incorrect statement is intentional misinformation. Community members may make mistakes, misunderstand information or rely on outdated material.
We may take action when content is:
- Demonstrably false and materially misleading
- Presented deceptively as verified evidence
- Likely to create serious and foreseeable harm
- Part of coordinated manipulation
- Deliberately fabricated
Where practical, correction or clarification may be preferred over removal when the content can be safely retained and properly contextualised.
12. Manipulation, Spam and Artificial Activity
Users must not attempt to artificially influence community signals, research visibility, advertising performance or platform decisions.
Examples include:
- Automated mass submissions
- Fake accounts created to manipulate discussion
- Coordinated duplicate submissions
- Artificial voting or engagement
- Spam comments
- Search manipulation
- Advertising click manipulation
- False reports intended to suppress another user
- Attempts to overwhelm moderation systems
13. Commercial and Promotional Content
Commercial activity should not be disguised as independent community participation.
Where relevant, contributors should disclose:
- Financial interests
- Commercial relationships
- Organisational affiliations
- Material conflicts of interest
- Sponsored relationships
Unsolicited advertising, repetitive promotional posts, affiliate spam and misleading commercial claims may be restricted or removed.
Our Advertising Policy governs advertising relationships separately from community participation.
14. External Links and References
Users may provide links to relevant sources where the feature allows it.
Links should be relevant and should not be used primarily to:
- Distribute malware
- Promote unlawful activity
- Collect credentials deceptively
- Distribute spam
- Redirect users through deceptive destinations
- Artificially manipulate traffic or search rankings
External links do not automatically mean that India For Tomorrow endorses the linked organisation, claim or material.
15. Copyright and Rights to Submitted Material
Users should only submit material when they have the necessary rights, permissions or lawful basis to do so.
This includes photographs, videos, documents, research, graphics, written material and other protected works.
Where a contribution appears to infringe another person’s rights, India For Tomorrow may restrict or remove it and may review a properly submitted rights complaint.
16. Photos, Videos and Other Media
Media submissions should be relevant to the stated purpose of the contribution.
Contributors should consider:
- Whether they have the right to submit the material
- Whether identifiable people have a reasonable privacy interest
- Whether sensitive personal information is visible
- Whether location information could create a safety risk
- Whether the media has been materially manipulated
Material that creates an unnecessary privacy or safety risk may be restricted, redacted or removed.
17. AI-Generated or Digitally Modified Content
Where relevant, contributors should not present AI-generated, synthetically created or materially modified content as authentic evidence when it is not authentic.
Examples include:
- AI-generated photographs presented as real events
- Fabricated documents
- Manipulated recordings
- Altered images that materially change meaning
- Synthetic quotes attributed to real people
Where synthetic or materially modified content is relevant and permitted, appropriate disclosure may be required.
18. Problem Reports and Public-Interest Submissions
Problem reports should contain enough information to help understand the issue without unnecessarily exposing private information.
Where appropriate, a useful report may include:
- General location
- Date or approximate time
- Description of the issue
- Observed impact
- Relevant evidence
- Potential source or reference
- Any material uncertainty
19. Moderation and Review
India For Tomorrow may review community content through a combination of automated tools, human review, contributor reports and editorial or technical checks.
Moderation may consider:
- The nature and seriousness of the content
- Whether the content violates these guidelines
- Potential harm to people or communities
- Public-interest relevance
- Available evidence
- Context and surrounding discussion
- Whether correction or qualification is sufficient
- Applicable legal or platform requirements
Moderation decisions may not always be immediate and may not always be visible to the contributor or wider public.
20. Possible Moderation Actions
Depending on the circumstances, we may:
- Leave content unchanged
- Add a clarification or contextual label
- Request additional information
- Limit visibility
- Redact sensitive information
- Disable comments or interactions
- Remove specific content
- Restrict submission privileges
- Suspend or terminate access where appropriate
- Escalate serious matters for further review
The least restrictive appropriate action may be preferred when the content can be retained safely through correction, qualification or contextualisation.
21. Content Removal and Interpretation
Removal does not necessarily mean that every statement in the removed material was false.
Content may be removed because it:
- Contains unnecessary personal information
- Creates a safety risk
- Violates another person’s rights
- Is abusive or threatening
- Is materially misleading
- Is spam or manipulation
- Cannot safely be published in its current form
- Violates applicable law or platform requirements
22. Review and Appeals
Where a moderation decision materially affects a contributor, the contributor may contact us to request review where a review mechanism is available.
A review request should explain:
- Which content or decision is being disputed
- Why the contributor believes the decision should be reconsidered
- Any relevant evidence or context
- Any correction that should be considered
Repeated requests that do not provide new information may not receive a further substantive review.
23. Corrections and Updates
Community members are encouraged to report factual errors, outdated information or misleading presentation.
Where appropriate, we may:
- Correct the community material
- Add a clarification
- Update the relevant information
- Request additional evidence
- Refer the issue to the editorial team
- Remove the material when correction is insufficient
Our Corrections Policy governs corrections to India For Tomorrow’s editorial and research material.
24. Research and Evidence Submissions
Community members may contribute research references, observations or evidence for consideration.
Submission does not guarantee:
- Publication
- Editorial adoption
- Verification
- Expert status
- Institutional recognition
- Inclusion in rankings or assessments
Research findings, verification status and public-interest conclusions remain subject to the applicable India For Tomorrow research and verification process.
25. Children, Students and Younger Users
Additional care may be required for content involving children, students and younger users.
Users should not publicly submit unnecessary information about children, including:
- School records
- Private contact details
- Identity documents
- Private medical information
- Precise private location information
- Other sensitive information that could create risk
Where content involving children creates an identifiable privacy or safety concern, it may receive additional review.
26. Sensitive Public-Interest Topics
Community contributions may involve sensitive subjects such as:
- Health
- Safety
- Disasters
- Crime and justice
- Conflict
- Vulnerable communities
- Public infrastructure
- Environmental harm
- Financial hardship
Such contributions may require additional evidence, contextualisation or editorial review.
27. Conflicts of Interest
Contributors should disclose material relationships that could reasonably affect how a submission is interpreted.
Examples may include:
- Employment by an organisation discussed in the submission
- Ownership or financial interest
- Paid consultancy
- Campaign or advocacy relationships
- Sponsored research
- Other material organisational relationships
A conflict does not automatically disqualify a contribution, but undisclosed material conflicts may affect how the material is reviewed or presented.
28. Community Content Is Not Automatically Editorial Content
India For Tomorrow distinguishes between community contributions and editorial, research or verified material.
A community submission does not automatically become:
- An editorial conclusion
- A verified finding
- An official India For Tomorrow position
- An expert opinion
- An institutional endorsement
- A measured result
The platform may use relevant community information as an input to further research, but the final editorial or research assessment remains subject to the applicable verification process.
29. Use of Submitted Community Material
When submitting material, contributors should understand that the platform may need to store, review, reproduce, format, moderate or display the contribution in order to operate the relevant community feature.
The precise rights granted by a submission are governed by the applicable Website terms, submission interface and privacy information.
Contributors should not submit material that they are not authorised to provide for the relevant purpose.
30. Privacy and Community Submissions
Information submitted through community features may be processed according to the India For Tomorrow Privacy Policy.
Depending on the feature, submissions may be reviewed for:
- Safety
- Moderation
- Verification
- Editorial research
- Fraud prevention
- Technical operation
- Responding to contributor requests
Community submissions should not be used for unrelated purposes in a manner inconsistent with applicable privacy requirements or the information provided to users.
31. Automated Moderation and Review Tools
India For Tomorrow may use automated or assisted systems to help identify potentially harmful, spammy or policy-violating material.
Automated signals may be used for purposes such as:
- Spam detection
- Abuse detection
- Malicious-content detection
- Duplicate submission detection
- Safety triage
Automated systems may make mistakes. Where appropriate, human review may be used for material decisions, particularly where context or potential harm requires additional assessment.
32. Transparency and Accountability
India For Tomorrow aims to apply these guidelines consistently while recognising that context matters.
Where practical, moderation and governance processes should consider:
- The reason for the action
- The relevant guideline
- The seriousness of potential harm
- The availability of less restrictive alternatives
- The reliability of available evidence
- The public-interest value of the contribution
33. Legal and Safety Requests
India For Tomorrow may respond to valid legal obligations, lawful requests or urgent safety circumstances in accordance with applicable requirements.
Where legally permitted and appropriate, we may consider requests involving:
- Illegal activity
- Credible threats
- Child safety
- Serious privacy violations
- Fraud
- Security incidents
- Other serious legal or safety matters
34. Changes to These Community Guidelines
We may update these guidelines when:
- Community features change
- Moderation practices change
- New safety risks are identified
- Privacy practices change
- Applicable legal requirements change
- Platform or technology requirements change
- Experience shows that additional safeguards are necessary
Material changes will be reflected by updating the Last updated date at the top of this page.
35. Community Governance Framework
Community governance may follow an ongoing review process:
- Receive — accept a submission through an available community channel.
- Screen — identify obvious spam, safety concerns or prohibited material.
- Assess — consider context, evidence, relevance and potential harm.
- Verify where necessary — seek additional evidence or editorial review for material claims.
- Decide — retain, qualify, correct, restrict or remove the content as appropriate.
- Review — consider legitimate correction or appeal requests where available.
- Improve — use recurring issues to improve community guidance and safeguards.
36. Report a Community Guideline Concern
Users may report content that they believe violates these Community Guidelines or creates a significant safety, privacy, legal or integrity concern.
When reporting, please provide:
- The relevant page or content location
- A brief description of the concern
- The applicable guideline, if known
- Relevant evidence or context
- A screenshot where useful and safe
37. Related Policies
These Community Guidelines should be read together with the following India For Tomorrow policies:
38. Frequently Asked Questions
Does submitting content mean India For Tomorrow agrees with it?
No. A community submission does not automatically represent the views, findings or conclusions of India For Tomorrow. Material may require additional review or verification.
Can I submit criticism of India For Tomorrow?
Yes. Good-faith criticism and disagreement are permitted. Content should remain relevant, lawful and reasonably respectful and should not contain threats or targeted abuse.
Can I report incorrect information?
Yes. Users are encouraged to report factual errors, outdated information and misleading presentation.
Can India For Tomorrow remove my submission?
Yes. Content may be removed, restricted, redacted or otherwise moderated when it violates these guidelines, creates significant risk, infringes rights, is misleading, or cannot safely remain available in its current form.
Are community submissions verified?
Not automatically. A community submission may be reviewed, but submission itself does not establish that the information is independently verified.
Can I submit anonymous information?
Some features may permit limited or anonymous participation, while others may require contact information for moderation, verification or operational purposes. The available options depend on the relevant submission mechanism.
Can I submit photographs or videos?
Where the relevant feature permits media submissions, you should only submit material that you have the right or appropriate permission to provide. Avoid unnecessary private or sensitive information.
Can I submit AI-generated content?
Only where permitted by the relevant feature and where it is not misleading. Materially synthetic or modified content should not be presented as authentic evidence.
What happens if someone violates the guidelines?
Depending on the circumstances, content may be clarified, corrected, restricted or removed, and access to community features may be limited where appropriate.
Can I appeal a moderation decision?
Where a review mechanism is available, contributors may contact us with the relevant content, reason for disagreement and any additional evidence or context.
Does community content affect research findings?
It may provide information for further investigation, but research findings and verification decisions remain subject to the applicable India For Tomorrow research and verification process.
Where can I report a serious safety concern?
Serious concerns can be reported through the available contact channel. Immediate emergencies should be directed to the appropriate emergency or public authority rather than waiting for platform moderation.