BuildBLK — Review & Content Moderation Policy

Effective Date: [DATE]

Our position, stated plainly

Businesses cannot pay us to remove, hide, or reorder a review. Not for any amount, not for any reason, ever.

A directory that sells review removal is worthless, and the community would be right to abandon it. We would rather have fewer businesses than a compromised review system.

We also will not selectively suppress negative reviews for businesses connected to our board or staff. Those listings are moderated by someone with no relationship to the connected person.

Who can review

You must have an account and be 18 or older
One review per business per experience
Your review must describe your own firsthand experience
You may edit your review at any time; edited reviews show as edited

You may not review a business you own, work for, are related to, or compete with.

Incentivized reviews are prohibited

You may not accept anything of value in exchange for a review, and businesses may not offer anything of value for one — not payment, not discounts, not free products, not raffle entries.

This is our policy and it is also federal law. The FTC's rule on consumer reviews and testimonials prohibits buying reviews and prohibits undisclosed incentivized reviews, with substantial civil penalties per violation. If we find a business buying reviews, we remove the reviews, revoke the Verified designation, and may remove the listing entirely.

What we remove

Content that violates our Acceptable Use Policy, including:

Reviews not based on a genuine firsthand experience
Reviews from owners, employees, relatives, or competitors
Incentivized or paid reviews
Threats, harassment, hate speech, or doxxing
Sexual content
Personal information about employees or other customers
Content that infringes intellectual property
Spam, advertising, and off-topic promotion
Statements of fact that are demonstrably false (see below)

What we do not remove

We do not remove a review simply because a business dislikes it. In particular, we keep:

Negative opinions. "The food was cold and the service was slow" is an opinion about an experience. It stays.
Reviews about price, wait times, cleanliness, or staff attitude.
Reviews the business disputes but cannot show to be factually false.
Reviews from customers who did not buy anything, if they describe a genuine interaction — being ignored at the counter is a real experience.

The line we draw: we act on false statements of fact ("they don't have a health permit," "the owner was arrested"), not on unfavorable opinions ("this is the worst pizza in Sacramento").

How a business disputes a review

Business owners: use the Dispute control on the review, or email [SUPPORT EMAIL] with subject "Review Dispute."

Tell us:

The review URL
Which policy you believe it violates, or which specific statement of fact is false
Any evidence — receipts, records, timestamps, correspondence

What we do:

Acknowledge within 3 business days
Review against this policy, and request more information if we need it
Decide within 10 business days
Tell you the outcome and the reason

What we will not do: tell you the reviewer's identity, contact information, or any account details. We do not disclose reviewer information except in response to valid legal process, and where legally permitted we will notify the reviewer first so they have an opportunity to respond.

A better first move than disputing: respond publicly. A calm, specific, non-defensive public response to a negative review is more persuasive to future customers than a removed review, and it is the single most effective thing a business can do here.

Responding to reviews

Every business can publicly respond once per review. Responses must follow the Acceptable Use Policy. Do not:

Insult, threaten, or mock the reviewer
Publish the reviewer's name, order details, or other identifying information
Contact the reviewer off-platform about the review
Offer anything in exchange for removing or changing a review

Retaliation against a reviewer is grounds for immediate removal of the listing.

What businesses may never require of customers

Under California Civil Code § 1670.8 and the federal Consumer Review Fairness Act, a business may not require a customer to waive their right to review, and may not penalize, threaten, or charge a customer for a negative review. Contract terms attempting this are void, and § 1670.8 carries civil penalties.

If a business on BuildBLK does this, report it — we will remove the listing and the conduct may be independently unlawful.

Coordinated attacks

If we detect a coordinated review campaign against a listing — a burst of reviews from new accounts, shared IP ranges, off-platform organizing, or content patterns indicating brigading — we may:

Temporarily freeze new reviews on the listing
Bulk-remove reviews traced to the campaign
Ban the accounts and IP ranges involved
Display a notice that the listing is under review protection
Preserve evidence and refer to law enforcement

We restore reviewing as soon as the campaign subsides, and legitimate reviews caught in a freeze can be resubmitted.

Businesses experiencing this: email [SUPPORT EMAIL] with subject "Coordinated Attack." We prioritize these.

Rating display

We show the average rating, the total count, and the distribution. We may weight or sort by recency and helpfulness, and we may down-rank reviews our systems flag as likely inauthentic pending human review.

We do not adjust ratings, rankings, or sort order based on payment, donation, partnership, or board affiliation. Sponsored or promoted placements, if we ever offer them, will be clearly and conspicuously labeled as such and will never be mixed into organic results unlabeled.

Our moderation limits

We are a small nonprofit. We do not pre-screen content. We review reported content and act on it, and we use automated tools to catch obvious abuse.

We are not responsible for user content, and we do not become responsible for it by moderating some of it. Nothing in this policy waives any protection available to us under 47 U.S.C. § 230 or any other law.

Appeals

If we remove your review or take action on your account, you may appeal once within 30 days to [APPEALS EMAIL]. A person not involved in the original decision will review it, and we aim to respond within 10 business days.

Transparency

At least annually we publish: total reviews, reviews removed by category, disputes received and their outcomes, and coordinated-attack incidents handled.