Any member of the public may send a formal complaint about inappropriate or unacceptable content on irishtimes.com, including a complaint about any content or postings submitted by users and a complaint of a breach of the Community Standards, by using the Report Inappropriate Content form. The alternative option to “flag” breaches of Community Standards is a facility which is only open to subscribers.
The Irish Times provides a range of opportunities for subscribers who wish to discuss the issues raised by the content we publish through our articles.
We want to help make these discussions as welcoming, open and safe as possible for the entire community, and anticipate that subscribers will work with us to achieve that aim. We expect subscribers to meet certain standards in any of their contributions to discussions, and these standards inform our moderation policy. The following activities are not acceptable.
- Personal abuse of our authors, of commenters, members or of any other individuals.
- Posts which contain incitement to hatred of groups or individuals, or foul or profane language.
- Posts which promote or provide instructional information about illegal activities, promote physical harm or injury against any group or individual, or promote any act of cruelty to animals.
- Contributions which may put The Irish Times in legal jeopardy, because they are unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libellous, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable
- Comments which are not relevant to the topic in question
- Posts which appear to be promoting commercial products or acting in a spam-like fashion.
- Posts whose purpose is to promote propaganda or external links, rather than adding to the particular discussion taking place on irishtimes.com.
- Posts which create a false identity for the purpose of misleading others.
- Posts which “stalk” another.
We post-moderate subscribers’ posts. This means that a post will not be reviewed prior to its posting. Subscribers may report posts which they regard as being in breach of these Community Standards or in any way abusive, offensive or inappropriate.
After a post is reported, it will be reviewed by a moderator and, if the post is perceived as breaching the Community Standards, then it will be removed by the moderator. If part of a post breaches these Community Standards, then the entire post will be removed. We do not edit subscribers’ posts. The Irish Times reserves this absolute right to remove posts and its decision is final.
In reviewing a post which has been reported, the moderator will assess as to whether it prima facie breaches the Community Standards and you will appreciate is not in a position to assess the merits of any underlying argument regarding the factual basis for the post or any underlying dispute in relation to the post.
It is a condition of registration that these Community Standards be observed by the subscriber. Any subscriber who persistently ignores or breaches these Community Standards, or our terms and conditions, may have their posting privileges withdrawn and may have their subscription cancelled.
The Irish Times DAC does not accept any responsibility for any statement posted by a subscriber on irishtimes.com. The Irish Times is not liable for any loss caused to any subscriber or any other person as a result of a posting appearing on irishtimes.com or a person or subscriber viewing or reading any postings on irishtimes.com.
