Legal

Terms of Use

Effective date: [INSERT DATE] · Last reviewed: [INSERT DATE]

These Terms govern your use of PetitionWatch.org. By creating an account, signing a petition, submitting content, or otherwise using the platform, you agree to them. If you do not agree, do not use the platform.

1. What PetitionWatch is

PetitionWatch is a civic participation platform. It provides tools to create and distribute petitions to government, publish community reporting, coordinate lawful advocacy, and access nonpartisan, source-attributed election information.

PetitionWatch is not a government service and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of any government body. Hosting a petition is not an endorsement of its contents.

2. Eligibility and accounts

• You must be at least [INSERT AGE] years old to create an account.
• You must provide accurate information and keep it current.
• You are responsible for activity under your account and for keeping your credentials secure.
• One person, one account. Do not create accounts to inflate signature counts.
• Tell us promptly at inquiry@petitionwatch.org if you suspect unauthorised access.

3. Petition integrity

Petition integrity is the core of this platform. You agree that you will not:

• Sign a petition using a name that is not yours, or on behalf of another person without authority.
• Create multiple accounts, use automation, or use any other method to submit duplicate or artificial signatures.
• Circumvent verification, rate limiting, or duplicate detection.
• Buy, sell, or trade signatures.
• Misrepresent who is behind a campaign, or conceal an organization's sponsorship of one.

Every petition carries a version history and disclosed campaign ownership. Signatures are recorded with the petition version they were made against. Materially editing a petition after signatures are collected creates a new version, and this is visible publicly.

4. Content standards

You are responsible for what you post. Do not submit content that:

• Defames a person or organization, or states damaging claims of fact you cannot support.
• Harasses, threatens or intimidates anyone, or incites others to do so.
• Incites or threatens violence, or promotes unlawful activity of any kind.
• Impersonates another person, organization, official or public body.
• Spreads demonstrable misinformation about voting procedures, election dates, polling locations, eligibility, or how to participate in a lawful civic process.
• Infringes copyright, trademark, or other intellectual property rights.
• Violates privacy, including publishing another person's private information without consent (doxxing).
• Is illegal in the jurisdiction where it is published, or facilitates illegal acts.
• Targets or attacks people on the basis of protected characteristics.
• Is spam, malware, or a commercial solicitation unrelated to a campaign.

5. User content versus editorial content

6. Moderation

We may review, decline to publish, edit for policy compliance, label, restrict, or remove content, and suspend or terminate accounts, where we reasonably believe these Terms have been broken.

Every moderation action is logged with the actor, timestamp, the item affected, its prior and new state, and a reason. If we act against your content or account we will tell you why, unless we are legally prohibited from doing so.

Appeals: you may appeal any moderation decision by emailing inquiry@petitionwatch.org within [INSERT PERIOD] of being notified. Appeals are reviewed by someone other than the original decision-maker.

7. Your rights in your content

You keep ownership of everything you submit. By submitting it, you grant PetitionWatch a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt for format, publish, and distribute it for the purpose of operating and promoting the platform and the campaign it belongs to, including on connected social channels where you have chosen to publish.

This licence ends when you delete the content, except that: copies may persist in backups for a limited period; content already distributed to third-party channels or included in a delivered petition may not be retrievable; and we may retain what we must retain by law.

8. Copyright complaints

If you believe content on the platform infringes your copyright, send a notice to inquiry@petitionwatch.org including: the work concerned, the URL of the infringing material, your contact details, a statement of good-faith belief, and a statement made under penalty of perjury that you are authorised to act.

[COUNSEL: confirm the applicable notice-and-takedown regime and add the required agent designation and counter-notice procedure.]

9. Organizations

• Organization profiles are verified before they gain campaign privileges. Verification confirms an organization exists and controls its stated contact channel — it is not an endorsement.
• Organizations are categorized by mission and activity using a neutral taxonomy. We do not rank organizations politically.
• An organization is responsible for the conduct of its members acting on its behalf.
• Verification may be withdrawn for breach of these Terms.

10. Prohibited uses of the platform

You may not use PetitionWatch to:

• Build individual-level political profiles, or target people based on inferred political beliefs or sensitive personal characteristics.
• Scrape, harvest, or extract user data by automated means.
• Interfere with, overload, or attempt to gain unauthorised access to the platform or its infrastructure.
• Reverse engineer or circumvent any security or access control.
• Misrepresent election procedures or discourage lawful participation.

11. Purchases and contributions

[COMPLETE BEFORE COMMERCE LAUNCHES.] Cover: pricing and taxes, order acceptance, shipping and fulfillment, returns and refunds, membership renewal and cancellation, and the treatment of any contributions.

12. Disclaimers

[COUNSEL TO DRAFT.] The platform is provided "as is". We do not warrant that a petition will achieve any particular outcome, that a decision-maker will respond, or that third-party data we display is free of error.

13. Limitation of liability

[COUNSEL TO DRAFT — must be tailored to jurisdiction and entity structure. Consumer protection law limits how far liability can be excluded in many places.]

14. Indemnity

[COUNSEL TO DRAFT.]

15. Governing law and disputes

[COUNSEL TO DRAFT — specify governing law, venue, and whether arbitration or class-action waiver provisions are used and are enforceable in the relevant jurisdictions.]

16. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. Material changes will be notified by email or a prominent site notice at least [INSERT PERIOD] before they take effect. Continuing to use the platform after that date means you accept the revised Terms.

17. Termination

You may close your account at any time. We may suspend or terminate access for breach of these Terms. Sections covering content licences already granted, signature records, liability and governing law survive termination.