In short.
- Disagree well. Personal attacks, abuse, hate speech and harassment are not allowed.
- Don't post anyone else's content as if it were yours. Don't post anything illegal.
- No spam, no automated scraping, no attempts to break our systems.
- We may edit, remove or suspend access to content or accounts that breach these rules.
- Breaches that look serious or unlawful will be reported to the relevant authority.
1. Why this policy exists
When you comment, submit a story tip, contribute a letter, or otherwise interact with one of our Sites, you are joining a community of working professionals. This policy is the standard that conduct in that community is held to. It applies to every form of user-generated content on the Sites — comments, replies, contributions, profile information, contact-form messages and uploads — and to anyone using the Sites in an automated way.
This policy is part of our Terms of Use. Read alongside the Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy and Editorial Standards & Corrections Policy.
In this policy, "we", "us" and "our" mean Disrupts Media Limited, the publisher of the Sites.
2. The rules — what is not allowed
You agree not to use the Sites, or submit any content to the Sites, that:
2.1 Is unlawful
- Breaks UK law, or the law of any other country from which the content is accessible.
- Is defamatory, threatens or harasses an individual, or constitutes a criminal offence.
- Discloses confidential information you are not entitled to share.
- Infringes another person's intellectual-property rights, privacy rights or rights under data-protection law.
- Is in contempt of court or breaches a reporting restriction.
2.2 Targets or harms other users
- Personal attacks on other users, our journalists, named subjects of coverage or any other person.
- Discrimination, hate speech or harassment on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or any other protected characteristic.
- Doxxing — publishing another person's personal data (address, phone number, family information) without their consent.
- Encouragement of self-harm or violence.
2.3 Is dishonest
- Impersonating another person, organisation, journalist, public official or Disrupts Media staff member.
- Misrepresenting your professional credentials in a way that could mislead readers — for example, claiming a medical, legal or financial qualification you do not hold, especially where your comment is then relied on as expert opinion.
- Posting material as your own that is taken from another source without proper attribution.
- Using fake or unverified information to register an account.
2.4 Misuses the Sites
- Posting spam, repetitive content, off-topic promotional messages or affiliate links.
- Distributing malware, viruses, exploits or any other harmful code.
- Using the Sites to send unsolicited commercial communications to other users.
- Attempting to gain unauthorised access to any part of the Sites, any user account, or our underlying infrastructure.
- Probing, scanning, penetration-testing or otherwise testing the security of the Sites without our prior written agreement.
- Scraping, mirroring or systematically downloading content from the Sites without our prior written agreement, or in breach of the Terms of Use §4.
2.5 Uses our content in ways we have not agreed
- Training an artificial-intelligence model, large language model or any other automated system that produces derivative output on content from the Sites, without our prior written agreement. See the AI Use Policy §6 and Copyright & Takedown Policy.
- Republishing our content beyond the limits of UK fair dealing and the rules in our Terms of Use.
3. How we enforce these rules
Most users never see this section because they never breach the rules. For those who do, the steps below are what to expect.
- Edit or remove the content. We may edit content (for example, removing a personal attack from an otherwise on-topic comment) or remove it entirely. Where we edit, we will normally indicate that we have done so.
- Warn the user. A first or borderline breach often gets a private message from a moderator explaining what was wrong and what is expected.
- Suspend the account. Repeated or more serious breaches can lead to a temporary suspension.
- Permanently close the account. Reserved for serious or repeated breaches, or for any breach involving the conduct described in §2.1 above.
- Block IP addresses or other identifiers. Where account-level controls are not enough, we may block at the network level.
- Report to the authorities. Where a breach appears to be a criminal offence — for example, threats of violence, sharing of indecent images, fraud or computer-misuse offences — we will report it to the relevant authority and cooperate with their enquiries.
We try to apply these steps proportionately. We retain final discretion over moderation decisions and we will not enter into prolonged correspondence about a specific moderation call.
4. Reporting content
If you see content on the Sites that you believe breaches this policy:
- Use any "report" button or flag mechanism on the page.
- Or write to hello@disruptsmedia.com with the URL of the content and a short note on what you believe is wrong.
We acknowledge reports within five working days and act as quickly as the facts allow. We do not, as a general rule, share the identity of the reporter with the person being reported. We may, where the law requires, share information with authorities.
5. Automated access — what is and is not allowed
- Allowed. Reading the Sites with a normal web browser; using accessibility software (screen readers, switch devices, voice-controlled browsers); subscribing to our RSS feeds in a feed reader; following links from search engines that respect our
robots.txt. - Not allowed without prior written agreement. Crawling that ignores
robots.txt; bulk download of articles, images or datasets; automated scraping of comment threads or member profiles; use of our content to train AI or other systems that produce derivative output.
Requests for agreement to do any of these things can be sent to legal@disruptsmedia.com.
6. Your responsibility for what you post
You are legally responsible for the content you submit to the Sites. When you submit content, you confirm that you have the right to submit it, and you grant us the licence to use it set out in §5 of the Terms of Use.
If a third party brings a claim against us because of something you submitted, the indemnity in §10 of the Terms of Use applies.
7. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes are notified to registered users by email; minor changes are made silently with the Document history note alone.
8. Contact us
Reporting content: hello@disruptsmedia.com Appeals against moderation decisions: hello@disruptsmedia.com, subject "Moderation appeal" Post: Disrupts Media Limited, 41 Luke Street, London EC2A 4DP, United Kingdom
9. About Disrupts Media
Disrupts Media Limited Registered in England & Wales — Company No. 09447878 Registered office: 41 Luke Street, London EC2A 4DP, United Kingdom
10. Document history
| Date | Version | Change | |---|---|---| | 2026-05-14 | 1.0 | Initial policy. Covers unlawful content, harassment, dishonesty, system misuse and unauthorised AI training on our content. Enforcement ladder (edit, warn, suspend, close, IP block, report to authorities). Reporting route and appeals route documented. Cross-references Terms of Use, AI Use Policy and Copyright & Takedown Policy. |