Moderation and Removal Policy

TradersWeek hosts content written by its users: reviews of companies, community posts, and comments. This policy explains how that content is checked, how anyone can report it, who decides what happens next, and what to do if you disagree with the decision. The rules that content itself has to follow are in the User Reviews Policy.

We moderate after publication

A review appears as soon as it is submitted. We do not read every review before it goes live, and we do not hold opinions in a queue waiting for approval. Checking happens afterwards, triggered either by an automated signal or by a report from a person.

The three states a review can be in

Published is the normal state: the review is visible and counts toward the company's rating. Flagged means something needs a human to look at it — the review is not deleted and its author still sees it, but it stops counting toward the rating until a moderator decides. Removed means the review broke the rules; it stops being visible and stops counting.

Whenever a review changes state, the company's community rating is recalculated without delay, so a removed review leaves no trace in the score.

Automated signals

We watch how fast reviews arrive from a single account. A burst — more than five reviews inside an hour — flags that batch for a human to check. This is a signal, not a verdict: bursts happen for innocent reasons, and no review is removed because an automated check fired. A person always makes the final call.

Reporting content

Any signed-in user can report a published review and add a short reason of up to 300 characters. One person may report a given review once — reporting again changes nothing, so a group cannot manufacture weight by repeating itself. You cannot report your own review; if you want it gone, withdraw it.

The first report marks the review as disputed and alerts our team immediately. Every report is stored with its reason and timestamp, and the count is visible to moderators, so a review that many different people object to surfaces sooner.

How long it takes

We confirm that we have received a report within 2 business days, and we reach a decision within 7 business days of receiving it. Most reports are settled well inside that window; the limit exists so that a hard case cannot sit unanswered indefinitely.

Reports alleging unlawful content, a threat to someone's safety, or the exposure of personal data jump the queue and are acted on without waiting for that deadline. If a decision needs information only you can give us, the clock pauses while we wait for your answer, and we tell you when that happens.

Whoever is affected by the decision — the author of the review, the person who reported it, or the company — is told what we decided and on what ground.

Who decides

Decisions are made by our editorial team, not by an algorithm and not by the company being reviewed. A company can argue its case, but it cannot delete a review about itself, change its rating, or have a review taken down merely for being negative.

What gets removed

Content that was bought or rewarded by the company it praises. Content posted by a company about itself or a competitor. Another person's private data. Threats, slurs, and harassment. Text unrelated to the company's service. Coordinated posting from multiple accounts controlled by one party. Anything unlawful under the applicable law.

A poor rating, a complaint we cannot verify, and criticism a company dislikes are not grounds for removal.

Rules for companies and agencies

You may invite your own clients to review you, and we encourage it: a rating built on a handful of opinions serves nobody. The conditions are set out in the User Reviews Policy and they come down to one idea — ask everyone, promise nothing, and do not touch the content of what they write.

What is never allowed: paying for reviews or offering any benefit in exchange, filtering an invitation so that only satisfied clients receive it, drafting or dictating what a reviewer should say, posting as a customer yourself or through an agency, asking staff, partners or affiliates to rate you, and commissioning reviews from anyone who is not your client.

If we find a company doing any of this, we remove the affected reviews, recalculate the rating without them, and record the finding on the company's profile.

Appealing a decision

You have 6 months from the decision to appeal it. Write to us and say why you think we got it wrong. Someone other than the person who made the original decision looks at it again, and we answer within 14 days.

If we got it wrong, the review is restored and the company's rating is recalculated to include it. An appeal costs nothing and does not count against you.

Contact

Reports, appeals, and legal notices about content on TradersWeek go to [email protected]. Please include a link to the content and a short description of the problem.