Content Moderation and Appeals Policy

The Third Connection is operated by RELAYLANE LABS LTD (company number 17162321), registered office: Lavender Cottage Hazelden Farm, Marden Road, Cranbrook, England, TN17 2LP, trading as "The Third Connection".

1. What we moderate

• Profiles — display names and profile details are subject to review against our Community Guidelines (04-community-guidelines.md).
• Profile photos — every photo carries a moderation status: draft, pending (awaiting review), approved, rejected, or restricted (removed following review or reports).
• Chat — chat between matched users is private. We do not routinely read chat. Chat content is reviewed by a human when it is reported to us (or where we are otherwise required to act by law).
• Accounts — overall account standing is either active or restricted.

2. How moderation decisions are made

We want to be accurate about how this works today:

• Human review. Moderation is carried out by human reviewers working through an asynchronous review queue (safety reports and photo moderation). Decisions about your content and account are made by people, not algorithms.
• No proactive automated scanning. We do not currently operate proactive automated scanning or filtering of chat, profiles or photos. Where we introduce automated content filtering in future (see "Required implementation dependencies", F-10), we will update this policy before relying on it.
• One automated safeguard exists, and it does not judge content: if three or more different users report the same person within a rolling 30-day window, that account is provisionally restricted automatically pending human review. A human reviewer then confirms, adjusts or lifts the restriction. A single report never restricts an account automatically. See 07-user-safety-reporting.md.
• Law and guidelines. Reviewers assess content and conduct against the Community Guidelines (04-community-guidelines.md), the Acceptable Use Policy (05-acceptable-use-policy.md), and applicable law, including our duties under the Online Safety Act 2023.

3. Enforcement actions

Depending on severity and history (see the enforcement ladder in 04-community-guidelines.md section 7), we may:

Serious violations (including CSAE, non-consensual intimate imagery, credible threats of violence, and fraud) lead to immediate permanent removal without the earlier steps, and referral to law enforcement where appropriate.

4. What you will be told (statement of reasons)

When we take an enforcement action against your content or account, we aim to tell you, so far as we reasonably and lawfully can:

• what action was taken;
• which rule (or legal ground) it was based on;
• whether the decision followed a report or our own review (we never identify reporters);
• how to appeal (section 5).

In limited cases — for example where telling you more would prejudice a safety investigation, put another person at risk, or is restricted by law — we may give less detail.

5. Appeals

If you believe a moderation or enforcement decision was wrong, you can appeal.

• How: email support@thethirdconnection.com with the subject line "Appeal", from the email address on your account where possible.
• What to include: the decision you are appealing and why you believe it was wrong. You may add context we did not have.
• Who reviews it: a person reviews every appeal — where practicable, someone not involved in the original decision. Appeals are never decided by an automated system.
• Timing: we review appeals promptly, and we prioritise appeals against account restrictions and bans.
• Outcome: the decision is upheld, varied, or reversed; reversed actions are undone (content reinstated, restriction lifted) as far as technically possible, and you will be told the outcome and the reason.

Appeals do not limit any statutory rights you may have, including your right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office about data-protection matters, to complain to any other regulator, or to pursue legal remedies.

6. Repeat offenders

Enforcement history is cumulative across the Community Guidelines and the Acceptable Use Policy:

• Repeated breaches escalate the response — a violation that would attract a warning for a first offence may lead to restriction or a permanent ban for a repeat offender.
• Accounts created to evade a restriction or ban are removed when identified, without a fresh warning cycle (05-acceptable-use-policy.md section 2.4).
• Manifestly repeated bad-faith reporting is treated as misuse of the reporting system.

7. Transparency commitments

We commit to:

• keeping this policy, the Community Guidelines and the Acceptable Use Policy publicly available and versioned, with a visible "Last updated" date;
• notifying users of material changes before they take effect;
• maintaining written records of our moderation approach and risk assessments as required by the Online Safety Act 2023, reviewed at least every 12 months.

We do not currently publish periodic transparency reports on report and enforcement volumes; if that changes, this policy will be updated.

8. Contact

• Appeals, support and complaints: support@thethirdconnection.com.
• Safety reports: in the app, at www.thethirdconnection.com/report, or safety@thethirdconnection.com.
• Data rights: privacy@thethirdconnection.com.