Yotsugu Moderation, Reports, Appeals, and Support

Version 0.1, prelaunch draft
Effective: [[EFFECTIVE DATE]]

This policy explains how Yotsugu handles reports, group and website claims, legal notices, ordinary support, moderation decisions, and appeals.

1. Intake lanes

If a report enters the wrong lane, support should reroute it without requiring the reporter to start over. One matter receives one tracking ID.

2. Service targets

These are operating targets, not guaranteed service levels. A shorter deadline required by law or a valid order controls.

An acknowledgement confirms receipt and supplies a tracking ID. It is not a decision. If a target will be missed, support should state what remains unresolved and give the next update date.

Do not publish these targets until Yotsugu has staffing, routing, and records capable of meeting them.

3. Evidence standards

Yotsugu decides based on relevant evidence, not status or pressure.

Evidence may include:

• the content, listing, event, or system record itself;
• source pages and archived snapshots with dates;
• domain-control tokens or same-domain communications;
• signed statements or public announcements from a verified account;
• rights documents reviewed with sensitive terms minimized or redacted;
• reproducible technical logs and audit records;
• consistent independent reports; and
• the account's relevant enforcement history.

Follower counts, revenue, partnership, advertising spend, report volume, and who complained first do not prove a fact.

A screenshot alone may be incomplete. Support may ask for a URL, timestamp, full context, or proof of authority. Yotsugu should preserve the evidence needed for a decision while minimizing unrelated personal information.

4. Translation group and website verification

Verification methods

The preferred evidence is, in order:

1. a temporary DNS record or verification file on the claimed domain;
2. a token published in an authenticated administrative area or public page;
3. a reply from a role address at the claimed domain;
4. a public announcement from an already established official account; or
5. other corroborated evidence showing present control.

Yotsugu may use more than one method for a high-impact claim. Government identity documents should not be the default and should be collected only when necessary and legally supported.

Claim scope

The decision must record exactly what was verified: group identity, domain, specific project, source listing, or authority to submit rights evidence. Verification is not transferable with an account sale or leadership change.

Conflicting claims

When claims conflict, Yotsugu should:

1. freeze only disputed protected fields;
2. preserve existing links and facts unless they create current harm;
3. notify materially affected verified parties;
4. compare control evidence and dates;
5. separate site control, group leadership, project stewardship, and legal rights;
6. label a field disputed or unknown when evidence is insufficient; and
7. issue a reasoned, appealable decision.

Yotsugu does not decide who “deserves” a project. It records supported facts and responds to valid legal rights.

5. Moderation decision framework

Moderators consider:

• the specific rule and actual harm;
• whether conduct was accidental, negligent, reckless, or intentional;
• scale, persistence, and reversibility;
• whether the person corrected the issue;
• relevant recent history;
• risk to other people, rights, or service integrity; and
• whether a less restrictive measure would work.

Protected status, criticism of Yotsugu, popularity, payment, or personal familiarity must not affect the result.

Normal action levels

These are ranges, not hidden points. Similar cases should receive similar outcomes, but material factual differences may justify a different level. The decision must explain that difference.

A low-impact formal warning expires from escalation consideration after 90 days without another violation. Higher-level history expires after 12 months unless it concerns severe safety abuse, malicious security conduct, fraud, legal preservation, or a repeat-infringer analysis. Expiry does not require destruction of records that Yotsugu must lawfully retain.

Emergency action

Yotsugu may temporarily restrict an item, link, integration, or account before completing review when there is a reasonable immediate concern involving safety, security, unlawful material, rights exposure, evasion, or material service disruption.

Emergency action must have an owner, recorded reason, review deadline, and the narrowest practical scope. Within 72 hours, Yotsugu should either issue a rule-based decision, extend the temporary action with a written reason and next date, or lift it. Applicable law may require faster action or restrict what can be disclosed.

6. Decision notices

Unless legally prohibited or unsafe, a moderation notice must include:

• ticket and decision IDs;
• affected account, item, field, source, or integration;
• the exact rule ID and a plain explanation;
• whether the basis is platform policy, law, or both;
• the evidence category relied on, without exposing protected information;
• the action, start time, duration, and conditions for restoration;
• whether automation helped flag or decide the case;
• the appeal deadline and method; and
• the next required action, if any.

“Staff discretion,” “community concern,” “drama,” or “we received many reports” is not a sufficient reason.

7. Appeals

An affected account holder, verified representative, or contributor may appeal within 30 calendar days. A late appeal may be accepted when the person lacked notice or could not reasonably respond.

An appeal should identify the decision ID and explain at least one of:

• the cited rule does not apply;
• a material fact or item was misunderstood;
• important evidence was unavailable or overlooked;
• the action is disproportionate; or
• the process had a material conflict or error.

When staffing permits, a person not materially involved in the first decision reviews the appeal. The reviewer may uphold, narrow, replace, reverse, or return the decision for more evidence. They must provide reasons.

If a decision is reversed, Yotsugu should restore the item or access when legally and technically possible, remove the action from escalation history, and correct any affected public label. Yotsugu does not punish a person for appealing.

8. Copyright notice and counter-notice

Copyright notice

Send notices to the public designated agent listed in the Terms. A notice should include:

1. the claimant's physical or electronic signature;
2. the copyrighted work or a representative list;
3. the exact Yotsugu material or link to remove or disable;
4. sufficient contact information;
5. a good-faith statement that the disputed use is not authorized by the rights holder, its agent, or law; and
6. a statement that the information is accurate and, under penalty of perjury where required, that the claimant is authorized to act.

Yotsugu may ask for missing information. Where safe and lawful, Yotsugu will notify the affected contributor and identify what was restricted.

Counter-notice

If material was removed because of a United States DMCA notice, the affected contributor may submit a counter-notice containing the elements required by 17 U.S.C. section 512, including identification of the material, a statement under penalty of perjury about mistake or misidentification, consent to the proper court jurisdiction, contact information, and a signature.

Yotsugu may send the counter-notice to the original claimant. Where the statute applies, Yotsugu may restore the material after the statutory waiting period if the claimant does not report filing an action seeking a court order.

Repeat infringement

Yotsugu will maintain and reasonably implement a repeat-infringer process appropriate to the service. The process must distinguish valid notices, counter-notices, reversals, distinct items, account control, and obvious notice abuse. Counsel must approve the operational thresholds before launch.

Copyright support does not resolve translation-group seniority or community disputes that lack a legal claim.

9. Privacy, impersonation, and urgent image complaints

Provide the exact item, the affected person, the nature of the privacy or impersonation harm, and your authority to act if filing for someone else. Yotsugu may request identity verification proportionate to the request and should delete verification material when no longer needed.

Reports involving non-consensual intimate material, sexual material depicting a child, or dangerous exposure of private information receive priority handling and may be restricted immediately.

10. Support conduct and staff duties

Support may close duplicate, abusive, or non-responsive tickets, but must preserve any independently actionable safety or legal issue within them.

Staff must:

• use the published rules and templates;
• access only the data needed for the case;
• record material contacts and actions;
• separate technical support, policy reports, and legal notices;
• recuse from material conflicts when practical;
• never promise a favorable outcome in exchange for money, access, silence, or a relationship; and
• escalate uncertainty instead of inventing a rule.

Private outreach from a partner or popular group must be entered into the same case record as any other evidence.

11. Transparency and quality control

Once operations begin, Yotsugu should publish periodic aggregate counts for reports, decisions, response time, appeals, reversals, legal notices, and use of automated moderation. Small counts may be grouped to protect privacy.

Policy owners should sample decisions for consistency and publish material clarifications. If a new recurring abuse pattern does not fit a published rule, Yotsugu may contain immediate risk, but must update the rules before using that pattern as a continuing basis for punishment.

12. Contact placeholders

• Support: [[SUPPORT FORM AND EMAIL]]
• Appeals: [[APPEALS FORM AND EMAIL]]
• Security: [[SECURITY EMAIL AND DISCLOSURE PAGE]]
• Privacy: [[PRIVACY FORM AND EMAIL]]
• Legal notices: [[LEGAL NOTICE EMAIL AND ADDRESS]]
• India Grievance Officer, if applicable: [[NAME, CONTACT DETAILS, AND INDIA ADDRESS]]
• DMCA agent, if applicable: [[PUBLIC AGENT DETAILS MATCHING THE US COPYRIGHT OFFICE RECORD]]