Policies Public-facing policies
Civic Safety and Abuse Policy
Prevents Civic Pins from becoming tools for harassment, doxxing, false accusations, neighbour disputes, or public shaming.
- Version
- 0.1.0
- Effective
- May 20, 2026
- Last reviewed
- May 20, 2026
- Review cycle
- every 6 months
- Master Policy Index entry
- §4 #25
Policy text
The Civic Pin Policy enables civic reporting; the Civic Safety and Abuse Policy puts guardrails around it. This policy defines the abuse patterns that turn civic reporting into harassment — doxxing, naming individuals, false reports, neighbour disputes dressed as bylaw complaints, public shaming campaigns — and the detection and remediation flow.
It applies to civic reporters, to the moderation team handling civic abuse, and to AI tools that flag potentially abusive Civic Pins. Human review is required for any abuse outcome that names or could identify a person.
Principles this policy enforces
- Civic reporting must be useful without becoming a public shaming system
- Public data and personal data are not the same thing
- Community benefit must survive scale
What it requires
- Run human review on every Civic Pin that names or could identify a private person.
- Treat repeated false reports as abuse.
- Default to municipality-only visibility for reports involving people.
What it forbids
- Do not let Civic Pins be used to dox, harass, or publicly shame individuals.
- Do not auto-publish Civic Pins identifying people without human review.
How it applies
- Civic reporters
- Moderation staff handling civic abuse
- AI moderation systems flagging Civic Pins
References
- Map.ca Policy Constitution §2 principle 7 — Civic reporting must be useful without becoming a public shaming system
Related policies
Civic Pin Policy
What can be reported as a Civic Pin, who can report it, how it displays, and how it routes to municipalities.
Public Accountability Policy
Allows communities to see civic activity without exposing private complainants or creating unfair pressure campaigns.
Community Standards
What behaviour is welcome across Pins, Civic Pins, events, Discovery Rooms, and Map Mail — and what gets removed.
AI Moderation Policy
How AI assists moderation without replacing the human judgment required by the Constitution.