What do I do when someone asks me to remove a story?

Where: Trust & legal → Takedown requests

Open this page: admin.<your-site>/trust/takedown (replace <your-site> with your site address)

Before you start

• Open Trust & legal → Takedown requests.
• You need permission to handle compliance. Taking a story down uses your own publishing rights.

Steps

1. Open the request in the list. Check the Reply due time.
2. Read What they claim, who the Claimant is, and the Pages on your site it covers.
3. Look at the story or image. The number is in the address of the story or image in the admin.
4. Press Assign to give it to someone, if it is not yours to handle.
5. Decide:
   • If the claim looks valid, press Hide the image or Take the story down.
   • If you fixed it yourself, press Mark as fixed by an edit.
   • If it is not valid, press Reject and give the reason. The claimant is told.
6. Write the Decision for the record. It is saved in the history and sent to the claimant where it applies.
7. Confirm.

Good to know

• Hide the image. The image disappears from every page of your site. Stories keep working. You can reinstate it later.
• Take the story down. The story goes offline through the normal workflow. You can reinstate it later.
• Claimant withdrew. Use this if the claimant tells you they no longer want it removed. The request is closed.
• Record a counter-notice. Use this if the owner of the content disputes the claim. Write down what they said.
• Reinstate. The hidden image or the story comes back online. Give the reason.
• Statuses are Received, In review, Acted on, Rejected, Counter-notice, Reinstated and Withdrawn.
• The page tells you when a request is past its reply time.

Common problems

• "This step is not possible in the request's current state." Reload the page and check its status.
• No requests are listed. They arrive from the public request form, so there may be none.
• I took something down by mistake. Press Reinstate and give the reason.
• "Write something here first." The decision note is needed. Write what you decided and why.
• "Add a short reason (at least … characters)." Write a longer note. The person who asked may see it.
• "Enter the story number (digits only), or leave it empty." Type only the number of the story or image, like 1234. You find it in the story's web address.
• "Choose a team member." Pick the person in the list before you tap Assign.

Questions

Related

• Grievances
• Privacy requests
• Activity log
• Corrections log