Community
Guidelines, moderation & account management
Last Updated: 2026-03-10 · Effective: 2026-03-10
Aikyam is built on reverence, respect, and community. These guidelines cover how we expect users to behave, what content is allowed, how we moderate, and what happens when rules are broken. This policy applies to all content: text posts, photos, videos, comments, profile information, and direct messages.
1. Guiding Principles
- Respect for all faiths: Content must respect all religious traditions, beliefs, and practices.
- Safety first: Every user should feel safe from harassment, abuse, and harm.
- Transparency: Rules are clear and enforcement is explained.
- Proportionality: Actions match the severity of the violation.
- Fairness: All users treated equally, regardless of following or status.
- Due process: Every user can understand and appeal decisions.
2. Community Standards
Be Respectful: Treat every member with dignity. Honour the diversity of Hindu traditions — Shaiva, Vaishnava, Shakta, Smarta, and all sampradayas. Respect other religions. Engage constructively.
Be Authentic: Share genuine experiences. Use your real identity. No fake profiles or impersonation. Provide accurate temple details.
Be Safe: Don't share others' personal information without consent. Report unsafe content. Protect minors.
Be Lawful: Follow all applicable Indian laws. No fraud, scams, or deception.
3. Content Standards
Encouraged Content
- Temple visit experiences and photos
- Spiritual reflections and devotional content
- Festival, event, and observance information
- Temple history, architecture, and significance
- Devotional music, bhajans, and spiritual art
- Questions about rituals, customs, and traditions
- Community service and charitable activities
- Personal spiritual journeys and experiences
Prohibited Content
- Hate speech: Promoting hatred or discrimination against any religion, caste, creed, race, ethnicity, gender, or community
- Religious disrespect: Demeaning any religious figure, deity, scripture, or sacred symbol; promoting religious supremacy or coercive conversion
- Violence: Threats, graphic violence, incitement to harm or self-harm
- Harassment: Bullying, doxxing, intimidation, shaming for religious practices
- Misinformation: False claims about temples, events, rituals
- Sexual content: Nudity, sexually explicit or suggestive material
- Fraud & scams: Fake sevas, fraudulent donations, financial scams, MLM disguised as religion
- Spam: Repetitive, irrelevant, or unsolicited content; fake engagement; bots
- Impersonation: Fake temple profiles, impersonating priests or leaders
- Illegal content: Anything violating Indian law, IP rights, or court orders
- Self-harm: Promoting or glorifying self-harm or suicide
- Political campaigning: Partisan content unrelated to temples or devotion
4. What Is User-Generated Content?
Text posts and captions, photos and images, videos, comments and replies, profile information (bio, profile picture), temple reviews, seva booking reviews, and shared links (including YouTube embeds).
5. How We Moderate
Automated Systems
Detect and filter spam, explicit imagery, and known prohibited content. Flag potentially violating content for human review. Identify abusive behaviour patterns. Prevent re-upload of removed content.
Human Moderation
Reviews all flagged and reported content. Trained on cultural and religious sensitivity. Makes final decisions on ambiguous cases.
Community Reporting
Every post, comment, and profile has a report option. Users can also email report@shriaikyam.com or the Grievance Officer at grievance@shriaikyam.com.
6. How to Report
- Tap the three-dot menu (...) on the content
- Select “Report”
- Choose a category: hate speech, harassment, spam, misinformation, sexual content, fraud, impersonation, violence, IP violation, or other
- Add details (optional) and submit
Abusing the reporting system may result in action against the reporting account.
7. Review Timelines
| Report Type | Initial Review | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| Imminent safety threat | 2 hours | 24 hours |
| Hate speech / violence | 12 hours | 24 hours |
| Government takedown order | 36 hours | Per legal timeline |
| Harassment / bullying | 24 hours | 48 hours |
| Misinformation | 24 hours | 72 hours |
| Spam | 24 hours | 48 hours |
| Other violations | 48 hours | 72 hours |
8. Enforcement Actions
| Level | Action | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — Warning | Content removed + warning notification | First minor violation |
| 2 — Restriction | Posting restriction (24–72 hrs) | Repeated minor violations |
| 3 — Suspension | Account suspended (7–30 days) | Serious / repeated moderate violations |
| 4 — Permanent Ban | Account permanently terminated | Severe violations, illegal activity |
Additional actions: warning labels, reduced distribution, disabling comments, or restricting features.
9. Appeals
In-app: Tap the moderation notification > select “Appeal.”
Email: appeals@shriaikyam.com with your username, the content in question, why you believe the decision was incorrect, and any supporting context.
Reviewed by a different moderator within 7 business days. Decisions are final.
10. Content Ownership & Licensing
You retain ownership. By posting, you grant Aikyam a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable license to display, store, reproduce, distribute, and create derivative works (thumbnails, previews) within the App. License ends when you delete your content or account. Do not post content you don't own — respect copyrights and get consent for photos/videos of other people.
11. Copyright & Intellectual Property
If your IP has been infringed, send a notice to copyright@shriaikyam.com with: description of work, location on Aikyam, contact info, good-faith statement, accuracy statement, and signature. Action within 72 hours.
Counter-notice: Email copyright@shriaikyam.com with contact info, description of removed content, and basis for claim. Review and possible restoration within 14 business days.
12. Religious Content Standards
We respect all sampradayas equally. We don't favour any school of thought. We allow respectful theological discussion and protect minority traditions within Hinduism. Moderators are trained on cultural context, regional variations, religious symbolism, and the line between expression and hate speech.
Respectful inter-faith discussions are permitted. Content must not demean any religion. Proselytization and forced conversion content is prohibited.
13. Your Safety Controls
- Block: Prevent users from seeing your content or contacting you
- Mute: Hide content from specific users
- Comment controls: Disable comments on your posts
- Privacy settings: Control profile visibility
- Report: Flag violations on any content or profile
The App is not intended for children under 13. Content harmful to minors is strictly prohibited. We actively monitor for and remove child exploitation content and report CSAM to relevant authorities.
14. Transparency
We publish periodic transparency reports on: volume of reports received, actions taken, categories of violations, appeal outcomes, and government/legal requests. Changes to this policy are communicated through the App before they take effect.
15. Legal Compliance
Compliant with IT Act 2000, IT Intermediary Guidelines 2021, DPDPA 2023, IPC (hate speech, defamation), and Representation of the People Act (during elections). Government orders processed within 36 hours.
16. Grievance Officer & Contact
Grievance Officer: Pradeep Kumar P — grievance@shriaikyam.com
Response: Acknowledgment within 48 hours, resolution within 15 days
Moderation: moderation@shriaikyam.com
Report: report@shriaikyam.com · Appeals: appeals@shriaikyam.com · Copyright: copyright@shriaikyam.com
Community: community@shriaikyam.com