Neighbourly follows the 'safe harbour' process, outlined in the Harmful Digital Communications Act 2015, when handling complaints about content posted by individuals on the Neighbourly website.
You can read more about the 'safe harbour' process here.
If you wish to make a complaint about another member's post or reply, please submit your complaint on our contact us page (select Privacy and safety concerns as the category).
Your complaint must include the following details:
1. Personal details *
Your name
Your phone number
Your physical address
Your email address
* You will need to supply your personal details for your complaint to be valid but they will only be sent to the author of the content if you agree to this. If you and the author agree to share contact details you may be able to work together to resolve the matter.
Your complaint may be sent to the author of the content.
2. Disclosure
Do you agree to your personal details being disclosed to the person who wrote the content you are complaining about? (YES/NO)
3. The content
Please tell us where we can find the content (eg URL of the post, title of the post, author's name and suburb).
Please identify or describe the content you are complaining about.*
* Please note: your complaint must refer to specific posts / replies, not "all this member's messages".
4. Why you are complaining about the content. Please answer either section (A) or (B)
(A) Please tell me why you think this content breaks the law. For example, has it breached your privacy?
(B) Please indicate which communication principle the content breaches (choose one or more):
1. It discloses sensitive personal facts about another individual.
2. It is threatening, intimidating or menacing.
3. It is grossly offensive to a reasonable person in the position of the affected individual.
4. It is indecent or obscene.
5. It is being used to harass an individual.
6. It makes a false statement.
7. It contains a matter that is published in breach of confidence.
8. It incites or encourages anyone to send a message to an individual for the purpose of causing harm to the individual.
9. It incites or encourages another individual to commit suicide.
10. It denigrates an individual by reason of his or her colour, race, ethnic or national origins, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.
Please explain how the content posted has caused harm (serious emotional distress).
5. Anything else?
Is there anything else you think is relevant?
________
What happens once I submit a complaint?
Once your complaint is received by the Neighbourly Team, we will first assess whether there has been a breach of the Neighbourly Guidelines. If there has been a breach, the content will be removed straight away and you will be notified accordingly.
If there has not been a breach, a copy of your complaint (excluding your personal details, unless you agree to sharing these) will be sent to the content author within 48 hours.
The content author will need to respond within 48 hours if they want to send a counter-notice. If we do not hear back from the author of the content within 48 hours, we will remove the content from our website.
If the author responds within 48 hours and agrees to the content being removed, we will remove the content immediately and notify you. The author may decide to remove the content themselves at this point.
If the author doesn’t agree to the content's removal, the content will remain on our website. We will notify you of the author's decision.