Reports, decisions and complaints

Reporting something

Report it in the app, or write to [email protected]. You do not need an account to report something, and you do not need to use a particular form or wording.

Tell us what happened, where, and when. If you think something is against the law rather than just against our rules, say so and say why, because that changes what we have to do about it.

If you are in immediate danger, or something criminal has happened, call 112 first. Table42 is not an emergency service and cannot act at that speed. Tell us afterwards and we will act on our side.

What happens then

A person reads it. Today that person is Tim Gelhard. There is no automated system, no filter and no score deciding anything.

These are what we work to. Table42 is one person, so they are honest targets rather than a service level, and we would rather write down the real ones than promise you a number we miss.

We confirm your report within two working days. Where nobody is at immediate risk we decide within seven working days. Where somebody is at immediate risk we act the same day, suspending first and checking afterwards.

We tell you what we decided. We do not tell the person you reported who reported them.

What we tell somebody when we act against them

Whenever we remove content, suspend an account or close one, that person gets it in writing, in their own language, at the same time. It is never just a line saying the account is closed.

• What we did.
• Which rule or law it was under, quoted.
• What it was based on: a member's report, a venue's report, something we saw ourselves, or a legal requirement. Never who reported it.
• Whether a machine was involved in the decision. Today the answer is always no.
• How long it lasts, or what has to happen next.
• How to challenge it, and that challenging is free.
• That going to court remains open to them whatever we decide.

Challenging a decision

Anybody we have acted against can challenge it, and so can anybody whose report we decided not to act on. It is free, and you have six months from the decision.

Reply to the message you received, or write to [email protected]. It counts as a challenge the moment it arrives, whatever you call it. A person reads it — never an automated path — and we answer within fourteen days, in writing, with reasons.

If we got it wrong we reverse it completely. The account comes back with nothing missing, and we correct the record rather than quietly dropping it.

We may decline to look again at a challenge that repeats one we have already answered and adds nothing new. Declining is itself a decision, and you get it in writing with a reason.

If our answer does not satisfy you

You can go to court, and nothing here takes that away or delays it.

There is also a route to a certified out-of-court dispute body, whose decision binds neither side. We are not naming one on this page yet, because we would rather leave this blank than point you at a body that turns out not to handle a service like ours. If you want to use that route, write to us and we will find out who the right one is and tell you.

If your complaint is about how we handled your personal data rather than about a decision on an account, the privacy statement has its own route and names the Dutch data protection authority.

What we keep

For every report and every challenge we keep what was reported, what was decided, when, by whom, and the text we sent. We keep it for three years after the case is closed, and that period does not move when the account it concerns is deleted: a report about somebody who has left is kept for the same three years and then goes.

Being straight about the size of this: there is no case-management system. One person keeps the record. That is enough at the scale Table42 is at, and it is the sort of thing that has to change before the scale does.

Getting hold of us

For members, for anybody reporting something, and for authorities: [email protected], answered in English and Dutch. That is one address and one person, deliberately, so nothing falls between two inboxes.