House rules
Please read these rules carefully. They outline what we consider is acceptable and unacceptable content. We may update the rules from time to time, so please read them before posting a comment.
We will determine, in our sole discretion, whether any of your content breaches these rules.
Rule 1: Respect the spirit as well as the letter of the House Rules
In deciding what is acceptable, please also respect the spirit and tone of these rules and the community.
Rule 2: We welcome your opinions
We welcome your opinions. We want our readers to see and understand different points of view. Try to contribute to the thread, rather than just stating if you agree or disagree. Unless you have a witty one-liner, please explain why you hold your opinion.
Rule 3: This is a public forum
Once your comment is online, everyone with Internet access can read it. Please make your comment clear to ensure that it is not misunderstood. Your comment may be rated by other users and categorised e.g. best and worst rated. You can express a strong opinion but you must always comply with these rules. Don't forget that you are legally responsible for what you submit. Please consider how your comment could be received by others. Many different types of people of different ages may view your comment.
Rule 4: Language, respect and relevance
Please be polite. Do not use swear words or crude or sexual language. Only English is allowed. Keep your submissions relevant to the story or topic. Be respectful and do not insult other contributions or bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate any person.
Do not discuss the non-appearance or removal of any content on this Site or the suspension or termination of any users. If you would like to discuss the operation of the Site with us, please email us on community@dailymail.co.uk.
Rule 5: No libel, defamatory content, harmful content or other abuse
You must not make or encourage comments which:
- are defamatory, false or misleading;
- are insulting, threatening or abusive;
- are obscene or of a sexual nature;
- are harmful or potentially harmful to minors;
- are offensive, racist, sexist, homophobic or discriminatory against any religions or other groups;
- incite or encourage violence or hatred towards others or the destruction of property;
- introduce viruses, malicious code or otherwise interfere with the normal operation or use of the Site; or
- contain a statement which you know or believe, or have reasonable grounds for believing, promotes, encourages or incites acts of domestic or international terrorism.
Your comments should be:
- accurate (where it states facts) and not likely to deceive anyone;
- only contain opinions that are genuinely held; and
Rule 6: Fraudulent and illegal content
You must never leave comments that are fraudulent or unlawful or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose.
Comments must not breach the law, promote any illegal content or activity, or incite any party to commit any unlawful or criminal act. You must not leave comments that may involve:
- terrorism or other national security offences;
- child sexual exploitation or abuse offences including grooming and child sexual abuse material;
- encouraging or assisting suicide (or attempted suicide) or serious self-harm offences;
- harassment, stalking, making threats or abuse offences;
- hate offences;
- controlling or coercive behaviour offence;
- drugs or psychoactive substance offences;
- firearms or other weapons offences;
- unlawful immigration or human trafficking offences;
- sexual exploitation of adults offences;
- pornography offence;
- intimate image abuse offences;
- proceeds of crime offences;
- fraud and financial services offences; or
- foreign interference offences.
Rule 7: Confidentiality, privacy and contempt
Please respect people's privacy and ensure your comments do not threaten, abuse or invade another person’s privacy. You are not allowed to submit confidential or private information. For example, you must not upload the telephone number, email address or any other contact details of any person.
You should not write anything which could prejudice pending or on-going court proceedings of which you are aware. For example, if you have any personal knowledge about someone who has been arrested or charged or being prosecuted for an offence, you must not mention it. If you do, you could be in contempt of court, which is an extremely serious matter.
Rule 8: No advertising, product reviews, sales, solicitation or investigations
You must not use our Site for:
- the promotion or sale of any products or services or for any other commercial purpose;
- any sponsorship, petition, campaign, scheme or chain message; or
- an investigation e.g. tracing the whereabouts of any person.
This includes not leaving any product reviews within comments.
Rule 9: No impersonation and proper disclosure
You must not pretend to be someone else (e.g. an expert, another user, business or a member of our team) or otherwise misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person. You must not pretend that you are unconnected to a story or topic, when in fact you are. If you have a personal connection to a story or topic, you should disclose your connection where appropriate or not comment at all.
Rule 10: No linking or intellectual property infringement
You must not insert links to websites (URLs) or submit content which infringes a third party’s intellectual property rights (such as copyright and trade marks which you are not permitted to use).
Rule 11: Comments within a 24-hour period
Registered users can submit an unlimited number of comments across the Daily Mail website. However, there is a maximum of 10 comments per article in 24 hours. We may increase or decrease this limit from time to time at our sole discretion.
Rule 12: Removal of content
Reader comments that violate the letter or spirit of these rules or our Terms may be removed (or, if checked in advance, not published in the first place). If we do remove something, we will generally remove whole posts, or where necessary, whole threads (not parts). This means that even if only one sentence is objectionable, the whole comment will usually be removed (or not published).
If a comment or a thread is removed, this may be for any number of reasons. Usually, this will be because the comment breaks these rules or our Terms or is the subject of an abuse report. Sometimes, the comment may be removed because it is connected to another comment which is being removed. We hope that you will understand that, once properly notified of a complaint, we may have to remove a comment for legal reasons (whatever the rights and wrongs).
If your content has been removed, we may email you to let you know or to inform you if you have been suspended or banned from submitting further comments to the Site. We have the right but not the obligation to remove content and to inform you of removal.
If you are aware that content has been removed, you must not deliberately resubmit the same content.
Rule 13: Suspension and termination
We reserve the right to suspend or ban an account at our sole discretion. Here are some reasons why we might do so:
- Breaching these rules or our Terms;
- Failure to respect the spirit and tone of the community;
- Conduct or comments that demand a disproportionate amount of our time or that abuse our staff.
The length of a suspension or whether we ban someone depends ongenerally for extreme cases and repeated serious abuse.
If we suspend or ban your registration, you must not attempt to re-register or submit content (e.g., using someone else's account), without our permission.
Rule 14: Report abuse
We strongly support the Daily Mail community in maintaining high standards of participation. If you consider that a comment does not comply with these rules or our Terms , please use the relevant Report Abuse facility, located just under the comment in issue. The facility should only be used for serious complaints, not simply because you disagree with something said.
