Moderation & disputes

This policy explains how reviews are moderated on ImmiReview, what happens when a provider disputes a review, and how we keep ourselves honest.

Every review is checked by a person

No review is published automatically. Before publication, a trained human moderator reads every review. Software may help flag things for attention, but a person always makes the final decision.

What moderators check

Moderators look at three things:

• The verification result. Did the reviewer pass the proof-of-engagement check? Only verified clients are published.
• Guideline compliance. Does the review follow our Review Guidelines? For example, is it about the reviewer’s own experience, free of threats and personal attacks, and free of unsupported criminal accusations?
• Personal information. Does the review contain details that must be removed, such as someone’s full name, address, case number, or information about children? If so, the review is returned to the reviewer with a request to remove them.

What moderators do not do

It is just as important to understand the limits of moderation:

• Moderators do not judge whether your opinion is “right.” If you had a bad experience and say so honestly, that is your review to write. We do not referee disagreements about quality or fairness.
• Moderators do not remove reviews for being negative. A negative review that follows the guidelines is published just like a positive one.
• Moderators do not accept payment to remove criticism. Providers cannot pay to remove, hide, or bury a review. There is no premium tier, partner program, or side channel that changes this. Anyone who offers to remove reviews for money is not us, and we would like to hear about it.

When a provider disputes a review

Providers can flag a published review they believe breaks the rules. Here is how that works:

1. The provider submits a flag with a stated reason. For example: “this person was never our client,” “this contains someone’s personal information,” or “this makes a factual accusation we believe is false.” A flag without a specific reason is not accepted.
2. The review stays visible while we check it. We do not take reviews down just because they were flagged. The only exception is a review that clearly violates safety rules, such as threats or exposed personal information. Those are hidden immediately while we investigate.
3. A moderator investigates. They re-check the verification record, read the review against the guidelines, and consider the provider’s stated reason.
4. The outcome is documented. The review either stays up, is returned to the reviewer for a specific fix (such as removing personal information), or is removed with a recorded reason. The provider is told the outcome. The provider is never shown the reviewer’s evidence or identity.

Repeatedly flagging reviews without a valid reason may cause a provider to lose the ability to flag.

The reviewer’s side of a dispute

If your review is disputed, we will tell you what was claimed, without revealing anything that could put you at risk. You can respond with context or corrections. In rare cases, we may ask you to submit proof of engagement again. Any new proof is handled the same way as the first: encrypted, seen only by authorized staff, never shown to the provider, and deleted after the check.

If your review is removed, we will tell you the specific reason. If you believe we got it wrong, you can ask for a second look, and a different moderator will re-examine the decision.

The audit trail

Every moderation decision is recorded: what was decided, when, by which staff role, and why. These records cannot be silently rewritten. If a decision is later changed, the change is added to the record alongside the original, so the full history is always visible to us.

This matters because trust in a review platform depends on the platform being accountable too. The audit trail lets us review our own decisions, catch mistakes and bias, and prove that no review was quietly edited or removed outside this process.

Questions

If anything in this policy is unclear, or if you believe a moderation decision was wrong, contact us through the contact page. A person will read your message.