Enforcement and appeals

When a rule is broken there is a ladder: a written warning, then a restriction, then closure. Every decision is written down with its reason in Settings → Account standing, and emailed to you. You can appeal each one within 30 days, and a person who was not involved answers within 5 business days.

How it works

1. 1.

   A written warning says what broke which rule and whether anything was removed. It counts against you for 12 months.

2. 2.

   A restriction stops part of the account for 7, 30 or 90 days, or until a named problem is fixed. It can cover enrolling in courses, messaging, following people, publishing press articles, or creating and publishing courses.

3. 3.

   Closure ends the role the breach belongs to, or the whole account.

Everything a restriction does not name works as before, and it ends on its date by itself. The ladder runs per person: a second warning about a different course is still a second warning. A breach that is serious but not on the list below may start at a restriction, and the notice says so.

Content that breaks a rule is removed, unlisted or hidden as the rule calls for: a message, a review, a submission, a course. That is recorded too, you are told what and why, and it can be appealed.

What skips the ladder

These close the account, or the role they belong to, the day we confirm them:

• Threatening a person, or publishing their private information or intimate images.
• Terrorist material, or celebrating an act of mass violence.
• Scams and fraud: a chargeback on a completed course, a fake referral, buying your own course, paying with stolen details.
• Publishing work that is not yours to publish, which closes the creator role.
• Impersonating a person, or using a bought, sold or second account.
• Attacking the platform, reading data that is not yours, or selling stolen data.
• A child-safety violation. An account that belongs to someone under 13 is deleted within 7 days.

What a closure does

• You are signed out everywhere, cannot sign in, and your profile stops being public. The closure email gives a reference for an appeal.
• A course with students closes on 30 days' notice, or at once when its content is the reason, and its students are refunded. A course nobody enrolled in is deleted.
• Earnings that have cleared are queued for payout that day, with no minimum, and the rest are paid as they clear. Where the reason is fraud, earnings from those sales are withheld.
• Courses you bought are not refunded. Your data is deleted after 30 days, or later if an appeal or a counter-notice is still open.

How to appeal

1. 1.

   Open Settings → Account standing.

2. 2.

   Under Record, find the decision and choose Appeal this decision.

3. 3.

   Say why the decision is wrong, in at least 20 characters: what happened, and what we may have missed.

4. 4.

   Choose File appeal. The decision now shows Appeal filed with the date.

A closed account cannot sign in, so its appeal goes through acada.ac/appeal. Give the Reference from the closure email, the address the notice went to, and your reasons.

What happens next

Who decides

A person who was not involved. The one who took the decision cannot decide its appeal; the app refuses it.

When

Within 5 business days, by email and in your record, with the reviewer's note.

Upheld

The decision stands.

Reduced

A restriction ends sooner. Any other decision that deserved less is overturned, and the lesser one taken on its own, which you can appeal in turn.

Overturned

The decision stays in your record marked Overturned on appeal and no longer counts. What can be restored is: a restriction lifted, an account or role reopened, a course listed again, a certificate reissued. Removed content cannot come back.

Rules and limits

• One appeal per decision, within 30 days of it. The answer is final: you can still write to support@acada.ac, but there is no second review.
• A decision stays in force while its appeal is open.
• A copyright strike is contested by counter-notice, not appeal: see Copyright.
• Your record is yours alone. When an account is deleted, the record stays 3 years, no longer linked to it.

If something goes wrong

"An appeal has to be made within 30 days of the decision."

The window has closed. The decision shows The 30-day window to appeal has passed.

"This decision has already been appealed. One appeal per decision."

Its answer is in your record and your email.

"Too many appeal attempts. Wait an hour and try again."

You can try 5 times an hour. Wait, then file again.

"That reference and email address do not match…"

On /appeal: copy the reference from the closure email, with the address it was sent to.

"This account has been closed."

Shown at sign-in. Appeal at acada.ac/appeal within 30 days of the closure email.