Terms of Service & Moderation Policy

1. Acceptance of Terms

By creating an account or using BeneVets, you agree to these Terms of Service and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the platform.

2. Eligibility

BeneVets is for users 18 years of age or older. You must affirmatively confirm you are 18 or older at registration. No accounts for minors are permitted.

3. Community Conduct Standards

BeneVets is a community for veterans, families, and caregivers. You agree not to:

• Post content that is harassing, threatening, or incites violence
• Share false or misleading information about veteran benefits
• Post content that violates federal law or California law
• Engage in coordinated inauthentic behavior or manipulation campaigns
• Spam, phish, or distribute malware
• Impersonate any person, organization, or VSO
• Post sexual content, content exploiting minors, or non-consensual imagery
• Disclose another user's personally identifiable information without consent

BeneVets reserves the right to remove content and suspend accounts that violate these standards.

4. Content Moderation Policy

California AB 587 Transparency Disclosure

4.1 Why We Moderate

BeneVets moderates user-generated content to protect the safety and trust of our veteran community. Moderation decisions are content-neutral and based solely on violations of these Terms of Service. We operate under 47 U.S.C. § 230 (Section 230) as an interactive computer service provider.

4.2 Prohibited Content Categories

The following content categories are subject to removal or restriction:

• Hate speech: Content that attacks individuals or groups based on protected characteristics
• Harassment and bullying: Targeted, sustained harassment of individuals
• Violent and threatening content: Credible threats of violence against any person or group
• Crisis content: Expressions of suicidal ideation or self-harm are treated as a supportive outreach opportunity (never censored) and routed to crisis response protocols (see §4.5)
• Spam and manipulation: Coordinated inauthentic behavior, unsolicited commercial messages, and vote manipulation
• Illegal content: Content that violates federal law, including CSAM, which is reported to NCMEC and law enforcement
• Misinformation: Deliberately false claims about veteran benefits eligibility or government programs
• Privacy violations:Unauthorized sharing of another user's personal information

4.3 Moderation Actions

When content is found to violate these Terms, we may take the following actions:

• Approve (dismiss flag): Content reviewed and found to not violate policy; restored to visibility
• Edit:Moderator corrects content with a documented reason; post labeled “Edited by moderator”
• Remove: Content soft-deleted; author notified with a generic reason (no specific reason is disclosed to protect moderator safety and prevent policy gaming)
• Escalate: Flagged content forwarded to a higher moderation tier
• Quarantine: Content immediately hidden from all non-admin users pending review for potential legal violations; author notified generically
• Account suspension: Temporary or permanent removal of account access

4.4 Moderation Tiers and Appeals

BeneVets operates a four-tier moderation structure:

1. Users: May flag content (limit: 10 flags per 24 hours)
2. Moderators (VSO Representatives): First line of human review; may approve, edit, remove, or escalate
3. Admins: Handle escalations, user management, and account actions
4. Super Admins: Handle legal holds, law enforcement referrals, and platform governance

All moderation actions are immutably audit-logged with actor, target, reason, timestamp, and IP address. Logs are retained for a minimum of 7 years.

4.5 Crisis Content Protocol

Content expressing suicidal ideation, self-harm, or mental health crisis is never hidden or removed. It is treated as a signal for supportive outreach. Moderators are trained to respond with support resources, including the Veterans Crisis Line (988, Press 1). The crisis hotline is always visible and keyboard-accessible throughout the BeneVets platform.

California CPRA Sensitive Personal Information (SPI) Disclosure: When you post content on BeneVets, that content is automatically scanned using keyword matching to detect potential crisis indicators (such as expressions of suicidal ideation or self-harm). This automated scanning may infer information about your mental health status, which is classified as Sensitive Personal Information (SPI) under California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) § 1798.140(ae)(1)(B).

This SPI inference is used only for crisis response routing, to connect you or a moderator with appropriate mental health support resources. It is never used for advertising, profiling, sale to third parties, or any purpose other than crisis response.

Under CPRA § 1798.121, you have the right to limit the use and disclosure of your Sensitive Personal Information. To exercise this right, visit your profile settings or contact privacy@benevets.org. Note that limiting SPI use for crisis detection may affect our ability to provide crisis outreach if your content indicates you may be in distress.

4.6 Automated Decision-Making

BeneVets uses automated systems to assist with content flagging (auto-hide on flag thresholds, coordinated flagging detection). Automated decisions are subject to human review. Per California CPRA automated decision-making rules effective January 1, 2026, a risk assessment for these systems is maintained internally.

Flag accuracy: Users whose flags are dismissed at a rate exceeding 70% over their last 20 flags may have their flags silently downgraded in severity. This is not disclosed to the user but is tracked internally.

4.7 Law Enforcement and Legal Requests

BeneVets complies with California's Electronic Communications Privacy Act (CalECPA, Penal Code § 1546 et seq.). We will not disclose user content or metadata to law enforcement without a valid warrant, court order, or other lawful legal process, except as required by federal law. Law enforcement referrals for criminally suspect content require authorization from two Super Admins and qualified legal counsel review.

4.8 Moderator Identity Protection

Moderators operate under display aliases to protect their identities within the community. Real names of moderators are never displayed in user-facing interfaces.

4.9 Transparency Reporting

BeneVets will publish an annual transparency report summarizing content moderation actions taken, government requests received, and appeals outcomes, in alignment with California AB 587 transparency standards.

5. Privacy & Data Rights (CCPA/CPRA)

BeneVets is headquartered in California and complies with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). All registered users have the following rights:

• Right to Know: Request disclosure of what personal data BeneVets holds about you
• Right to Correct: Request correction of inaccurate personal data
• Right to Delete: Request deletion of your account and associated data (subject to legal hold obligations)
• Right to Limit: Request limitation of the use of your sensitive personal information

Privacy requests are fulfilled within 45 days of receipt (extendable by 45 days with notice). Identity verification is required before processing Know, Delete, or Limit requests. To submit a privacy request, visit your profile settings or contact privacy@benevets.org.

Legal Holds: Deletion requests cannot be fulfilled for accounts or content subject to an active evidence preservation hold (e.g., pending law enforcement referral). You will be notified if a legal hold prevents fulfillment of your deletion request.

5.1 Anonymous Usage Analytics

BeneVets collects anonymous product-usage signals (page views, scroll depth, time on page, which benefits and VASRD cards are engaged with, and coarse device class). This data informs product decisions and future advertising placements.

We do not collect search query text, names, Social Security numbers, condition names you type, DD-214 contents, IP addresses, or full user-agent strings. Values are sanitized server-side before storage, and nothing that could identify an individual from the aggregate is retained.

Your browser’s Do-Not-Track or Global Privacy Control signal disables collection automatically. You can also opt out on a per-device basis from your profile settings. Anonymous session identifiers rotate every 30 days.

6. Legal Framework (Section 230)

BeneVets operates as an interactive computer service under 47 U.S.C. § 230. BeneVets is not the publisher or speaker of third-party user content and is not liable for user-generated content under Section 230. BeneVets' good-faith, content-neutral moderation decisions are protected under Section 230(c)(2). Section 230 does not protect against federal criminal law violations.

7. Enforcement & Appeals

If you believe a moderation action was taken in error, you may submit an appeal by contacting appeals@benevets.org within 30 days of the action. All appeals are reviewed by an Admin not involved in the original decision.

Account bans and suspensions are documented with reason and duration. Permanent bans may be appealed once within 90 days of the ban.

8. Changes to These Terms

BeneVets will notify users of material changes to these Terms at least 30 days before they take effect, via in-app notification and email. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated Terms.

9. Contact