Acceptable use and community guidelines

This document expands section 3 of the Terms of Service and forms part of them. It sets the standard for everything members write on Digital Learning Academy: posts, comments, group discussions, event pages, profiles and direct messages. It also sets out how to report a problem, what we do about it, how long that takes and how to appeal.

1. Who this applies to

Everyone with an account, in every part of the Platform. That includes members posting in their own name, institution managers posting on behalf of their institution, facilitators and course leads, group moderators, and Centre staff. Seniority does not change the standard, and neither does posting under an institutional badge rather than a personal name.

2. The standard

This is a professional network for the people who finance development across sixteen countries. Colleagues here will meet in the same rooms at conferences and sit across the table in deals. The standard is simply this:

• write as you would in a meeting with a counterpart institution, not as you would on a public social network;
• disagree with the argument, never with the person;
• be accurate about who you are, what you have done and what you are qualified in;
• assume your post will be read by your director, by a regulator and by a journalist, because one day it might be.

3. What is not allowed

The following will be removed, and repeated or serious cases will cost you your account:

• harassment, bullying, intimidation or sustained targeting of another member;
• discriminatory or hateful content directed at a person or group on the basis of race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, age or any similar ground;
• threats of violence, incitement, or content that celebrates harm;
• sexual content, sexual advances, and any sexualised comment about another member;
• publishing another person’s personal information without their agreement, including a private telephone number, home address, identity number or photograph;
• impersonating another person or institution, or claiming a role, employer, qualification or credential you do not hold;
• unsolicited commercial messages, recruitment spam, chain messages, and mass direct messages to members you do not know;
• scraping, bulk-copying or exporting the member directory or any part of it, by hand or by software;
• financial solicitation, fundraising, advance-fee approaches and any proposal that would be a bribe, a kickback or a conflict of interest if it were made in person;
• malicious code, security testing you have not been asked to do, attempts to reach data or accounts that are not yours, and circumventing access controls;
• posting material you do not have the right to post, including copyrighted documents, paid research and licensed data;
• republishing course materials, assessments or answer keys outside the Platform;
• deliberately false or misleading claims about a country, an institution, a transaction or a person;
• reposting content that has already been removed, or using a second account to evade a suspension.

4. Assessment integrity

Credentials issued here are meant to be worth something to the institution that reads them. Sitting an assessment for someone else, sharing questions or answers, using a second account to attempt a quiz, or presenting a credential you did not earn is treated as a serious breach. The Centre may revoke the credential, close the account and report the matter to your institution. If you think a question is wrong or a result is unfair, say so; that is a different conversation and a welcome one.

5. Confidential and market-sensitive information

Members work with information that is not theirs to publish: credit papers, term sheets, board material, client data, unpublished government decisions and pricing. Do not post it here, in a group or in a direct message, and do not quote from it. The Platform is not a secure channel for confidential institutional material, and posting such material may breach your own institution’s rules as well as ours. If in doubt, describe the problem in general terms rather than naming the deal.

6. Direct messages

Private conversations are private in the sense that other members cannot read them, and we do not monitor them. They are not exempt from this standard. Harassment in a direct message is still harassment, and a member who receives one can report the conversation, which lets a reviewer read the specific thread reported. Message bodies are stored in readable form on our servers, so treat the channel as you would work email rather than as a confidential one.

7. Institutions, groups and moderation

Parts of the Platform are run by members rather than by the Centre:

• an institution manager can post as their institution and can remove posts from their institution’s own space. Posting under an institutional badge carries more weight, not less responsibility, and the institution is answerable for what is said in its name;
• group owners and moderators can set additional rules for their group, remove posts and remove members from it. Those rules may be stricter than this document but never looser, and a group cannot authorise something this document prohibits;
• a member removed from a group keeps their account and can appeal to the Centre if they believe the removal was unfair. A moderator who removes content abusively can lose the moderator role.

8. How to report something

Report it to the Information Officer at SADC-DFRC@socoed.com. Put “Report” in the subject line. [TO CONFIRM: whether an in-product report control should be added, and on which surfaces, so that reports do not depend on email.]

To let us act quickly, include:

• a link to the post, comment or conversation, or a screenshot if you cannot link to it;
• the name of the member or institution concerned;
• what the problem is, in a sentence;
• whether you feel unsafe, so that we prioritise it correctly.

We do not tell the person you reported who reported them. We may have to describe the content in order to put the complaint to them, and in a small community that can be identifying, so tell us if that worries you and we will discuss it with you first.

9. What happens next

Our commitments on timing and outcome:

• we acknowledge a report within 2 working days;
• we reach a decision within 10 working days, and tell you what it is;
• a reviewer looks at the content in context, and where the complaint is about a person rather than a one-off post, we put the substance to that person and give them a chance to answer;
• outcomes range from no action, through asking for an edit, removing the content, a formal warning, removal from a group, suspension for a fixed period, and closure of the account;
• where a breach touches professional conduct, for example a false credential claim or the disclosure of confidential material, we may inform the member’s institution;
• we keep a record of the report, the decision and the reason. Those records are kept under the Data Retention Schedule.

[TO CONFIRM: that the Centre accepts the 2 working day acknowledgement and 10 working day decision commitments, and who holds the reviewer role.]

10. Urgent harm

If a report involves a credible threat of violence, a risk to someone’s safety, or content involving a child, write to the Information Officer and put “Urgent” in the subject line. We act on the same working day, content comes down first and is assessed afterwards, and we will involve the relevant authorities where the law requires it or where someone is at risk.

11. Appeals

If we remove your content, suspend you or close your account, you can appeal. Write to the Information Officer within 14 days, say what you disagree with and why. The appeal is considered by someone who was not involved in the original decision, and we respond within 10 working days. An appeal does not usually suspend the decision, but where the decision was to close an account we retain the account data until the appeal is finished. If the appeal succeeds, the content or the account is restored and the record is corrected. [TO CONFIRM: the position or committee that hears appeals.]

12. Records of reports and decisions

Reports, the content complained of, our decision and the reason for it are kept so that patterns can be seen and decisions can be reviewed. The period is set out in the Data Retention Schedule.

13. Relationship to the Terms of Service

These guidelines form part of the Terms of Service. Where the two differ on a point of enforcement, this document governs conduct and the Terms govern the agreement.

Version 1.0 · Effective 14 September 2026