Community rules

A request says where something happened, when, and what to look for. We build the headline from those facts ourselves, so nobody can write their own.

The one line the person asking can write is "what to look for". Keep it to things you can see or hear: a vehicle's colour, make and direction, a time, a sound, a place. Two hundred and eighty characters is enough.

There are no comments, no reactions and no public gallery on Ubonile. People answer privately, and only the investigating officer sees what they send.

A person at Ubonile reads every request and every alert before it goes public. We remove or refuse the following.

• Names. Anyone's name, nickname or a title with a name, such as "Mr" or "Pastor" followed by a surname. A name that reaches a WhatsApp group can reach the wrong door.
• Accusations and guesses. "I think it was the neighbour." "It must have been them." A guess in public text is read as a fact. If you know or suspect something, tell the investigating officer.
• Nationality, race, ethnic group, religion or any other group. A description of a group is not a description of a person, and it is how whole communities get hurt. We describe what someone did and wore, not where they are from.
• Faces and number plates. These stay out of public text unless the investigating officer asks for them to be included. A plate in the wrong place points at an innocent owner.
• Private details. ID numbers, phone numbers, email addresses, web links, and street addresses with a house number. Our checks catch most of these while you type, and a person catches the rest.
• Calls to act. Anything that asks people to find, follow, confront or punish someone. That is the work of the police and the courts.

We tell the person who wrote it what to change. They can fix it and send it again.

The law protects the identity of children in criminal cases, whether they are the victim or a witness. A request that involves anyone under 18, a missing person, a sexual offence, or a person who may still be held does not go public. It waits until a verified investigating officer has approved it.

Requests about domestic violence are never made public. We point the person to people who can help now. You can find them on the helplines page.

First, automatic checks look for names, ID numbers, phone numbers, plates and addresses, and they warn the person asking while they type. Then a person reads the request. They can approve it, change a few words, ask for a change, hold it for an officer, or refuse it.

Alerts follow a stricter path. An alert comes only from a verified investigating officer or from a published SAPS statement, and a second person at Ubonile must approve it before it is shown. Every alert ends after 7 days. If we get one wrong we correct it, and we send the correction to the same people.

We aim to review a request within two hours during staffed hours. Our staffed hours are [Moderation hours]. A request submitted outside those hours waits until we are back.

Your answer is never published. Only a verified investigating officer can open it. That means you can say what you know.

Say what you saw first. Then say anything you only think. Keeping the two apart helps the officer, and it helps a court later. If your camera clock may be wrong, say so. You do not need to give your name.

Footage of a crime in which a child is a victim is welcome, and the investigating officer will handle it with care. Do not send sexual images of anyone under 18. If a file like that reaches us, we quarantine it and report it to the police. Any file we cannot open safely is quarantined and shown to nobody.

Every request and every alert has a report link. Choose the reason that fits best: it names or accuses someone, it looks false, it could put someone in danger, it shows private information, it targets a group, or something else. You can add a line of explanation.

A person at Ubonile reads every report. During staffed hours we aim to take down anything that names someone or puts someone at risk within the hour. If someone is in danger right now, do not wait for us. Call 10111.

If a request turns out to be false, or was made to harm, harass or mislead, we take it down and close it. The account behind it can be stopped from asking again. We keep a record that it happened, with the reason, and we do not hide that record from a court or from a lawful order. The privacy page explains what we hold.

A mistake is different from a lie. If you wrote something you should not have, tell us and we will fix it. We do not punish people for asking in good faith.