Map.ca policy

Civic Safety and Abuse Policy

Prevents Civic Pins from becoming tools for harassment, doxxing, false accusations, neighbour disputes, or public shaming.

The Civic Pin Policy enables civic reporting; the Civic Safety and Abuse Policy puts guardrails around it. This policy defines the abuse patterns that turn civic reporting into harassment — doxxing, naming individuals, false reports, neighbour disputes dressed as bylaw complaints, public shaming campaigns — and the detection and remediation flow.

It applies to civic reporters, to the moderation team handling civic abuse, and to AI tools that flag potentially abusive Civic Pins. Human review is required for any abuse outcome that names or could identify a person.

Requirements

Run human review on every Civic Pin that names or could identify a private person.
Treat repeated false reports as abuse.
Default to municipality-only visibility for reports involving people.

Prohibitions

Do not let Civic Pins be used to dox, harass, or publicly shame individuals.
Do not auto-publish Civic Pins identifying people without human review.

Related policies

Civic Pin PolicyWhat can be reported as a Civic Pin, who can report it, how it displays, and how it routes to municipalities.Public Accountability PolicyAllows communities to see civic activity without exposing private complainants or creating unfair pressure campaigns.Community StandardsWhat behaviour is welcome across Pins, Civic Pins, events, Discovery Rooms, and Map Mail — and what gets removed.AI Moderation PolicyHow AI assists moderation without replacing the human judgment required by the Constitution.