Community guidelines

These guidelines apply to every person who uses Askobo, including seekers, experts, organisations and their members, and visitors. They cover everything you post, upload, say or do on Askobo: profiles, listings, reviews, chat messages, files, hub posts, notes you share, video meetings and anything you send through the contact form.

They are part of our Terms of use. Experts must also follow the Expert terms.

The list below includes, without limitation, everything that India's Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 require us to tell you not to post, plus rules that are specific to Askobo.

Content you do not have the right to use

• Content that belongs to someone else, when you do not have the right to post it.
• Content that infringes a patent, trademark, copyright or other proprietary right.

Consequence: we remove the content. Repeat or deliberate infringement leads to the steps in section 6.

Obscene, sexual or abusive material

• Obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit content.
• Content that sexualises or exploits children, or is harmful to children in any way.
• Content that invades another person's privacy, including bodily privacy, such as intimate images shared without consent.

Consequence: we remove the content immediately and may close the account without earlier warnings. We report child sexual abuse material to the authorities as the law requires.

Harassment, hate and threats

• Content that insults or harasses someone on the basis of gender.
• Content that is racially or ethnically objectionable, or that is hateful, defamatory or abusive toward a person or group.
• Harassment of experts, seekers or Askobo staff, including repeated unwanted messages, threats and abuse in meetings or chat.

Consequence: we remove the content and act under section 6. Serious or repeated harassment can lead to suspension on the first report.

Deception and false information

• Content that deceives or misleads about where a message comes from, or that you know is false or untrue, including misinformation.
• Pretending to be another person or organisation.
• Misrepresenting your qualifications, certifications, experience or results.
• Fake reviews and bought, paid or incentivised reviews (see section 3).

Consequence: we remove the content or listing. Experts who misrepresent qualifications can be suspended under section 6.

Crime, gambling and harm to the country

• Content that promotes money laundering or gambling, or any other illegal activity.
• Content that threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states or public order, or that incites an offence or insults another country.
• Content that violates any law that is currently in force.

Consequence: we remove the content and may close the account straight away. We share information with law enforcement when the law requires or allows it.

Harmful software and misuse of Askobo

• Content that contains software viruses, malware or any code designed to interrupt, damage or limit a computer system.
• Scraping Askobo or accessing it by automated means, such as bots, without our written permission.
• Spam: unsolicited promotions, repeated identical messages, or bulk messages to experts or seekers.

Consequence: we remove the content, block the automated access and may restrict or suspend the account.

Rules specific to Askobo

• Taking bookings off Askobo to avoid fees. Do not move a seeker you met on Askobo to another channel to avoid platform fees. The Expert terms set the exact period and what is covered. They do not stop an expert from working with anyone they already know.
• Sharing recordings without consent. Do not share, post or forward a meeting recording, transcript or summary with anyone outside the meeting unless every person in it agreed. See Recording, AI and providers.
• Unsafe contact with minors. Do not ask a learner under 18 for personal contact details, private photos or a private meeting outside Askobo, and do not contact them in a way that is not about the service they booked.

Consequence: we act under section 6. Unsafe contact with a minor leads to immediate suspension while we investigate.

Reviews on Askobo come from users who booked through Askobo. We do not claim more than that.

• Write only about your own experience of the service.
• Do not offer, ask for or accept money, gifts, discounts or any other reward in exchange for a review, or for removing or changing one.
• Experts must not write, buy or arrange reviews of their own listings, or reviews of competitors.
• Do not include personal details of another person, hate or abuse in a review.

We can remove a review that breaks these rules, and we tell the person who wrote it why. We do not remove a review only because it is critical or because an expert disagrees with it.

1. Report in the app. Use the report option next to the profile, listing, review, message or meeting.
2. Or email [email protected]. Give the link or a description, what is wrong and the rule you think it breaks. Add screenshots if you have them.

What happens next

• We acknowledge your report within 24 hours and give you a ticket number.
• A member of our team reviews the content against these rules and the law.
• We resolve a content report within 7 days, and remove content that breaks the rules. Intimate images shared without consent and similar urgent content are removed faster, as the law requires (see Grievance redressal).
• We tell you the result. We also tell the person who posted the content, with the reason, unless telling them would put someone at risk or the law does not allow it.
• We keep removed content and related records for the period the law requires, so we can help with legal requests.

Complaints that are not about content, such as a refund or a booking problem, follow the timelines on our Grievance redressal page.

If you think we made a mistake, email [email protected] with the ticket number and why the decision should change. We review it and reply with our decision and our reasons.

If you are still not satisfied, you can appeal to the Grievance Appellate Committee. The steps are on the Grievance redressal page.

Urgent cases skip steps. These are: child safety, threats of violence, intimate images shared without consent, fraud, and a court or government order. In those cases we can suspend or close an account straight away.

Outside urgent cases we tell you the reason before we suspend or close your account and give you 7 days to respond. The date and reason are recorded, and you can appeal under section 5. Bookings that are already paid and open complaints are not affected by a restriction. Refunds for services that are not delivered follow the Cancellation and refund policy.

We remind users of these guidelines, our Terms of use and our Privacy policy at least once every three months, by email or in the app. Each reminder says that if you do not follow these rules, we can end your access or remove the content, or both.

The three-month interval follows the 2026 amendment to the IT Rules. The same Rules earlier required a yearly reminder; we use the shorter period.

Send the notice to [email protected]. A notice must include:

1. Your name, address and contact details, and your signature (a typed name is fine).
2. A description of the work you own, with proof of ownership if you have it.
3. The link or exact place on Askobo where the work appears.
4. A statement that you are the owner or are authorised to act for the owner, and that the information in your notice is correct.

What we do

• On receiving a complete notice, we take the content down while we look into it.
• We tell the person who posted it and send them the notice.
• Under section 52(1)(c) of the Copyright Act, 1957, the content stays down for 21 days. If within that time you get a court order stopping the posting, we keep it down as the order says. If you do not get a court order within 21 days, we can restore the content.
• If the person who posted it disagrees, they can send us a counter-notice with their reasons.

Giving false information in a notice can have legal consequences for you.

• Reports and appeals: [email protected]
• Copyright and legal notices: [email protected]
• Postal address: ASKOBO TECHNOLOGIES PRIVATE LIMITED, Sf.No.456/1, Site.No.147, Breeze Garden, Athipalayam, Coimbatore-641110, Tamil Nadu, India

For the grievance officer's details and escalation, see Grievance redressal.