Rail Politics
Content Moderation Policy
Last Updated: July 28th, 2025
At Rail, we are committed to fostering a space for open, honest, and respectful civic engagement. To maintain the integrity and safety of our community, we enforce clear moderation standards across all user-generated content, including profiles, proposals, drafts, comments, and replies.
Rail is a private application and is not affiliated with any government entity. The app provides publicly available information from official sources but does not represent or act on behalf of the U.S. government or any government agency. All Political data on Rail is provided by Vote Smart. Vote Smart aggregates information from verified, publicly available government sources, including: www.congress.gov, clerk.house.gov, www.senate.gov, and www.fec.gov.
Our content moderation policy ensures that all user-generated content complies with our community guidelines.
Rail uses a hybrid moderation system that includes both automated tools and human review to ensure a fair and responsive approach to content oversight.
Before any content is published, it is scanned by our in-house AI moderation system to detect violations of our Community Guidelines. This process is performed entirely within Rail’s infrastructure, no data is shared externally.
If a user encounters content that may violate our Community Guidelines, they may report it using the built-in report tools. Reports can be made on:
Each reported item is personally reviewed by a member of the Rail moderation team. If we determine that the content violates our Community Guidelines, we will:
To ensure fairness, Rail uses a three-strike policy for most violations.
First & Second Violations: The content is removed and the user receives a warning.
Third Violation: The account is permanently banned from the platform.
Important: In cases of severe abuse, harassment, or platform manipulation, Rail reserves the right to ban a user immediately without strikes.
Bans are lifetime and apply to both the user’s email address and IP address
Banned users will receive an email explaining the decision.
Users may submit one appeal only by emailing appeals@railpolitics.com.
After this, the decision is final.
To maintain content quality and minimize spam or abuse, we also use community voting signals to identify problematic content.
A proposal may be flagged for removal if it receives a high volume or high ratio of downvotes or negative reviews.
A comment, reply, or draft may be removed if it receives a high volume or high ratio of dislikes.
These items are not removed automatically, they are reviewed by Rail staff under the same standards outlined above.
All moderation decisions are communicated clearly to the user involved. No moderation data is sold or shared externally. Only Rail's internal team has access to flagged or removed content for review and audit purposes (unless required by law).
Moderation is a community effort. We rely on users to uphold the values of respectful, data-informed, and inclusive civic participation. If you see something that doesn't belong, report it. If you're unsure, refer to our Community Guidelines or reach out to support@railpolitics.com.
Together, we can keep Rail a safe, impactful, and open place for everyone.