Content and Conduct Policy

1.Why we have rules

People use HalallO to decide where to eat, often for religious reasons. That only works if what they read is honest and comes from real experience. These rules apply to everyone: diners, restaurant owners and managers, and our own staff. They are part of the Terms of Use and the Business Terms.

2.Reviews and ratings

• Review places you have actually eaten at or ordered from, based on your own experience.
• No fake reviews: don’t write reviews for someone else, under several accounts, or about a business you own, work for, are related to or compete with.
• Don’t offer or accept anything (discounts, free food, money, points) in exchange for a review or a rating, or for changing or removing one. Businesses may not ask only happy customers to review (“review gating”).
• Stay on topic: the food, the service, the place, and the halal information you saw there. Don’t include personal information about staff or other diners.
• Owners can’t hide, reorder or remove reviews. They can reply once, publicly, labelled “Owner reply”.

3.Photos

• Upload photos you took or have the right to share, of the food, menu, storefront or interior.
• No close-ups of people who haven’t agreed, no children who could be identified, no nudity, violence or shocking images.
• No photos of other businesses’ logos or menus presented as this restaurant’s, no watermarks or advertising, and no text added to mislead.
• Certificate photos belong in halal evidence (see below), where they are shown with their source and date.

4.Spots

Spots are short-lived finds: a fresh batch, a pop-up, a cart that moved, a place that closed early. Post what you see now, at the place it happens. Don’t post Spots to advertise, to send people to a place under false pretences, or to reveal where a private person is.

5.Questions and answers

Ask and answer questions about a place (“Is the chicken zabiha?”). Answer from what you know first-hand and say how you know it. Don’t present guesses as facts. Helpful votes are the only signal; don’t organise votes.

6.Owner replies and business content

• Reply politely and stick to the facts. Don’t reveal anything about the reviewer beyond what they posted, and don’t threaten legal action in a reply.
• Don’t make halal claims in descriptions, menus, offers or replies (for example “100% halal certified”). Submit certificates and statements as halal evidence instead.
• No offers that depend on reviews (“leave 5 stars and get…”), no links to unrelated sites, no misleading prices.

7.Never allowed anywhere

• Hate speech, harassment, threats or bullying, including about someone’s religion, ethnicity, nationality, gender or level of observance.
• Impersonating a person, a business, a certifier or HalallO.
• Spam, scams, undisclosed advertising, or links to malware.
• Anything that infringes copyright, trademarks or privacy, or that is illegal.
• Scraping, automated posting, or attempts to manipulate ratings, rankings or evidence.

8.When halal status is disputed

Disagreement about whether a place is halal is normal: suppliers change, certificates expire, people hold different standards. We handle it in the open:

1. Report it. Anyone can report a listing as “Halal info wrong” or “Not halal”, with a note. Owners can submit counter-evidence such as a current certificate or a supplier document.
2. A person reviews it. A report never changes evidence on its own. Our reviewers look at both sides in the same queue, in the same order, without seeing whether the restaurant pays.
3. The label says what we know. When credible sources disagree, the listing shows “Sources disagree” with each source, rather than picking a side. Expired certificates show as “Certificate may have expired”.
4. It is resolved with evidence. New, checkable evidence (for example a certifier confirming or removing a location) updates the label. Opinions alone don’t.

Details of the labels are in How Halal Information Works.

9.What we do when rules are broken

Depending on how serious it is, we may label, hide or remove content, remove reviews from a rating, limit features, suspend publishing for an owner (as a guide, three upheld actions in 90 days pause owner publishing for 30 days), or close an account. We log the reason for every removal and apply the rules the same way to everyone, whether or not they pay.

10.Reporting and appeals

Report content from the app (the … menu on reviews, Spots, questions, answers and profiles, or “Report a problem” on a restaurant). For copyright, photos of you or corrections, see Copyright, Photo Removal and Corrections. If you think we got a decision wrong, email support@halallo.com with a link to the content and why; a different person looks at it again.