Review Removal Policy

Effective date: 1 October 2026
Last updated: 1 October 2026

This policy explains what BiasharaReview removes, what it does not remove, and how decisions are made. It applies to reviews, ratings, review photos and business owner responses. It is part of our Terms of Service.

Our starting point is simple: a genuine review of a real experience stays up, even if the business does not like it. A negative review is not a reason for removal.

What we remove

We remove content that falls into any of these categories:

1. Not a genuine experience

  • The reviewer did not deal with the business.
  • The review was paid for, incentivised, traded or written on someone else's behalf.
  • The reviewer owns, works for, or has a financial interest in the business or a direct competitor.
  • Multiple reviews of the same business from one person, including through different accounts.

2. Wrong target

  • The review is about a different business with a similar name or location.
  • The review is about a private individual rather than the business.

3. Unlawful or harmful content

  • Defamatory statements presented as fact that the reviewer cannot support.
  • Hate speech, threats, harassment or incitement.
  • Sexual or obscene content.
  • Private information about any person: phone numbers, home addresses, ID numbers, health or financial details, photos of people who have not consented.
  • Content that breaks Tanzanian law, including the Cybercrimes Act, 2015.

4. Off-topic or spam

  • Advertising, links to other services, or content unrelated to the business.
  • Reviews consisting only of a rating with meaningless text, repeated characters or copied text.
  • Automated or bot-generated content.

5. Conflicts with a legal order

  • Content we are ordered to remove by a court or competent authority in Tanzania.

What we do not remove

We will not remove a review simply because:

  • the business owner disagrees with it or says it is unfair;
  • it gives a low rating;
  • the business has since improved or changed management;
  • the business offers the reviewer compensation to withdraw it;
  • the business threatens legal action without a court order.

We also do not edit the text of reviews. A review is either published as written or removed.

Business owner responses

Owners of claimed businesses may respond publicly to any review. Responses are held to the same standard as reviews. We remove responses that threaten, insult or attempt to identify the reviewer, disclose private information, or make unsupported accusations. A calm response to a negative review is the best tool an owner has; we encourage it.

How a review gets reviewed

  1. Automatic checks. One review per person per business is enforced automatically. Reviews must be between 50 and 500 characters. We may hold a review for checks before publication and may add further automated checks as the Platform grows.
  2. Reports. Any user can report a review; any claimed business owner can flag a review as fake. A report does not hide the review. It queues it for human review.
  3. Human decision. A member of our team reads the review and any report, checks account history and patterns, and decides to keep or remove it. We record a reason for every decision.
  4. Outcome. Removed reviews are hidden from the public and no longer count toward the BiasharaScore. They are retained privately for records. Where practical, we notify the reviewer that their review was removed and why.
  5. Reversal. Every removal can be reversed. If you believe a decision was wrong, email hi@biasharareview.com with the business name and the review. We will look again.

We aim to act on reports within 3 business days.

Accounts

Accounts that repeatedly post removed content, operate multiple identities, or attempt to manipulate ratings may be flagged as low-trust or permanently closed. Reviews from closed accounts may be removed in bulk if the account was created for abuse.

Businesses

Listings may be removed or merged if they are duplicates, permanently closed, not a real business, or fraudulent. Claims may be reversed if the documents or social accounts used were false or the claimant was not authorised.

Contact

Questions about this policy, appeals and legal requests: hi@biasharareview.com.